It will take more than a decade, $350 million and the painstaking restoration of Old World artistry, but Indiana's French Lick is returning to its former grandeur as a celebrated resort area - but with modern flair.

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When completed, the project will encompass two hotels - French Lick Springs Resort & Casino and the West Baden Springs Resort, three championship golf courses and golf school, restaurants, spa, convention center and casino.

"We're looking at creating a destination resort not only for Indiana but for the greater Midwest," said architect George Ridgway of G.S. Ridgway and Associates in Westphalia, Ind.

The history of Southern Indiana's Orange County dates back to the mid-1800s when a couple of enterprising physicians capitalized on nearby mineral springs, whose waters were said to have medicinal benefits. Over the decades, hotels were built and rebuilt with increasing luxury, and they drew prominent patrons from around the country, such as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Then, by the late 1970s, financial difficulties, ownership changes and deterioration had set in.

In 2005, Blue Sky Casino LLC took over as the new, energized owner. Blue Sky is a joint venture of Lauth Resorts & Casino LLC, an affiliate of Lauth Group Inc. in Indianapolis, and Orange County Holdings Inc., formed by Cook Group Inc. in Bloomington, Ind.

Blue Sky is restoring, renovating and remodeling the hotels, which were built at the turn of the 20th Century and are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. West Baden also is a National Historical Landmark, a designation of greater rarity.

The owners are also building an 80,000-sq.-ft. casino; 110,000-sq.-ft. convention center; and four-story, 800-vehicle parking garage. The Donald Ross Hill golf course, circa 1920, will be restored to its original design.

French Lick Hotel

The 440-room French Lick Hotel, designed in the ornate Beaux Arts architectural style, had not seen serious attention inside or out since the late 1970s. Among the plans are to replace bathrooms, enlarge guest rooms and add a $2 million sprinkler system.

The public areas are being restored, much of it by Conrad Schmitt Studios in New Berlin, Wis. The work is detailed and time-consuming, requiring such niche talents as replicating plaster ornamentation and restoring aged gold leaf. Tens of thousands of tiny floor tiles are being chiseled out and replaced.

Each day brings new surprises.

One was revealed after the immense lobby columns were stripped of 10 layers of paint. Underneath was scagliola, a thin plaster made from dyed silk and polished to a marble-like sheen. Only a handful of people in the country know how to repair it, much less make it, Ridgway said.

Another was a change in the plans to recreate 161 plaster rosettes that surround small recessed ceiling lights. Further investigation showed that there were several hundred more such lights covered with tape and painted over. These, too, will be restored.

"These are all nice things, but they are expensive things," Ridgway said.

Also to be dealt with were the trusses spanning the two-story lobby. The trusses had settled and sagged about 7 in. On the third floor above, guests must step up into their rooms.

The solution was to structurally reinforce the trusses and build a new, level third floor above the sag.

Another issue is having the right labor at the right time. One early question was whether to keep the hotel open while work was going on.

"There were reasons to stay open and reasons to close," said Steve Eppink, senior vice president of development and site engineering for Lauth Group Inc. "If we closed, we could get done faster and better ensure the safety of our employees and affiliates and guests."

The hotel suspended operation in November, but its employees, who number a few hundred, are being paid wages and benefits until they are called back.
And because many area contractors are helping to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina or are working on airport expansion, a convention center and new arena in Indianapolis, Blue Sky has cast a wide recruitment net throughout the Midwest.

"To date, we have not had a labor issue," Eppink said. "We're slightly ahead of (the Indianapolis) projects as far as staffing up. Also, Cook, with its last two decades of restoration work, has developed some powerful relationships we have been able to call upon and prioritize our projects."

New Construction

The new buildings, designed by WorthGroup Architects of Englewood, Colo., complement existing architecture and also integrate the resources of the area, said Brian Fagerstrom, WorthGroup's vice president and senior project manager.

Design elements such as belt courses and radius windows are direct adaptations from the hotel. Native Indiana limestone trims and precast concrete panels fabricated to appear as such are a tribute to local industry: Nearby Bedford, Ind., is known throughout the world for its limestone production.

As for the casino, a quirk in Indiana gaming laws requires that gaming establishments be nautically themed. Hence, this one resembles a riverboat, complete with paddlewheel, smokestacks and pilothouse. Only the pilothouse is somewhat functional in that it houses a 35-ft. stained-glass dome that filters natural light over the table-game area. A 3.5-acre lake surrounds the casino on three sides.

"Every state has its own requirements, but we've never encountered one where the requirements are as specific," Fagerstrom added.

The project team looked at other types of watercraft for inspiration but determined that traditional riverboat proportions were most conducive to judicious land use and keeping the gaming area on one floor. Ocean liners, for example, are longer, narrower and taller.

The buildings are to be clustered but set back and to one side so that their visual impact is secondary to the hotel.

However, that site was also floodplain, which had to be remedied before construction could begin. It was elevated as much as 12 ft. by identifying stable soils elsewhere on the property, building a road to that area, stripping back the topsoil, removing and relocating fill and re-laying the topsoil so the area will be lush and green again this summer.

"It took about 300,000 yds. of fill to get the new buildings out of the floodplain," Ridgway said.

The job took about two months of working seven days a week, but its completion insured that the foundations went in before winter. In the future, Blue Sky may build timeshare units, and the road it created will lead to them.

"Everything we do, we begin with the end in mind," Eppink said.

West Baden Facility

At West Baden, the Neoclassic-influenced facility has all ready undergone restoration of its public spaces. The circular-shaped, yellow-brick building is crowned with a six-story dome, the largest clear-span dome in the world until Houston's Astrodome was built in 1963.

West Baden closed as a hotel a few years after the 1929 stock market crash and then served as both a college and culinary arts school. It was idle in 1996 when the
Indianapolis-based Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana and the Cook Group, an international manufacturer of medical devices, joined forces to partially rescue the building in hopes of finding a buyer.

Ultimately, Cook partnered with Lauth to purchase both the West Baden and French Lick properties.

The final step is to create 240 guest rooms, all suites, from what was once a 700-room hotel.

At the time of the restoration, "Cook didn't know what the facility would become," Ridgway said. "They were hoping it would be a hotel, but they didn't know."

The construction schedule calls for completion of French Lick and the new buildings by December and of West Baden during the second quarter of 2007.

"This venture is not only good for us monetarily in the end, but it's a big victory for the State," Eppink said. "We've been given the opportunity, by the restoration of two historic hotels, to help save a piece of history and breathe life into the county and Southern Indiana."

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