In Mountain View, NASA and aviation history go hand in hand with cocktails

Like many Baby Boomer kids in the 1960s, Philip “Flip” Maritz was obsessed with space and dreamed of becoming an astronaut.

He didn’t pursue that career path, but he found a way to indulge his passion — as a hotelier.

In 2021, his paean to flight, the NASA Ames-inspired Ameswell, opened on Mountain View’s Moffett Boulevard with 255 rooms, conference space and indoor/outdoor dining. The 11-acre property is located near Highway 101, just a mile northwest of the famed 1930s-era airfield and research center on the Sunnyvale border.

“The community is so lucky to have that history and respect captured in a place they can visit,” said retired astronaut Steve Smith of San Jose, who flew four Shuttle missions and serves as a brand ambassador for the hotel.

Maritz, the ownership group and designers could have very easily veered off course and turned the hotel into a kitschy attraction. Instead, it’s a thoughtful and fascinating collection of cutting-edge art installations, architectural touches and Ames and Moffett Field memorabilia. (There’s a Moffett Field Museum across the freeway, of course, but it doesn’t have an innovative, chef-driven restaurant and full bar.)

The first notable piece appears straight ahead as visitors walk in the hotel’s front door. Artist Chul Hyun Ahn uses LED lights, fiberglass and mirrors to make us ponder “Perception + Reality.” To the left, at the front desk, is the “A” Ameswell logo in the shape of Hangar One, the Moffett Field structure built to house the Navy’s USS Macon airship. Nearby is artist Chris Doyle’s multi-channel video exploration of “Progress + Destruction.”

Throughout the ground floor, unfinished ceilings are softened by angular “clouds,” panels constructed with reclaimed wood. The shape of the main bar and a nearby table mimics that of an airplane wing. Couches the color of the wild blue yonder offer lounge seating. And the massive roll-up garage doors give the in-house restaurant, Roger, the feel of a spacious hangar. Credit the design team from BAMO of San Francisco for the conceptualization.

The hotel’s Ames Library should be the first stop for the Bay Area’s space, aviation, engineering and history buffs. In it, we learn that without early flight — as in prehistoric birds, not Orville and Wilbur — there would be no U.S. space program.

So Maritz, who curated the collection, took the long view. “Each object has significance related to time and space — from a replica of a pterosaur fossil to Hubble telescope images of deep space,” he said. The artifacts were sourced from eBay, Etsy, 1stDibs and dedicated aviation antique shops.

“Flight is so central to NASA Ames and Moffett Field — plus my wife, Jenny, is a passionate birdwatcher, and I have collected photos for decades, so this all came together in a really fun way.”

On one shelf, a red pheasant takes wing near a pilot’s helmet from a Sikorsky Sea King helicopter, which was used primarily for anti-submarine warfare. Another special find, Maritz said, is a “really cool World War II altimeter that survived multiple combat missions.”

Black-and-white photos depict aviation pioneers Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and the research center’s namesake, physicist Joseph Ames, who co-founded NACA — the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, established in 1915, was NASA’s predecessor. He died before he had the opportunity to set foot inside the center, according to NASA archives.

Models and photos of dirigibles abound in the collection. Moffett Field was established as a West Coast base for the nation’s rigid airship program, and Hangar One’s celebrated tenant, the Macon, arrived in 1933. The blimp crashed just two years later in the Pacific Ocean off Big Sur.

Over the years, the Ames/Moffett mission evolved, as evidenced by the celebratory program from Moffett Field’s 1958 silver anniversary, which announced: “From lighter than air to faster than sound.”

And the next chapter may be lofty enough to warrant an expansion of the hotel library. In October, NASA and UC Berkeley announced plans for a $2 billion research center at Moffett. If the collaborative project is approved, construction could start in 2026.

Details: The Ameswell welcomes visitors who want to view the collection. The hotel’s Roger restaurant is open daily from 5 to 10 p.m. for dinner and 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for weekend brunch, with early and lunch hours at the Flyby cafe in the lobby. 800 Moffett Blvd., Mountain View; www.theameswellhotel.com.