I’ve been to lots of trade shows over the past decade or so, but this week marked a first for me: a trip to NeoCon in Chicago. After navigating numerous shows set in single-level, hangar-like spaces, NeoCon’s multi-story layout in the venerable Chicago Merchandise Mart was a definite change of pace – and, I must admit, an enjoyable one. Show veterans told me to avoid the usually crowded elevators as much as possible, and in heeding their advice, I was rewarded with red-carpet treatment (literally) for using the steps. And opening the doors to each floor was akin to entering Oz, as each level was very distinct from the one above or below.
NeoCon is short for the National Exposition of Contract Furnishings, and it does include a hospitality section, which showcases the latest flooring, furniture and other accoutrements for hotels, restaurants, resorts, etc. This part of the show can help to fire the imagination of those interested in keeping up with the latest trends in contemporary hotel design. But the show also offered the sheer fun of wandering and stumbling upon the unexpected and the just-plain cool (and often, both). One such moment for me was provided by Karim Rashid’s Chakra chair for Raynor Contract. With its “zoo-morphic” structure, this futuristic seating is sleek and comfortable. Trust me on the latter; I plopped down in one and was very reluctant to exit. But there was the siren call of another floor to explore, with more insights into hospitality design trends to unearth…
Okay, so your inbox probably isn't over its limit because of an inpouring of RFPs. But, as our publisher Michael Schneider learned at last week's New York University International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, there's a consensus among hotel investors that the worst is over.
What that means short term is a lot of small projects that have to deliver hospitality design trends on a budget. Watch for the jobs that can affect multiple revenue streams--like hotel restaurant design and lounge design.
And watch for hotel renovation work from aggressive owning companies such as Shaner Hotel Group, which has funds in place to acquire up to $500 million in hotel assets. Look beyond major markets. New build hotel architecture may be rarity in New York or Miami, but Tucson will soon have 13 hotels coming out of the ground. That's a lot of hospitality interior work for companies looking to ride this first wave in the upturn.
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 DESIGNcarved out its niche with innovative coverage of the people who create hospitality design trends. Hospitality Styleis 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.
Like it or loathe it, technology continues to change the look of hospitality interiors. Front desks are shrinking as guests not only accept but embrace kiosk check-in and smart key cards for their guestrooms. Restaurants glow with interactive table tops, and guestrooms have lots of in-room entertainment toys and gadgets.
But, how much automation do travelers really want and how should that influence hospitality design trends? Maria Vafiadis, managing director of London-based MKV Design, advises designers to match the tech treats to the guest profile. In other words, ask yourself what you'd want. The answer probably won't be one-solution-fits all since people's needs change depending on the purpose of the travel.
“In the course of an exhausting business trip, straightforward technology that smoothes my progress from boardroom to bed is welcome. But during a holiday, “unplugging” from technology gives me the freedom to slow down. Designers must get the balance right if the potential of automation is to be realized,” she says. “Parading the latest hi-tech in a hospitality environment doesn’t always improve the experience. Cutting-edge gadgetry might add to the sexiness of a trendy hotel, but in luxury resorts or in fine dining restaurants it’s concierge, not computer service, that guests expect.”
Having racked up more than her fair share of frequent flyer miles, Vafiadis shares ideas on how to wield technology as a design too and her vision for what's next with projects like the new villas at Crete's Blue Palace Resort and Spa.
I like the fact that both hotel restaurant design and concepts for freestanding restaurants continue to the blur the line between what's hot and what's haute. The latest example is San Francisco's Barbacco Eno Trattoria.
Its co-owners, Umberto Gibin and executive chef Staggan Terje, initially saw the new venture as a complementary offer to their award-winning Perbacco Ristorante + Bar just two doors away. Given the Financial District setting, the idea was that Perbacco would draw the CEOs and dealmakers while its new little sister projected the right attitude to attract mid-level managers and mid-spend foodies. But as The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle's online SFgate.com and other reviewers have reported, Barbacco's combination of Terje's creative Northern Italian food and CCS Architecture's edgy style have made this 66-seat eatery a popular choice for power brokers as well as their staffs.
Cass Calder Smith and his design team created a look that would fit Barbacco into Gibin and Terje's expanding brand family without just knocking off their flagship--also designed by CCS. The Italian accent was obvious, given the menu. What wasn't is the choice of the sexy side of Italian culture as inspiration--particularly, the yellow of the Ferrari emblem, lots of chrome, mirrors and elements angled as if they're ready to put pedal to the metal. Smith's not afraid to use marble alongside high density fiberboard, or polished chrome with rustic brick.
Communal tables create a highly social atmosphere near the frameless glass front.
Photos that suggest a glimpse of what's seen from a speeding car or Vespa are interspersed with mirrors and open cabinets. Like clients who wear Givenchy with Gap, Barbacco represents a new kind of hospitality design trend that makes creativity the real test of luxury.
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.
When it comes to luxury travel, is “slow the new fast?” Seymourpowell, a London-based design/innovation company, thinks that could be the case. Hence the firm has created the Aircruise, a giant, vertical airship that would house a luxury hotel and ferry passengers at a leisurely 65-to-90 miles per hour (as compared with the 500-600 mph cruising speed of today’s jet liners).
“The Aircruise concept questions whether the future of luxury travel should be based around space-constrained, resource hungry, and all-too-often stressful airline travel,” says Nick Talbot, Seymourpowell’s design director. “A more serene transport experience will appeal to people looking for a more reflective journey, where the experience of travel itself is more important than getting from A to B quickly. The physics of the airship requires a gigantic volume of lifting gas, yet simultaneously demands a relatively limited amount of weight. This allows for a potentially large amount of space with relatively few people onboard -- a luxury for any traveler."
This is not just some pie-in-the-sky concept in hospitality design trends. The Aircruise idea captured the imagination of Korean giant Samsung Construction and Trading (C&T). Driven by its interest in new materials for building, Samsung C&T hired Seymourpowell to refine the idea and produce a detailed computer animation of the hydrogen-filled, solar-powered airship and its modern hotel design concepts to illustrate this visionary approach to travel of the future. “This was a dream concept project for us, helping to realize a future of sustainable buildings combined with innovative and luxury lifestyle,” said Seung Min Kim, Samsung C&T’s design director at Samsung C&T.
WATG's renovation of Hawaii's St. Regis Princeville shows how the language of luxury contemporary hotel design is changing. Out went tons of polished marble, ornate railings and chandeliers, European themed furniture and artwork, and gilded Corinthian columns. Instead, the designers repositioned the Hawaiian property to reflect its locale through the use of indigenous materials, paintings and sculpture by local artists, and custom-designed carpets and furnishings with a residential feel that exude warmth and hospitality.
Accents like this focal point of the lobby give lifestyle hotel design a distinctively Hawaiian accent.
And, there's no need to add any over-the-top decoration to hotel restaurant design when the view is as beautiful as the one seen from the breezy Makana Terrace.
"In 2010 and beyond, polished brass and shiny chrome will be out. Natural stone and salvaged wood will be in. Recycled materials and accessories will enhance the guest experience and give a property a unique story to tell," says Howard J. Wolff, WATG's senior vice president. Wolff has more to say about where luxury design is headed in his post on hospitalitystyle.com.
Lifestyle hotel design doesn't just mean living like a rock star. It can mean living in style--regardless of price point.
The latest takes on this hospitality design trend showed up in two new openings this week: The luxury Fairmont Pittsburgh and the affordable boutiqe Hotel Indigo Nashville Downtown (Nashville, Tenn.). They target different markets in different locations, but they share a focus on uncluttered, contemporary hotel design. Think the three Cs: color, comfort and casual elegance.
With its plush headboard and bed covers and the hand-made look of the textiles, the Gensler-designed Fairmont Pittsburgh takes hotel guestroom design into new territory in terms of luxury without ostentation. What could be more welcoming after a day of hurried business meetings?
But comfortable doesn't have to mean boring. Nor does it take much to make a statement. Strategic pumpkin colored accents do the job at the Fairmont.
The new Indigo Nashville Downtown puts a spin on contemporary hotel design with its chic palette and a few eye-catching focal points. Playing up circular lighting concepts adds an contemporary hotel design edge within the historic framework of the historic buildings that house the 97-room hotel. The theme starts at check-in....
Phi Bar picks up on the hospitality lighting design trend, taking advantage of the soaring ceiling.
You don't have to reinvent the wheel to say something new about hotel guestroom design.
For inspiration, check out the new Hotel Le Germain Calgary. Lemay Michaud Architecture Design, Montreal, design and project architect for this urban boutique hotel, and Christiane Germain, Groupe Germain's co-president, envisioned the 143 guest rooms as "wooden treasure chests" clad in warm, natural wood. Inside, there's a trove of clever touches for both guests and the hospitality design industry at large.
Here are some of the hospitality design trends that can make even a standard bay memorable.
For example, a trio of task lights adds an edgy industrial chic to an otherwise natural guestroom environment:
Another idea likely to set hospitality design trends is the flip-down night table shown below:
As in residential design, most utilitarian items are being putting on display. For this property, that includes drinks and glasses that usually would be stored in a minibar--a nice way to merchandise products that drive in-room sales:
Even luggage storage gets "designed" thanks to the impact of a textured wall covering and the cleanly angular casegoods:
Restaurants attached to celebrity chefs have mostly been the province of TV stars, but that trend is evolving to include A-list chefs whose "celebrity" exists largely within the culinary world. Instead of relying on a name alone for success, however, it helps to aim for something novel in hotel restaurant design, as well. The ANA Intercontinental Hotel in Tokyo is soon to open a new restaurant from chef Pierre Gagnaire, whose restaurants are often named among the best in the world, and its décor will include some exciting work with curves—oval-shaped tables!—to go along with the 36th-floor view of the heart of Tokyo. The opening is in March, and you'll see more upcoming in Hospitality Style.
A venerable old brand is looking fresh again, as Sheraton Hotels and Resorts has just spent a whopping $6 billion on a brand overhaul that includes new designs for more than half of its North American properties. The focus is on blurring the lines between business and leisure travel—the hospitality trend unfortunately dubbed "bleisure"—and one of the highlights of the new Sheraton is a uniquely wired lobby lounge done in partnership with Microsoft. Ninety-eight properties worldwide have been renovated, more than 300 new lobbies have been created, and 70,000 guestrooms (including 50,000 in North America) are new or newly redesigned. And Sheraton, the largest of the Starwood brands, is introducing it all with a $20 million marketing campaign. For more on modern hotel design and resort design trends, check out our gallery at http://www.hospitalitystyle.com/projects/hotels-resorts.
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.
trends. 
But, how much automation do travelers really want and how should that influence 
t 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.
y when it comes.” It looks like IHG’s timing may be good – several signs point to 
es to luxury travel, is “slow the new fast?” 
(C&T). Driven by its interest in new materials for building, Samsung C&T hired Seymourpowell to refine the idea and produce a detailed computer animation of the hydrogen-filled, solar-powered airship and its 
Samsung C&T.
With its plush headboard and bed covers and the hand-made look of the textiles, the Gensler-designed 
es it take much to make a statement. Strategic pumpkin colored accents do the job at the Fairmont. 
The new Indigo Nashville Downtown puts a spin on contemporary hotel design with its chic palette and a few eye-catching focal points. Playing up circular lighting concepts adds an contemporary hotel design edge within the historic framework of the historic buildings that house the 97-room hotel. The theme starts at check-in....
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