It was a real milestone for the community when the 2nd operating Ritz Carlton Hotel in the world opened here in Buckhead in 1983 (the only other one at the time was in Boston). Residents are taking a moment to wax nostalgic over recent news that The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead will be rebranded as The Whitley hotel on December 1st of this year. The recent news sent a wave through locals and traveling visitors who have frequented the opulent hotel. A spokesperson from The Whitley revealed that the hotel bar and restaurant will be renovated and relaunched during the transition, but it is unclear which other features of the 510-room hotel will change.
The Ritz-Carlton has had a long-standing history of luxury in the United States. From the beginning, The Ritz-Carlton set a standard for prioritizing guest experience in hotels. From its reputation for exquisite dining, staff in pressed uniforms and black ties and small, intimate lobby settings, it’s not a stretch to imagine that The Ritz set the bar for luxury hotel experiences as we know them.While its origins begin with The Ritz-Carlton Investing Company in the early 1900s, the company eventually evolved into The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company in 1983. It was led by famous hoteliers Colgate Holmes, Horst Schulze, Joe Freni, Ed Staros and Herve Humler. Soon, The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead opened its doors to locals and travelers alike.
Since the brand’s purchase by Marriott International in 1998, some feel that the quality and service once experienced there has declined. While many are ready for a change, some long-time guests of the hotel are none too thrilled at the prospect of facing what they expect will be a decline in service.
“It was, I guess, the closest thing to heaven you could find in Buckhead…When they said, ‘It’s my pleasure,’ you hear that so often these days, and they actually made you feel like it was their pleasure to bring you more butter.” ~ Virgil Shutze
One such person is Virgil Shutze, a Buckhead resident who has been a guest of The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead since it first opened its doors. We asked him about his favorite memories of the hotel:
“It was, I guess, the closest thing to heaven you could find in Buckhead,” said Shutze. “It was an elegance this town has not seen since.”
Shutze has spent a great deal of time at The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, being first drawn in by the simple elegance of the place, later forming relationships with the staff and witnessing a community icon’s evolution over the years.
“Mostly I just remember sitting in that lobby lounge with beautiful music and wonderful people,” said Shutze. “My fondest memory was pulling up, seeing Abner [the front doorman] and feeling like I was at home. You were treated like a guest, a true guest. Not a customer…I lived there for almost two months, and it was an utter delight to come home to The Ritz every day.”
The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, as Shutze describes it, was the epitome of service with staff who went above and beyond to please guests.
“When they said, ‘It’s my pleasure,’ you hear that so often these days, and they actually made you feel like it was their pleasure to bring you more butter,” said Shutze. “Just the smallest thing was a huge thing to them. Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle. They took care of the details in every sense of the word. The rooms were immaculate, the people were immaculate.”
While the hotel’s focus on customer experience is a characteristic draw, Shutze believes this to be a result of the hotel’s focus on its own people.
“In the service business, you hear that the customer comes first. Your people come first. And if your people come first, that just oozes over to your customer base, and that’s what the Ritz did.”
The Ritz staff were reminded each day of their commitment to their guests and each other.
“The sign over the employee entrance says, ‘We are ladies and gentlemen, certainly ladies and gentlemen.’ And if you were observant, you’d sit in the bar and, whoever would bring out the ice, the bartender would say thank you and call them by name. The [waiter] would say you’re welcome and call him by name. They were gracious to each other.”
Over the years, Shutze, like many local guests and visitors, has stories of the hotel’s lavish service. Shutze described one such story when a manager acquiesced to a major request:
I had a friend staying in the Presidential Suite. We had a party at The Ritz, and a friend and I stayed at the bar a little longer than necessary… They had a portrait at the bar of a young person, and I was always fascinated by it. I went to the front desk, and I said, ‘I would like to have that delivered to my room. I’d like to hang it to the wall. It’s a very fine painting.’ And the night manager came out and said, ‘Of course we can do that.’ So he took the painting off the wall, carried it up, and [replaced] the painting on the wall with [another painting]. Where else are you going to find that?…It was a crazy request. And it was like, ‘Of course we can do that. No problem at all.’
When asked about his response to the hotel’s rebrand, Shutze is skeptical, a sentiment some share with him in the neighborhood.
“I am going to miss it greatly… Marriott is a good chain, and they have some lovely hotels, but it’s not The Ritz.”
While we wait for The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead to open its doors as The Whitley in December, we will remember what has been a local icon in Buckhead fondly. What are some of your favorite memories there? Let us know in the comments below.
It’s the start of a new era for the iconic Bobby Jones Golf Course, which is part of Buckhead’s 128-acre Memorial Park. The golf course was built in 1932 in honor of the late Bobby Jones Jr., an Atlanta native and arguably one of the sport’s most influential players. The course closed in late October in preparation for an ambitious and groundbreaking renovation that began this month after the Bobby Jones Golf Course Foundation inked a 50-year lease with the Georgia Building Authority. The revamped course will include a reversible, 9-hole championship course, a new driving range, a new restaurant, a pro shop, as well as tennis courts atop a new parking deck. To date, the Foundation has raised $17.5 million (with plans to bring in an additional $6 million) from individual and corporate sponsors (including Cox and Southern Company) to kickstart its bold vision for a state-of-the-art golf complex and community right in the heart of Buckhead. The most immediate impact will be found in the adjacent neighborhoods of Collier Hills, Springlake, Haynes Manor and the neighborhood of Memorial Park.
New Golf Course Layout shows the driving range, 9 holes, water features, tennis center, and new clubhouse.
“It’s not a renovation in the classic sense—it’s really an all-new golf course. I started all this almost 7 years ago when it was still part of Atlanta Memorial Park. As the Jones’ family attorney, my job is to make sure everything with the Bobby Jones name is up to a very high standard and this clearly hasn’t met the standard. I moved here in 1981 and have lived within 2 miles of this course that whole time; I’m on my seventh house in the neighborhood, and I love the area. When I retired in 2011, I thought, ‘I’m going to get this course renovated’—and the original idea was just that—to keep the clubhouse and renovate it. Bob Cupp, a world-renowned architect who lived in Brookhaven volunteered his services and said: ‘Marty, there’s no amount of money you could pay to renovate this—it’s too bad and too dangerous, and for all the money you would need fix it, you could build a new golf course. Six years and $17.5 million later, the plans are ready and under construction.
Bob knew how to solve existing problems. He decided to build a parking garage and move some current tennis courts in the floodplain to the top of the parking deck and focused on a driving range, which there was a really high demand for. Ultimately, we want to make golf more accessible, more fun, and give fans a place to play properly. We also want to grow the game and teach people how to play. For example, we’ve created a Cupp Links designed specifically for juniors—they’re 50-100 yard holes for young folks as well as guys who play on prosthetics or need an adaptive golf environment.
You know how great Chastain Park is? This is going to be better. And our donors are so excited this will bring our neighborhoods together, whether by Northside Drive, or all these creeks. There’s currently a lack of that—you don’t see your neighbors. At Chastain, everyone sees each other—and that’s what this will do.
I’m incredibly proud of this. Bob Cupp took a piece of land that’s not even big enough for an 18-hole course and created that and a driving range and a tennis center – all on land that shouldn’t be big enough for any of those things.”
Golf House, Hall of Fame Rendering
Main Building Rendering
And it won’t be just the Buckhead community who will get to enjoy Elgison and Cupp’s grand vision, which will be bolstered by a partnership with the City of Atlanta and the PATH Foundation to create family-friendly trails that’ll connect to existing trail structures for more walkability and access. The Georgia State Golf Association and the Georgia Section of the PGA of America partnered with the Foundation to create the “Georgia Golf House,” a new facility that will become the destination for golf in Georgia and home base for the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame and the Atlanta Junior Golf Association. Georgia State University will also move its men and women’s golf teams to the new complex and work with the Foundation to develop an instructional center.
If all goes according to plan, the new course will be open next winter. And Elgison is already thinking about what he’ll do after: “I’d like to go back to retirement!”
Renderings: The Bobby Jones Golf Course Foundation
The spirit of Buckhead heads forward. This is the way it has been, and perhaps this is the way it will always be. The spirit of Buckhead points forward. You see it in the way we work, and you see it in the way we play. The reach is always extending further. The search is for excellence and beauty and grace and vibrancy.
We are a community of individuals. We are diverse, we are dynamic, and we are discerning. We are builders. We are connected to one another with a common bond. A common dream. A common quest. Pointing life in one direction. Forward.
