Courtesy Sioux Falls CVB
Local touches
The atrium lobby of the Sheraton Sioux Falls is similar to other John Q. Hammons-owned hotels, but a couple of things make it all Sioux Falls.
One is a replica of the falls of the Big Sioux. The real falls is a couple of miles away in Falls Park, and the hotel’s version uses the same Sioux quartzite visitors see at the falls. Quartzite is also used as a building material at the adjacent Sioux Falls Convention Center.
When the hotel’s lobby was remodeled last year, there was no doubt that the faux falls would stay. Had there been a plan to remove it, “we would chain ourselves to it,” said general manager Karen Masterson with a laugh.
Another feature that imparts Sioux Falls’ personality is the collection of photographs of local sights commissioned by the hotel’s designer for the hotel’s remodeling. Photographs are hung throughout the hotel, and guests frequently ask if they can buy them, said Masterson.
The photos are the work of a Kansas City photographer. Local photographers were invited to bid on the project, but the designer “chose the one from Kansas City because of the unique way that this person, who doesn’t live in Sioux Falls, came in and took pictures.”
The photos turn scenes hardly noted by passersby into works of art. For example, Masterson said she and other staffers often gaze at a photo of a railroad track that ends mysteriously in a field. “We think, ‘Where was that track? Where did it lead?’”
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