The Cloister Hotel Sea Island Georgia

Three years in the making, the new Cloister replaces that landmark original, built in 1928. According to the company, the old hotel was never intended to be more than a "friendly little inn" to house prospective real estate investors on the island. But during its surprisingly long life the hotel hosted presidents, kings and queens and all other manner of celebrities, and even carried a Mobil five-star rating for a time. The fourth-generation in his family to operate The Cloister on Sea Island, Jones, who is chairman and chief executive officer of Sea Island Co., is said to have had a hand in virtually every detail of the multi-million dollar masterpiece, from the selection of paintings of marsh and live oaks and period tableaux scattered throughout the 100-room hotel to the choice of wood trim -- mostly heart pine and pecky cypress -- that give the place its warm, long-lived-in feel. An agreement granting Architectural Digest magazine first rights to interior photography led the company to prohibit local news photographers from capturing the inside decor during a media tour of the hotel Thursday. As the September issue of the magazine will undoubtedly show, though, everything about The Cloister on Sea Island is grand in scale, from the richly upholstered overstuffed chairs and high-backed love seats to the dinner-plate sized hydrangea blossoms nestled in decorative planters big enough to hold several small children. The custom-made chandeliers lighting the main lobby with its three-story atrium measure 21 feet in height and weigh 1,000 pounds apiece. The subterranean wine cellar holds up to 24,000 bottles. Its rough-hewn, dark wood dining table seats 26 people. Tipton said the stone tile and marble floors are covered by no less than 670 original rugs "hand-woven in 120 villages throughout Turkey over the last couple of years." While the Mediterranean theme is predominant throughout the hotel with its grand staircase of unpolished marble and its stucco arches, the decor of individual public rooms creates different moods. The airy Georgian dining room with its pink-and-green florals and tasseled upholstery is a flirty feminine counterpart to the swarthy Georgian Lounge, walled with ebony colored wood. It is there that guests may retire after dinner to partake of the lounge's "signature drink" -- a flaming coffee made with Maker's Mark bourbon whisky. The decor of the Club Rooms is a marked break with tradition. Whereas the old Club Rooms were dark and shadowy, the new Club Rooms evoke the feel of the "roaring '20s" with a parquet dance floor illuminated by gargantuan crystal chandeliers hanging from an elaborately carved glazed-plaster ceiling that evokes images of the Chateau de Versailles, the sparkling 17th century palace built by France's "Sun King," Louis XIV. The 30 suites of the main hotel building include heated bathroom floors, 45-inch LCD televisions, 24-hour butler service (also available in the 70 rooms of the hotel's north and south wings), and feather-topped beds dressed in Italian bedding and 500 thread-count sheets. The hotel is part of a $350 million construction effort that includes a new eight-court tennis center, a new Beach Club, a new 65,000-square-foot spa and an on-site chapel.