At one time it seemed that every city needed a Holiday Inn. An urban renewal program placed this one right in downtown rather than out along the highway. The original urban renewal scheme was far larger, but ultimately it was scaled back to a few blocks; this was the penultimate project. The architects incongruously chose the large warehouses that flank Faneuil Hall Market in Boston as the model for Alexandria. Why not the local Alexandria warehouses? Why a maritime structure a good five blocks from the waterfront? These questions were never addressed.