The Fairmont Copley Plaza, in preparation for the property’s centennial celebration in 2012, announces a comprehensive restoration project totaling more than $20 million. For nearly a century, The Fairmont Copley Plaza has been a landmark in Copley Square and one of the premier social and corporate meeting locations in Boston.

The restoration will include enhancements to the hotel’s 383 guestrooms and Fairmont Gold Lounge, including new furniture, fixtures and equipment. Parker Torres, a Massachusetts-based international interior design and architectural firm specializing in hospitality design, will manage the project. The firm will incorporate the marble colors and hues of the public space into the guestrooms bringing elegant plum and blue color schemes into the guestrooms and suites. The effect in the guestrooms and corridors will be a design palette of quiet sophistication that leverages the hotel’s rich history and Back Bay location while meeting the needs of today’s sophisticated traveler.

The Fairmont Copley Plaza will also be adding a new state-of-the-art fitness center on the roof of the building, which will include 2,400 square feet for machines and free weights, as well as a more than 700 square foot outdoor deck perfect for relaxing before or after a workout. The fitness center is scheduled to debut in August of 2011.

The hotel’s signature function space and elegant lobby will receive some enhancements as well. The project also includes upgrades to mechanical and electrical infrastructure, as well as heating ventilation & air-conditioning improvements, including a new sidewalk on the St. James Avenue façade of the building.

“The projects currently underway and planned for The Fairmont Copley Plaza are exciting and will enhance the hotel’s preeminent position in the marketplace,” said Paul S. Tormey, regional vice president and general manager. “With our 100 year anniversary approaching, the timing is perfect. This investment in the hotel will ensure that The Fairmont Copley Plaza will shine more brightly than ever as we begin our next century of service.”

This restoration program will be thoughtfully phased to ensure that the hotel operation is not interrupted. The Fairmont Copley Plaza will remain open throughout the renovation. The guestroom part of the project will begin in the fourth quarter of 2011, and the hotel anticipates completion by the celebration on its centennial in summer 2012.

The Fairmont Copley Plaza is owned by Texas-based FelCor Lodging Trust (NYSE: FCH), which owns interests in 82 properties with approximately 23,000 rooms in in the US and Canada. Parker/Torres Interior Design, whose past design projects have included The Willard in Washington, D.C., The St. Regis in New York, The Bentley in London and The Waldorf=Astoria. Colliers Meredith & Grew is the Project Manager and Suffolk Construction General Contractor for the first phase of work at the hotel. The project will employ over 200 construction trades people.