University of Kansas
The Oread overlooks campus
A privately owned hotel across the street from campus and a few blocks from the Kansas Union is often a housing choice for meeting groups. The 99-room The Oread sits on Mount Oread, more of a hill than a mountain. The hotel’s stone facade loosely resembles a castle and looks historic, but the hotel is new, opened in early 2010.
“We coordinate with [KU] for lots of different types of meetings,” said Pam Altic Van Roekel, director of sales for The Olivia Collection, which owns the hotel. Guests “just walk out our front door, cross the street, and they’re on campus.”
The Oread has more than 13,000 square feet of meeting space in its 10 above-ground floors and five below-ground levels. Its spaces include a 4,000-square-foot ballroom, a 3,300-square-foot ballroom, a boardroom and a theater that seats 50.
The hotel is also known for its casual spaces, often booked for private events. Among them is a recently upgraded 3,700-square-foot rooftop terrace.
A number of bars, as well as a 200-space parking garage, are housed in its underground levels. Small “pocket” bars are on three levels and on the lowest level, guests find the Cave, the hotel’s largest bar and dance club, which can hold 350 people. A private room connected to the Cave can accommodate 91 people.
A natural gathering place
Members of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) often gathered at the Oread after their meetings when the group held its biennial conference in Lawrence in late May.
Some of the 750 attendees stayed at the hotel, but most were housed in residence halls on the KU campus. Meetings were held in the Kansas Union and in classrooms.
The Oread’s bar “was a great meeting place,” said Byron Caminero-Santangelo, an associate professor at KU and site host for the conference. “I heard really great things about [attendees’] after-hours time at the Oread.”
He and ASLA president Paul Outka, a KU associate professor, also arranged for private shuttles to take attendees downtown to check out the bars and restaurants, “which really appealed to our constituency,” he said. Some attendees rented bikes to explore the city.
“It is a very cool vibe,” he said of the city. “People were very complimentary about Lawrence. I think it’s fair to say that people were a bit stunned. They were surprised by everything the area had to offer.”
