'Digital canvas' lets landmark Miami hotel go high-tech

MIAMI — Like it or not, the elegant InterContinental Miami has been transformed into what you might think "the hotel of the future" should look like.

The entrance to the 30-year-old hotel — covered with timeless travertine marble — today sports hundreds of light bulbs that can be programmed to display different colors.

You might be greeted with red lighting on Valentine's Day, for instance. During my morning visit on Nov. 7, the lights emitted hot pink — a color that you'd probably expect to see at a W or another edgy, boutique hotel.

The most visible sign of the hotel's digital makeover is its 19-story digital canvas that can be programmed to say things such as "Welcome" or help Miami celebrate a big victory by a sports team. The artofmiami.com blog recently posted a video of the hotel's canvas in action.

It's part of the hotel's broader, $30 million renovation. The goal to transform itself from stiff business traveler hotel to a hip downtown destination for guests and locals alike

As you'll see in USA TODAY's photo gallery, the InterContinental's hotel's high-tech touches don't end at the entrance.

In the lobby, visitors and guests now find seating arrangements built around a newfangled touchscreen computer table. Among other things, the tabletop computer lets you call up a cocktail menu and request that a waiter come to take your order. In the future, general manager Robert Hill told me, the goal is to let customers place their orders through the computer.

When you check into the hotel, you'll again be greeted by a digital touch: A series of screens that display live camera footage of the bay outside. If there's something exciting going in the vicinity, the cameras can be refocused to emphasize that specific action.

Among the hotel's other updates:

• New guest rooms: The guest rooms have been completely redecorated — with an eye towards technology. When you're lying in bed, for instance, you can touch a button to automatically lower the shades. Though the hotel didn't revamp its shower-bathtubs, it installed newfangled showerheads that can be flipped and used to massage your back.
• Newly designed suites: Tennis superstar Venus Williams revamped the two presidential suites with touches such as a media room with a large flat-screen TV and multiple leather swivel chairs.
• New restaurant: The hotel's old, standard restaurant has been transformed into Toro Toro, a Pan-Latin steakhouse by celebrity chef Richard Sandoval. It's Sandoval's second Toro Toro location outside of Dubai.
• New art: The hotel's classic Henry Moore sculpture still stands, but frequent guests will notice an increase in art work in guest rooms, hallways and other public areas over the next year.

Up until around 2000, this was "the" hotel in Miami, Hill says. But downtown Miami and Miami Beach evolved.

"The hotel scene has changed a lot in Miami in 12 years," he says.

The hotel faces fresh competition, such as the JW Marriott Marquis, which has a restaurant by celebrity chef Daniel Boulud, and the edgier Epic Hotel by Kimpton, which has Zuma, a popular modern Japanese restaurant. The InterContinental hotel began its renovation in 2009, with most guest rooms overhauled last year.

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