Hospitality Design - March 2011 - 46

perspectives
culinary installation

sketchbook

friendlier skies
With airlines charging for everything from checked bags to extra legroom and inight entertainment, it’s nice to know that things are getting more luxurious on the ground. Hilton Hotels & Resorts is upping the ante on its airport hotel offerings with three new global properties that have more style, leisure elements, and luxury touches. Last July the brand opened Hilton Beijing Capital Airport, the rst luxury airport hotel in China, and the Hilton Rosemont/Chicago O’Hare, linked via indoor skyway to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Set to open this July, Hilton Frankfurt Airport (shown) will be a centerpiece of the Squaire, a glass-enclosed, modern, mixed-use complex complete with landscaped atriums, art installations, boutiques, restaurants, and a medical center that extends like a horizontal skyscraper above the ICE highspeed railway station at Germany’s Frankfurt International Airport. Each of the hotel’s 248 guestrooms and suites will feature a rich, warm color palette, modern furnishings and artwork, spacious bathrooms, and muchneeded sound-proof windows. The hotel will also include two Executive Floors, with access to the exclusive Executive Lounge; an upscale restaurant and a sleek, open-air lounge and bar; and a 24-hour tness center.

Pop-up restaurants are nothing new, but one with a design that changes every 30 days? Enter What Happens When, a nine-month experiment in New York from chef John Frasier of Dovetail fame and local designer Elle Kunnos de Voss. With the framework of a “work in progress,” the rst incarnation is a living architectural plan of the space. The blueprints—scale,

The Next Steps for Las Vegas

elevations, furniture plans, electrical callouts—are literally projected on the black walls and oors in white. “We will redline it for the next design and move the furniture, creating a crazy pattern,” says Kunnos de Voss of rm Metrics. With a slight budget (the money is being raised by an online pledge system called Kickstarter and donors get their names on a wall by the bathrooms), she found chairs on eBay and repainted and reupholstered them in white; repainted the tables left by the space’s former owners white; and topped exposed light bulbs with cut up pages of a cookbook she bought at Housing Works. Next month’s look? One that’s organic, velvety, and rich: a direct contrast to this month’s sparse Nordic theme.

TREND ALERT!
viva la villas
Hotels are upping the luxury quotient with villas. Case in point: the two new threebedroom Flamands Villas at the Hotel St Barth Isle de France (shown, left). In 2000, designer Penny Morrison out tted the resort with a shabby chic Nantucketmeets-St. Tropez design, “as most hotels at that stage had a lot of Balinese in uence which we wanted to avoid,” says the London-based designer. So for the Flamands, she wanted to continue that look but with a more contemporary, organic feel. She used faded wood oors from Belgium, cool colors, walls textured in a tadelakt plaster look, whitewashed uneven ceiling beams, and linen fabrics. And for a truly luxurious experience, each one boasts its own private in nity plunge pool and large terrace. On Saba, an island 28 miles off the coast of St. Maarten, there’s a new villa dubbed Haiku House, part of the Queen’s Gardens Resort. But don’t expect

to see original Saban style architecture—red roofs with green shutters—for this three-bedroom abode. Instead, its airy Redwood structure standing on poles drew inspiration from a 16th century Japanese villa. It’s not only the sole villa on the island built in such a manner, but it’s also the only one to have a bathtub, since water conservation is a top priority on Saba (there are no fresh water sources). For the interiors, Dutch designer Jan des Bouvrie looked to the surrounding water and beaches. The design takes on simple luxury: contemporary furnishings, lighting, and accessories and a white color palette are combined with Gaggenau stainless steel appliances, private terraces, and both a pool and Jacuzzi. www.hospitalitydesign.com

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - March 2011