So long, Sheraton Tacoma Hotel. Ciao, Hotel Murano.

The influence of Tacoma’s favorite, famous native son, Dale Chihuly, will inspire a multimillion-dollar makeover of the city’s largest and most distinguished hotel.

Portland’s Aspen Hotel Group will turn the mainstream Sheraton into a one-of-a-kind boutique hotel that mirrors life and décor in the birthplace of artistic glass-blowing innovation – Murano, an archipelago in the lagoon outside Venice.

Magnifico. Eccellente. Splendido.

The transformation will mark the first significant private venture to align with the public and nonprofit investments in Tacoma’s brand as a U.S. center for glass art.

Think Museum of Glass at its distinctive cone-shaped hot shop, the Tacoma Art Museum’s collection of early Chihuly works, the iconic Bridge of Glass, the Hilltop Artists in Residence student glass-blowing program and, soon, Hotel Murano.

Chihuly, as a Fulbright-Hays fellow in 1968, studied on Murano as the first American apprentice in Fabrica Venini. In his writings, Chihuly says the Venini factory experience taught him the value of an orchestrated, collaborative team approach to glass blowing.

“The Venetians began refining the art of glass blowing on the island of Murano around the year 1000 A.D.,” Chihuly wrote in a 1986 reflection called “On the Road.”

“By the 15th or 16th century, glass blowers working in the hundreds of factories around Murano were confined to the island, not only for reasons of safety but also to keep the secrets.”

That Murano spirit of secrecy shrouds some of the Aspen Hotel Group’s plans for the 319-room Sheraton.

“You can guess what the theme will be,” said Dina Nishioka, Aspen’s spokeswoman.

The Portland-based company won’t release details publicly until March or April but plans to have the makeover completed by October, she said.

Clues, however, have begun to surface. Word in the local community suggests Aspen has hired curator Tessa Pappas to oversee the acquisition and installation of works from international glass artists, including several from the Northwest. One concept suggests each floor will showcase the works of an individual artist.

Last year, Aspen principal Gordon Sondlund sent a letter to Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson generally projecting a $6 million renovation that could include a new grand entry and a covered pedestrian connection to the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center.

The interior hotel remodel will involve purely private investment, Anderson said this week. However, the city spend $25,000 to reconstruct Broadway as it passes the hotel to improve traffic flow. The city also will relocate the pickup-truck-sized bronze sculpture that sits on the sidewalk outside the Sheraton’s lobby to make room for a redesigned facade.

“The selection of the name and the branding of the hotel as the Hotel Murano is a brilliant stroke,” said Ryan Petty, director of the city’s Community and Economic Development Department.

“It ties into the positioning that Dale Chihuly has and the investors in the glass museum have, collectively, brought to the this city.”

Cornerstone Development Co., a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser Co., built the 25-story Sheraton in 1983 and 1984. It has stood out as a sentinel landmark because of its height. With its remake, it will stand out for new reasons.

The arts community interprets Aspen’s decision as validation of Tacoma’s growing reputation as an arts haven, generally, and an artisans’ glass-blowing niche, specifically.

“I’m pleased and excited,” said Tim Close, director of the Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art. “We, in Tacoma, are clearly focusing on glass, this wonderful medium. It’s a great area of specialization that’s already setting Tacoma apart.”

“Wow. That’s pretty wild,” said Mark Sigafoos, owner of Tacoma Glassblowing Studio. “It’s almost like the Venetian (Hotel) in Las Vegas. It’s got that Italian-themed feel.”

Another Las Vegas hotel, Bellagio, features Fiori Di Como, a 70-by-30-foot Chihuly ceiling chandelier with more than 2,000 handblown glass pieces.

I couldn’t reach Chihuly to find out whether his work will adorn Hotel Murano. But you’d have to bet it will.

Aspen specializes in boutique hotels that immerse guests in a distinctive theme. The company’s most recent renovation, Hotel deLuxe in Portland, pays homage, in an art deco style, to the Golden Age of Hollywood – the 1920s through 1940s. You can reserve the Marlene Dietrich Suite, dine at Gracie’s and see window-size, black-and-white photographs of screen stars such as Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart.

For its Hotel Max, which opened last year in Seattle, Aspen hired Pappas to collect more than 350 paintings and photographs, mostly from artists from around Greater Seattle, as part of its remake of the historic Vance Hotel.

The Hotel Murano can only mean more good news for a city Mayor Bill Baarsma likes to describe as no longer the City of Destiny but the City of Destinations.

“It’s neat,” said Sigafoos, of Tacoma Glassblowing Studio, “to talk to people about Tacoma. A lot of people are excited about (the city) now. When I was a kid, it wasn’t like that.”

Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785

dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com