Major fix up for Many Glacier hotel

The Many Glacier Hotel will go through some major renovations in the next 18 months. Crews from Swank Enterprises began working on the nearly 100-year-old historic landmark earlier this fall.

The $9.5 million contract will remodel approximately half of the hotel’s rooms, the administrative offices, the dining room, kitchen, Interlaken Lounge and employee dining room.

In the dining room, a false ceiling will be removed, exposing the original ceiling line and original window configuration. A decorative pergola (arbor) will be reinstalled. The work will also update the electrical, plumbing and other mechanical systems, like the fire alarm and fire suppression systems in the north half of the structure. In addition, the hotel’s massive fireplace will be restored.

The work will include replacing lighting and fixtures, relocating exposed pipes and sprinkler systems, and may include new carpeting and flooring.

The contract was actually awarded last March, but work was delayed until the end of the 2010 tourist season.

In summer 2011, about 100 of the hotel’s rooms will be unavailable, and Glacier Park Inc., the concessionaire that operates the hotel, has plans to have a modified dining room next to the current one while work is underway.

The dining menu will remain the same.

Construction crews will work in the building from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday during the summer months, but not on weekends. It will not impact guest rooms, which are located in the south end of the hotel, away from the construction area.

Work on the kitchen, employee dining areas, main hallway that connects the lobby to the dining and bar areas, the Interlaken Lounge and the Swiss Lounge should all be completed prior to opening in June 2011, Glacier Park Inc. has noted to prospective guests.

There should be limited noise in the lobby when work is ongoing.

The plan is to have the construction completed by spring of 2012, so it will only impact one summer season.

The project has two more phases, however, that would complete the hotel’s renovation. The Park Service has requested, but not yet been awarded that funding. All told, the project calls for about $21 million in work on the hotel. In addition to the $9.5 million being spent on this phase of the reconstruction, Glacier has spent about $10 million on the hotel.

Previous renovations fixed the siding, roof, balconies and windows as well as straightened the building itself, which was beginning to lean. Some of the halls in the hotel actually had a skew, and even today, its upper stairways aren’t straight.

The hotel was originally built in 1914-15 by the Great Northern Railway.