Design Industry

Given the current renovation trends, if you don't have some piece of an atrium lobby or big-box public spaces on your boards now, you probably will in the near future. Some renewed signs of life in the MICE market are persuading owners of conference hotels to spruce up the offer near-term. The challenge is going to be how to make these caverns into appealing, third place destinations.

EDG Interior Architecture + Design's Jennifer Johanson is using movement to get rid of the dead zones in the atrium lobby of the Hilton Anatole Dallas. Her piazza concept, with its gardens, restaurants and small town center vibe, is intended to draw conference attendees and guests into the new gathering space.  But even the coolest restaurant design or lounge seating isn't going to keep people in motion in the lobby 24/7.

Johanson and her team turned to kinetic art for a solution. Here's a sampling of what impressed them:



Above is a work by Reuben Margolin, a San Francisco bay area kinetic artist known for making motion with complex constructs of materials from wood to cardboad.

So take that inspiration and set some hospitality design trends--and, if you have time before the holiday weekend, send in a project to compete in the European Hotel Design Awards.

Award categories include the best architecture of a hotel, both conversion and newbuild.  Interior design categories for various spaces including guestrooms, bar, restaurant and lobby areas. Other awards celebrate innovation, sustainability and the two final awards recognize outstanding contribution to the industry and the European Hotel Design of the Year. They will be announced November 23 as a kick-off to this year's Sleep Event Exhibition in London. The deadline for entries is the 28th May 2010. Get entry guidelines here.

On most Mondays, Hospitality Style's managing editor Matt Hall and I are reporting on or blogging about hospitality design newsmakers around the world. Today, we just had to walk down the hall. Our parent company, ST Media Group, made headlines with this morning's announcement that it has acquired Boutique Media Group along with boutique DESIGN magazine and its ancillary events.

Why now? Simple. It's a matter of opportunity and synergy. Boutique DESIGN carved out its niche with innovative coverage of the people who create hospitality design trends. Hospitality Style is the idea book that shows how their ideas come to life with projects that wow. Each brand will continue to do what it does best, but the combination will give you access to information on the people, places and spaces that are changing what we expect when we travel, dine out or go to a spa.

Boutique Media Group president, Michael Schneider, has done a great job building the magazine and its brand into a leading industry force in just five years. We're looking forward to working with him in his new role as ST Media's Publisher of Hospitality Brands--and to talking about what's next while we're at HD Expo. Stop by the ST Media Group booth, #6728, to learn more.
 

Do the hospitality market and design industry need yet another themed restaurant/ entertainment concept? Mark Advent, the guy behind the New York New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, thinks so. For that reason, Advent’s company has acquired the exclusive international licensing rights to develop, own and operate Orange County Choppers Roadhouse, a full-service restaurant/ bar/microbrewery/gaming/hospitality/ retail/entertainment experience.

The venue takes its name from the custom motorcycle brand that’s featured in the reality cable TV show, “American Chopper.” The restaurant design for the first outlet, an 8,500-sq.-ft. creation of Washington, D.C.-based CORE architecture + design, will feature a hospitality interior with a center bar and keg room, along with indoor/outdoor seating. That flagship will open this summer in Orange County Choppers’ hometown of Newburgh, N.Y. After that, locales are planned for Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas and Dubai. And how’s this for free advertising -- the construction, opening and ongoing business of Orange County Choppers Roadhouse will be highlighted in “American Chopper,” beginning in the show’s 2010-2011 season.

For a look at other new hospitality design concepts, visit Hospitality Style and check out its quarterly print edition.

They say you have to spend money to make money. InterContinental Hotels Group is putting that axiom to the test, twice over, with its Holiday Inn unit. First, IHG is plowing $1 billion into upgrading the contemporary hotel designs of more than 3,300 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels worldwide. (Thus far, more than 2,200 hotels have relaunched under the new look, which includes updated hotel guestroom and bathroom designs, as well as new exterior signage. The remaining 1,100 properties under the two flags are slated to be updated by the end of this year.) And now, the company is launching a $100 million “Stay You” ad campaign in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Mexico, Latin America, Asia and Australia to tout the benefits of its modern hotel design to consumers.

“‘Stay You’ is the biggest advertising campaign in the 58-year history of Holiday Inn,” said IHG ceo Andy Cosslett. “The level of support behind this campaign reinforces our confidence in the Holiday Inn relaunch which positions us well for the upturn in the economy when it comes.” It looks like IHG’s timing may be good – several signs point to an uptick in the hotel industry – so their big bet on reinventing the Holiday Inn brands may pay off big, as well.

For the latest hospitality design trends by other big-name hotel brands, check out HospitalityStyle and its print edition.
 

The current issue of Fortune magazine contains a thought-provoking featured entitled, “25 Green Myths Debunked.” Some samples: “Myth: Fluorescent bulbs are bad because they contain mercury/Reality: Yes, but not using them will pour even more mercury into our ecosystem”; and “Myth: Paper grocery bags are better than plastic bags/Reality: Plastics, young man, plastics... paper bags require four times more energy to manufacture than plastic ones.”

In honor of Earth Day’s 40th anniversary, we want to hear from the design industry about the common myths surrounding the incorporation of eco-friendly features into projects across the hospitality spectrum, including boutique design, casino design, cruise ship design, contemporary hotel design, restaurant design and spa design. For instance, is local sourcing of materials really as earth-friendly as thought, or does it have some unforeseen environmental consequences? And is it true that green design and luxe environments don’t mix? We want to hear from you – share your insights by clicking on the comments button below.

And to see some examples of cutting-edge sustainable hospitality designs, go to Hospitality Style’s Green Spotlight. Also, be sure to check out our upcoming Fall 2010 print issue, which will include a Green Guide.
 

Watch for hospitality design to take a conservative turn this year as owners and lenders look for concepts that play it safe.

By Mary Scoviak

I had a chance to catch up with Jim Stapleton, FRCH Design Worldwide’s vice president, last week over lunch. The conversation started with the usual questions—how’s business (beginning to improve); what’s new (the recent debut of FRCH’s design for Home2 Suites by Hilton); what’s on the boards (a wide range of hotel projects and, maybe, a casino). But, when I asked Jim about what’s next in terms of hospitality design trends, he offered some surprising food for thought. 2010 isn’t going to be the year of Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava in the hotel industry, he predicts. “We’re going to see a lot more boxes,” he says. “They’ll be good boxes, but boxes nonetheless.”

The news about what constitutes modern hotel design is about what’s going on inside that box, says Stapleton. Watch for some fresh thinking on layout and space flow as franchisors shrink hotels’ footprints. Generally, you wouldn’t head to the hotel’s laundry room in hopes of finding the next hot trend—unless you were checking out a Home2 extended stay hotel. FRCH integrated the fitness center into the laundry area, giving people a reason to stay in the space rather than leaving their laundry unattended and a backlog of angry guests waiting hours for a washing machine.

Raw public space may be contracting, but Stapleton points out every square inch is going to have to multi-task. Guests will see a greater variety of destinations, even in smaller lobbies. He predicts more solutions like Home2’s “breakfast pantry.” Instead of being on display, guests can eat in this secluded, homey area just off the central portion of the lobby. Gathering spaces will be more defined, but by subtle changes in colors and textures or maybe the angle of the furniture rather than costly infrastructure.

When it comes to aesthetics, designers may not be walking on the wild side this year but they shouldn’t be using a conservative mood as an excuse to be boring. “You don’t have to put up bead board because it’s the only thing the budget allows. With all of the new surfacing materials, new lighting solutions, new fabrics out there, you can be really creative and still make the numbers work,” says Stapleton.

With nearly a month of 2010 behind us, the fog is lifting a bit and we're starting to get a clearer picture of what's ahead for the hospitality industry this year. The consensus from the hotel designers, restaurant designers and spa designers I'm talking to for the March Hospitality Style relaunch is that they're feeling the start of a turnaround. They're not exactly laying in a supply of Dom Perignon, but they are seeing some follow-ups from developers on RFPs.

What's more interesting is what those developers want. The hottest hospitality design trends for projects on firms' boards are about not being trendy at all.

Jim Stapleton, vice president, FRCH Design Worldwide, Cincinnati, predicts design will take a more conservative turn. His reasoning is that lenders and investors aren't going to turn over the mountains of capital needed to hire a Frank Gehry or Santiago Calatrava. Nor are they going to risk investing in a torquing tower that might turn into a money drain as R&D problems drive up the bills. "You're going to see a lot more boxes," he says. But, they'll be better boxes, in his view. New materials give the look for less, so why not apply a Topshop or H+M mentality to guestroom design, restaurant design, even spas?
 

For more inspiration on the latest, see the galleries on our site.
 

Okay, if you are active in hotel renovation or hotel design, you know 2009 was a bad one for U.S. hotels. Thanks to research firm STR, anyone in the hospitality design industry can now attach some specific numbers to the magnitude of that downturn. Here are the stats from STR: revenue per available room (RevPAR) fell 16.7 percent, to $53.71, for the year; occupancy fell 8.7 percent, to 55.1 percent; and the average daily rate (ADR) dropped 8.8 percent, to $97.51.

“Good riddance to 2009, a year which we believe will go down as the worst in the modern hotel industry,” said STR president Mark Lomanno. “The combination of a distressed economy in conjunction with panic pricing drove RevPARs down to levels that were virtually incomprehensible just a year and a half ago. I look for a significant improvement in the key hotel performance indicators in 2010.”

For more on which U.S. markets suffered the least in this challenging environment, click here.