Square feet & more: update on the state's major convention centers, hotel and meeting facilities.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: MEETINGS & CONVENTIONS

Southern Indian.

Closed as a hotel since 1932, West Baden Springs Hotel, West Baden, reopened ahead of schedule in May, featuring 246 luxury guestrooms and suites, a fitness center, Sinclair's fine dining restaurant, Ballard's for drinks in the atrium, a natatorium with indoor pool and 12-room spa, five retail shops and restored meeting space. The hotel's domed atrium has been called the Eighth Wonder of the World, because it was the largest dome in the world until the Houston Astrodome was built in the mid-'60s. It is 100 feet wide and 200 feet tall.

West Baden Springs Hotel is part of the French Lick Resort Casino development, a $382 million historic restoration and casino development project. The French Lick facilities opened last year and regular shuttles run between the properties. Meeting and convention bookings for both facilities are handled through one department. French Lick offers 443 meeting rooms, eight eateries, more than 140,000 square feet of meeting space, stables, spa, health club and many other amenities. The casino is open 24/7.

The most stunning space at West Baden Springs Hotel is the domed atrium. Indiana Historic Landmarks Foundation hosted a black-tie gala in June, celebrating the grand opening and honoring Bill and Gayle Cook for their restoration efforts of the National Historic Landmark. More than 1,000 were in attendance under the dome. To reserve the atrium the hotel requires that all 120 rooms opening out to the atrium be booked by the group. Forty of those rooms have balconies. Five other meeting rooms are available accommodating from 20 to 120. "We are very pleased with the group business at the West Baden Springs Hotel," says Richard Pauley, director of sales. "Once the final product was unveiled, bookings picked up dramatically Many of the large corporations in the region have booked or are looking to book West Baden for board of directors meetings and retreats."

Work continues on the Pete Dye 18-hole championship course at West Baden, scheduled to open next year. This spring the Donald Ross Course at French Lick opened for its first full season. Formerly called the Hill Course, it officially reopened last September after a $4.6 million restoration. The nine-hole Tom Bendelow Course, formerly the Valley Course and adjacent to the French Lick Springs Hotel, opened this summer.

Upgrades were completed earlier this year at the Executive Inn Evansville downtown. The lobby, the 30,000 square feet of meeting...