it, they hired Edward L. Varney, one of the most prominent local architects of the time. Varney set the hotel around a central pool lounge and used extended horizontal lines in the wings where rooms included air conditioning for year-round operation, a first for Scottsdale. A curving porte-cochere with abstract Southwestern designs in cast concrete opened onto a high-ceiling lobby which gave guests a "sense of arrival", a feature often used by Frank Lloyd Wright. The tall lobby connected the guests to a restaurant, a lounge, a nightclub, and the central pool. The interior design was conceived and executed by interior architect Thelma Hawkins, the director of Barker Bros. Phoenix Studio of Interior Design. The construction contract was awarded to Kitchell-Phillips Contractors Inc. The project was completed on December 20, 1956 at a cost of $1.5 million, an amount equivalent to $ million in current value. Varney added an unusual feature for a hotel of the time: a parking lot. The parking lot afforded guests the personal comfort and freedom of pulling their car up very close to their rooms. This was the first motor resort in Scottsdale. The Foehls held a contest in March 1956 to name the as-yet-uncompleted hotel. They specified that the name should have a "westward flavor" like its parent, the Westward Ho in Phoenix. The winning name "Valley Ho" was selected because the location was at the periphery of Paradise Valley, an affluent area, and because the identical "Ho" connected the new hotel with the older one in Phoenix. Later, it was discovered that ho means "you are welcomed here, this is a friendly place" in a local aboriginal American language. The Foehls knew many in the Hollywood film industry, and a number of film stars stayed at the hotel. In late December 1957, Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood celebrated their wedding reception at the hotel. Bette Davis, Roy Rogers, Bing Crosby, Frankie Avalon, Humphrey Bogart, Betty Grable, Janet Leigh, Marilyn Monroe, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, and Tony Curtis were known to have stayed there. Sometimes late at night, Jimmy Durante would come down from his room to play the piano in the lounge for other sleepless guests. The Foehls ran the hotel very closely—they lived on the premises. Local Scottsdale corporation Motorola used the hotel to house its transferred employees while they looked for permanent residences. Some of the baseball players,