• USA Today , Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:16 AM

A newly built Holiday Inn hotel opening in Manhattan's Chelsea section Thursday is one of the first in the USA to bear the modern version of the green-and-white Holiday Inn logo - a sign meant to convey radical changes underway. As many as a thousand of the chain's existing 3,200 hotels worldwide are expected to earn the new sign this year, with the entire chain revamped by early 2010.

You'll see hardwood flooring, columns made from hand-laid river rocks, and slender Japanese planters outside the Chelsea Inn. The new look is just one part of a sweeping, $1 billion overhaul that InterContinental launched last year to revive the iconic brand.

The new design "brings us 20 years forward and projects us 10 years beyond," says Steven Porter, president of The Americas, InterContinental Hotel Group.

Since the cookie-cutter look is no longer in vogue, Holiday Inn created design guidelines and color palettes that can be interpreted differently by hotels. The plan doesn't address the restaurants, which serve at least breakfast, dinner and room service. It also doesn't target the Holidome pool and activity area, although the chain adopted new standards in the last two years so that only hotels with the appropriate features hold that designation.

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