By Kathryn Papp, Alexandria
(Image/City of Alexandria) 

To the editor:

Short people will find welcoming rooms at the proposed new Carr City Centers hotel on the waterfront. While it is undoubtedly a massive box, the same adjective — massive — can’t be used for the guest accommodations. The rooms are designed to meet the minimum international height standard of 7 feet 6 inches.

The average American man is 5 foot 10, so — reaching up — he can put his fingertips on the ceiling. Our city attorney, a tall man, and many others on city staff, probably can palm it without stretching. The message: athletes need not reserve. The other message: there probably will be few repeat reservations.

The upside? It gives new definition to a signature space (all those fingerprints) and offers customers built-in isometrics, if they’re tall enough. This just might be one of the world’s first yoga hotels.

This is the only design feature that honors the scale of Old Town. Flounders, those colonial startups, were built at about this height. Everyone was shorter then.