{"id":149094,"date":"2022-10-12T12:46:24","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T19:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=149094"},"modified":"2022-10-12T12:46:24","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T19:46:24","slug":"yosemite-national-parks-ahwahnee-hotel-to-undergo-major-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=149094","title":{"rendered":"Yosemite National Park\u2019s Ahwahnee Hotel to Undergo Major Upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yosemite, CA…Funded by the\u00a0Great American Outdoors Act<\/a>\u00a0(GAOA),\u00a0Yosemite National Park<\/a>\u00a0was\u00a0recently awarded an approximately $31.6 million\u00a0construction contract\u00a0to upgrade the historic Ahwahnee Hotel. The project includes a major seismic upgrade throughout the historic hotel as well as a\u00a0kitchen\u00a0renovation.\u00a0Kitchen project work is currently underway and work\u00a0to\u00a0upgrading the seismic safety will begin near the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“The Ahwahnee is\u00a0a crown jewel of national park lodges\u201d said\u00a0Cicely\u202fMuldoon, Yosemite National Park superintendent<\/b>. \u201cThis much-needed work will ensure the Ahwahnee is seismically safe for present and future generations of Yosemite visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seismic upgrade component of the project, funded by\u00a0GAOA<\/a>, includes significant upgrades to the Ahwahnee that involve bracing the chimneys and support walls, replacing window frames and\u00a0dining room\u00a0glass and Solarium,\u00a0as well as\u00a0other infrastructure upgrades in\u00a0high use\u00a0visitor areas.\u00a0Lastly, the project will include an updated HVAC system and safety improvements to the fireplaces located in the Great Lounge.<\/p>\n

The Ahwahnee opened in 1927 at the urging of Stephen Mather, the first Director of the National Park Service. Mather envisioned a grand, rustic lodge to encourage visits to the park and promotion of the national park idea. The Ahwahnee was designed with large public spaces, such as the Great Lounge, to welcome all park visitors whether or not they were staying at the hotel. There are 97 guest rooms and 24 cottages at the Ahwahnee. Famous visitors to the hotel have included President John F Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, and President Barack Obama and his family.<\/p>\n

In order to safely accomplish a complete\u00a0kitchen\u00a0renovation, the Ahwahnee will be closed for\u00a0about eight\u00a0weeks in early 2023. Yosemite Hospitality Inc. (YH), the park\u2019s primary concessionaire, will not be accepting reservations during the closure period and there will be no\u00a0visitor\u00a0access to the Ahwahnee. YH is currently communicating with incoming hotel guests about the projects and\u00a0visit\u00a0impacts. For information on the projects, dates of closure, and impacts to hotel operations, please visit\u00a0www.travelyosemite.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Yosemite National Park had 3.3 million visitors. They spent an estimated $437 million in local communities which supported a total of 5,600 jobs, $214 million in labor income, $351 million in value added, and $603 million in economic output.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure funding from\u00a0GAOA\u00a0and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are part of a concerted effort to address the extensive deferred maintenance and repair backlog in national parks. Supported by revenue from energy development,\u00a0GAOA\u2019s Legacy Restoration Fund provides up to $1.3 billion per year for five years to the National Park Service to make significant enhancements in national parks to ensure their preservation and provide opportunities for recreation, education, and enjoyment for current and future visitors.<\/p>\n

Learn more about this project on the\u00a0NPS GAOA website.\u202f\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yosemite, CA…Funded by the\u00a0Great American Outdoors Act\u00a0(GAOA),\u00a0Yosemite National Park\u00a0was\u00a0recently awarded an approximately $31.6 million\u00a0construction contract\u00a0to upgrade the historic Ahwahnee Hotel. The project includes a major seismic upgrade throughout the historic hotel as well as a\u00a0kitchen\u00a0renovation.\u00a0Kitchen project work is currently underway and work\u00a0to\u00a0upgrading the seismic safety will begin near the end of the year. “The Ahwahnee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,5,4,1,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-featured","category-government","category-life-style","category-news","category-yosemite","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/NPS-Photo-The-Ahwahnee_web.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149096,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149094\/revisions\/149096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/149095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}