Boutique Design - April 2019 - 50

AMANDA MCVEY
UPGRADE LABS

PROJECT
PARTICIPANTS
UPGRADE LABS BEVERLY
HILLS
CLIENT
The Beverly Hilton
DESIGN/ARCHITECTURE
Upgrade Labs (in-house
team): Amanda McVey,
vice president of experience & programming; Martin
Tobias, ceo

FUNCTIONAL FINESSE
Biohacking might not seem like the most obvious design driver. But, as the raison
d'etre for Upgrade Labs' newest outpost in the Beverly Hilton, it's one more
instance where life-changing advances in sciences are shaking up the DNA of
hospitality design-and one more field designers are going to have to master.
Launched as a standalone facility in Santa Monica, California (read: this is
NOT a gym), it's the brainchild of Bulletproof founder and author of "The Bulletproof Diet" Dave Asprey, a Silicon Valley investor and technology entrepreneur
who spent two decades and over $1 million to hack his own biology. In addition to
a deep dive into biochemistry, the exploration that led to his 100-lb. weight loss
included a core suite of fitness equipment engineered to maximize results in
shorter sessions. Initially, he considered just appending the workout area to Santa
Monica's Bulletproof Café, but the growing demand for anti-aging and optimal
health programs convinced him to develop a science-forward transformation
space that would address everything from cell therapy to strength training. Retrofitting a standard spa at the Beverly Hilton provided the perfect setting to break
into the hotel industry and rejuvenate hospitality's wellness/fitness offering.
Instead of creating bamboo-and-beige treatment rooms, the next iteration
of mind/body hospitality solutions will look more space age than new age. For
example, for the Hilton location, there's an opportunity to burn, baby, burn in
the facility's fitness area. But in the 4,000-sq.-ft. wellness space across the way,
it's ice, ice, baby. Literally. A cryotherapy chamber gets down to -220 degrees to
increase fat burning and boost the immune system. Upgrade Labs' Amanda
McVey, vice president of experience & programming, who has worked with ceo
Martin Tobias to help build this ground-up brand, points out that the design
process for this chill experience started from the outside in.
"Designers have to ask, 'How do we create a room that would be the right
setting for such a machine, and make it accessible for deliveries and for
guests?'" says McVey. The answer in this case: break through a wall that backed
onto a driveway. The nitrogen tanks used for cryotherapy can be changed out
from behind the unit, obviating the need for in-room storage. "We were fortunate that the old spa is on the hotel's ground floor," McVey says. She advises
hoteliers who might consider adding the tech to their properties to carefully
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boutiquedesign.com APRIL 2019

evaluate the site, as vendors might not deliver tanks if steps are involved-
though elevator access is another solution. If that's not an option, portable
cryotherapy units are available. Still, the location of the machine and placement of the treatment table or chair will dictate much of the layout.
Even for extreme makeovers like this, existing facilities can get a new life.
Take the former treatment room that's now the infrared sauna. Designers chose
that room since there already was a shower in the space. "It was an opportunity
to create a hot vs. cold experience," McVey says. The palette was kept deliberately
neutral and the cabinets have sleek, streamlined profile to put all of the visual
emphasis on the vibrant infrared lighting and warm woods used for the sauna.
Research is as vital to the design process as to the modalities. McVey,
Tobias and their team checked out some of LA's hottest spas and discovered
that people want a social atmosphere.They applied that lesson to the therapy
space. "We wanted this space to be open (without walls or even curtains)
because when people come for IV therapy, they like to talk to each other. We
saw that the most successful IV therapy places were more communal," McVey
says. Lounge chairs are used instead of beds because, let's face it, it's a multitasking kind of world and people need to work while they recover.
But even though guests may be locking themselves in freezing chambers or
red-hot saunas, the quest for optimal health and fitness is exploding outside of
the box. In the fitness center, a 2,000-sq.-ft. former pool room was rehabbed to
accommodate equipment that allows guests to hack their workouts, such as
The Cheat Machine that uses adaptive resistance technology to mimic "a
week's worth of weightlifting in under 15 minutes." Here, designers needed to
show some restraint, as the client wanted to make sure the equipment
remained the focus of the space. Think more brutalist than industrial.
Artwork ties it all together, showing acid-bright cells taken from medical
imagery and magnified to display their scientific artistry. Then, branding moments
add to the project, such as the signature wings on the newly constructed floor-toceiling glass sliders leading to the pool, put there to avoid a see-through look
outside. "We have enough in the background so that people on social media can
see who we are, but we really let the tech be the star," McVey says.

Z E K E R U E L A S P H O T O G R A P H Y ( U P G R A D E L A B S B E V E R LY H I L L S ) ; C O U R T E S Y O F U P G R A D E L A B S ( M C V E Y )

U P G R A D E L A B S , B E V E R LY H I L L S

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Boutique Design - April 2019

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