Aug. 23--Strolling through a hall at the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel, Barbara McMahon stops outside a guest room to straighten that morning's complimentary Wall Street Journal. 

Inside another room, she fiddles with a lampshade to make sure the seam is out of view. A moment later she stoops near the bed to pick up a tiny piece of cellophane trash that most people wouldn't even notice. 

McMahon, general manager of the city's newest hotel, isn't conducting a housekeeping inspection. She's simply showing a visitor around the stately Downtown hotel, which opened in March after a massive renovation of the 95-year-old Fulton Building on Sixth Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard. 

But after nearly 30 years in the hospitality industry, she can't keep herself from fussing over the fine details. Her job, she says, is "multitasked." During her average 11-hour day, those duties range from staff training to helping market the Renaissance, a 310-room luxury hotel in the heart of the city's cultural district. 

Occupancy is running a disappointing 63 to 65 percent, "so we're still working on that," said McMahon, formerly general manager of the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center, Uptown. 

McMahon is banking on the building's historic charm -- including lots of original, hand-carved marble and a breathtaking glass dome in the main lobby -- to attract guests. 

"When people see the [marble] staircase and dome in our lobby, all of a sudden the building has some interesting beauty." 

Since taking over as manager of the property for owner Sage Hospitality Resources of Denver last year, McMahon has faced a series of issues quite different from those she encountered during a long career at Marriott. 

A big one is space. Because it's an older, renovated building, the Renaissance has limited areas to house groups and conferences. So it's trying to entice smaller groups such as boards of directors and foundations. It can't attract huge social events, either. For instance, wedding parties in the Renaissance ballroom -- a narrow room that overlooks the Allegheny River, PNC Park and the North Shore -- are limited to a maximum of 150 guests. 

But there's an upside to those limitations, McMahon said. 

"Those that meet here or have a social event here love it because they are usually the only event going on." 

Among her biggest challenges in the six months since the hotel opened was a recent union dispute involving the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 57 over whether the union gets to represent the hotel's 160 workers. 

McMahon said the workers had a right to vote on unionization, "and we'll live with whatever decision they make." What bothers her is the image of a union protest that was held in front of the hotel this month and widely reported by the local media. 

"Pittsburgh is trying to say, 'We have a great cultural district, new stadiums and we want new businesses to come in.' Then we're trying to overcome this image of a city of long ago." 

While she believes the Renaissance's location in the city's cultural hub and just steps from the Roberto Clemente Bridge that leads to PNC Park make it a perfect destination for business and leisure travelers, McMahon said there were some traffic bugs that must be worked out for guests trying to reach the hotel when sports and theater events are in full swing. 

Take this Saturday. The Steelers will play their first game at Heinz Field at 1 p.m., and the Pirates are in town that evening. 

McMahon figures it could be tricky for motorists and pedestrians headed for the Renaissance. 

At the same time, "It's absolutely fabulous" to walk outside the hotel and be in the midst of people scurrying to the ballpark, restaurants, the theater or opera. 

Opening a Downtown hotel during an economic downturn also has resulted in some reshuffling of its prices. 

The hotel had planned a rate increase for fall, when business travel typically picks up, but it's put that on hold for now. Rates now start at about $169 on weekdays and $109 on weekends. 

"It's better to get people in than to have no occupancy," McMahon said. 

The hotel also has added a salesperson to drum up more corporate business and will launch more sales promotions through Marriott, which owns the Renaissance brand. 

McMahon, 52, got her start in the hotel business when her parents bought and operated a motel off the coast of Maine. She lived and worked on the property and scooped ice cream at a nearby Howard Johnson's. 

A Maine native, she earned her first degree in public communication at Boston University, then went to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for a degree in hotel and restaurant administration. 

McMahon joined Sheraton Hotels' executive training program in 1974 and worked in New York City, Boston and Oklahoma City before joining the Hyatt Pittsburgh in 1978. 

She planned on staying in Pittsburgh for 18 months. Then she met her future husband, married in 1979 and started a family. 

After her first child was born, McMahon left the Hyatt "because I thought I should get a 9-to-5 job." But after a year as a meetings manager for mutual fund company Federated Investors, she realized she missed hotel operations. So in 1984 she joined Interstate Hotels, which operated Marriotts. She became a manager at the Green Tree Marriott, opened the Airport Marriott, then went back to the Green Tree Marriott as general manager. After a stint as vice president-human resources for Interstate, she was tapped to open the Marriott City Center, across from the Mellon Arena, when it was converted from a Hyatt in 1996. 

McMahon, who lives in Highland Park and is the mother of two teen-agers, typically worked six days a week to open the Renaissance. 

Despite her claims that she's not great at balancing her life between career and family, she seems committed to a full plate of activities outside of the hotel. After she gets her daughter settled in at college this week, she'll be back in town to watch her son's golf team this season. She's also in a book club, is active in her church, quilts and attends theater and opera. 

"I think what's helped is realizing my time with my children is not forever." It also helps to own two crock pots. 

"We've got both of them going on Sundays while we cook one meal for that night and one to freeze." 

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(c) 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.