Boutique Design - March/April 2010 - (Page 28)

D E S I G N O L O G Y gallery and a performance space. The atrium artwork rotates twice a year while the lobby, which serves as an additional gallery, changes thrice annually with outsourced curators crafting the look of each exhibition. While the renovations to the warehouses were a radical change, Berke and Brockman managed to repurpose many materials throughout the hotel, adding an antiquated counterpoint to the glinting gallery spaces. Brockman was careful to keep the same dialogue within the guestrooms, straddling a residential feel with touches of modernity. Evocative of home are the oak doors, warm gray carpets and sheer draperies on the windows while some other elements like Saarineninspired desks are clean and contemporary. “The headboards are also a multi-purpose device,” said Brockman. “It’s an acoustical dampening material that is tackable. It serves as a giant matte board that you can hang art on.” Wilson’s tenacity has proven successful; the downtown of Louisville is burgeoning, due in part to the hotel’s presence, and he has another hotel set to start construction in November in Cincinnati. But Wilson’s greatest reward is reinventing people’s relationship with art, offering a neutral, unintimidating environment for people to peruse the works. “I find that artists are able to speak to things that we don’t often find comfortable to talk about — death or sex, racial relations — especially in the South,” he said. “People can get anxious. They think they don’t understand it, it’s too sophisticated. I’m always surprised at how friendly it can be with art.” The double-height atrium gallery space a high level of juxtaposition,” said Brockman. “It’s an inviting, eclectic patterned world.” While Wilson was confident in the hotel's pending success, the renovations were an ambitious undertaking, both fiscally and architecturally, so the couple sought a grant from the city as well as a historic trust tax credit. “We had to work with historians and there was a lot of give and take,” said Wilson. The biggest alteration that the buildings underwent was the creation of a 2,500square-foot atrium, carved from the middle of the five buildings which serves both as a A 21C guestroom with a tackable headboard for ever-changing artwork The Return of Boutique Basics : NYLO Las Calinas In these days of trendy “boutique” hotels with overpriced drinks and overstuffed couches, NYLO is a rare exception, poised to reappropriate the term and embody its original intention. “Lots of hotels called their hotels ‘boutique’ experiences and it’s become an overused word,” said Chris Jones, one of three original founding designers of the NYLO brand, including Michael Mueller and Stephane Dupoux. “The genesis of that word and what it was that inspired people to create it — it was something unique.” In addition to its industrial New York loft aesthetic, NYLO boasts a large collection of art in each of its properties, which are acquired through a series of submissions judged by Dupoux and Jones. “We look for contemporary works that are suitable for big, high ceilings — larger pieces as opposed Bill Johnson to fine detailed art28 • boutique DESIGN march/april 2010 The Loft, the industrial lounge and bar in NYLO Las Calinas work,” said Jones. “We use a lot of photography.” Photographer Star Perry, who “won” the art competition for the latest NYLO property in Las Calinas, has work featured predominantly throughout the hotel, wrapping the interiors of the elevators as well as greeting guests in the lobby. “The piece in the lobby looks like a moldy barn door,” said Jones. “But if you look closely, one of the knots in the door has the most striking resemblance

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Boutique Design - March/April 2010

Boutique Design - March/April 2010
Table Of Contents
Hyatt Opens First Andaz Hotel On Wall Street In NYC
Brintons Announces Second Collection With Scottish Duo
AB Concept In Hong Kong Creates The French Window, Overlooking The Harbor
Washington D.C. Celebrates Revamped Design Center
Q&A With Kit Kemp, On How She Successfully Brought Firmdale Hotels To The U.S. With The Crosby Street
Adam Tihany Delivers Las Vegas’ First Mandarin Oriental After A Collective Deep Breath, CityCenter Opens And Adam Tihany Delivers Las Vegas’ First Mandarin Oriental
Designology
World By Design
Fathom Creative Turns A Dilapidated Brake Shop Into New Multi-Use Space For Art, Business, Life And Inspiration
German Theorist And Author, Boris Groys, Discusses His Book, Art Power And The Idea Of Tourists As Architects As Part Of This Month’s Inspiration
Designer Meetups Hosts Big Wigs In Design To Share Inspiration And Discuss Trends In Informal, Open Environments
Dreambook:
Brian Orter Weighs In On The Popular Debate In The Design Community About Hand Drawings Versus Realistic Computer Renderings
EnVogue: BD Brings You Snapshots
Bath And Spa:
Calender/Advertisers Index

Boutique Design - March/April 2010