Hospitality Design - March/April 2016 - 75

perspectives

brand identity

le méridien
By Stacy Shoemaker Rauen and Rebecca Lo (Zhengzhou)

1. The arrival art at
Le Méridien Chicago
Oakbrook Center is a
mural by a local graffiti
artist representing his
interpretation of the city.

TAKING FLIGHT

Starwood's midcentury modern-inspired brand
hits its stride

Named after the geographic coordinate lines that
span the globe, Air France started Le Méridien
in 1972, opening its first location in Paris, and
then expanding to other key areas with airport
hubs. Ten years ago, Starwood Hotels & Resorts
purchased the hotel company as a way to increase
its footprint in exotic destinations, acquiring
roughly 150 properties.
For the first six to seven years after the
acquisition the upper-upscale brand's focus was
"Unlock Art," so when Brian Povinelli took
over as global brand leader three years ago,
his challenge was to broaden the appeal of the
brand. "While it was a distinctive positioning in
the hospitality space, it was quite narrow," he
explains. "We needed to bring all these disparate
properties together to create a story."
"Unlock Art" became "Destination
Unlocked," where each property celebrates

its location through chic design, local cultural
references and access, and cuisine-across all
touchpoints, from curated objects and signature
éclair and drink programs to customized music
and art-driven keycards that provide admission
to nearby art and cultural institutions. "Our hope
is that even if you don't get to leave the hotel, you
still feel like you got some takeaway from the
destination," says Povinelli.
Design-wise, the brand is rooted in a
midcentury modern aesthetic-residential in
scale with contextual nuances, elements of
discovery, a richness of material and geometric
patterns, a neutral color palette with bold accent
colors, and juxtapositions of old and new. "When
one talks about Paris as this ever-evolving
cultural city, we looked at the idea that it's chic
and timeless, but it's also very warm and inviting.
That's the direction we wanted the brand to go,"
says Julie Frank, Le Méridien's global director of
design. "Yet each property has a bespoke, local
feel" and a distinct narrative.
Much of that context comes through a strong
commitment to and celebration of art-including
the use of a statement arrival piece and map
cartography, a nod to the brand's namesake.

"There's fine art as it's traditionally defined,
and then there's these discovery elements and
interesting ways it's curated," explains Frank of
the brand's fully integrated approach.
Another staple is the Hub, Le Méridien's
lobby, with various seating groups and a center
bar that transforms from a coffee shop during the
day to a lounge at night thanks to movable panels.
As a result of the repositioning, "we are really
starting to see an acceleration of the pipeline,"
says Povinelli, adding that many properties
are from repeat owners, for whom the design
freedom and boutique feel, especially for the
category, have resonated. Le Méridien now boasts
103 hotels in more than 35 countries-including
a slew of openings in the last 18 months that have
solidified the brand's story-with 29 more in
the pipeline. Those include locations in Bhutan,
India, and Bangkok, and stateside in Charlotte,
North Carolina; New Orleans; and Columbus,
Ohio, to name a few. Next up for 2016 alone: a
redo of Le Méridien Etoile, the brand's original
property, as well as openings in Rome, Montreal,
Saudi Arabia, China, and Malaysia.
Here's a deeper dive into four of the newest
standouts.

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