After passing through the elegant, three-story Colonial Lounge of The Cloister Hotel, down quiet corridors and past lavishly decorated lounges and sitting areas, I arrive at the ballroom. Secret Service agents standing at the doors eye me curiously then turn away as I wave my pass and enter. Inside, the 41st President, George H. W. Bush, is seated on a small stage beside his daughter, Doro, who is telling intimate stories from her book, My Father, My President. The Bushes are the first act during the VIP grand opening party, a weekend of activities celebrating the newly completed reincarnation of the 1928 beach resort. Located on Sea Island, Georgia, halfway between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida, it’s just one product of a $350-million, four-year project that will be completed this fall.

The interior design is the brainchild of Pamela Hughes of Hughes Design Associates in Sarasota, Florida. Elegant leather furnishings, antiques and over 600 handwoven Turkish rugs abound. Hughes’ revamp includes the enormous Colonial Lounge, which is a three-story space ringed by 30 guest suites. Intensely quiet, guests’ voices are muted and cell phones, thankfully, are prohibited. At the ceiling, clerestory windows throw bands of sunlight across the beams, making the room feel more like a church nave than a lobby. Wrought-iron chandeliers, a grand, stone staircase and a palace-sized tapestry add to the elegant Mizner design.