Boutique Design - July/August 2019 - 10

THE BUZZ

MARC DESANTIS
NUNZIO MARC DESANTIS
ARCHITECTS

FRESH CUTS

NUNZIO DESANTIS
NUNZIO MARC DESANTIS
ARCHITECTS

Nunzio Marc DeSantis Architects (NMDA) is in the
terrible twos: they're young, unpredictable, sometimes irreverent and most importantly? Curious.
Father and son duo Nunzio and Marc launched
the firm in 2017, but it wasn't exactly a start-up.
Nunzio had already logged 35 years of hospitality
design experience before hanging out a shingle with
his son. Together, they wanted to find out what would
happen if they challenged the standard process. "We
have to listen to the client," says the elder DeSantis.
"But, we work to do that in a creative way that means
we can still be eager to break the mold, to seek the
unexpected and be passionate about design."
As a result, their boards are now overflowing.
They gave us a sneak peek into just a few of these
upcoming projects and how they've turned convention on its head for each.
BROWARD COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER
HOTEL; FT. LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA
MACRO MEETS MICRO

Taking cues from nature and its elegant yet powerful
forms is nothing new, but molding them into shapes
and atmospheres that create intimacy just might
be. Rather than aiming for the overwhelming and
awe-inspiring, NMDA took sweeping statements
such as the movement of clouds across the sky, sea
mammals swimming through the water and waves
breaking under the horizon and injected them into
the Broward County Convention Center Hotel in
more calming ways.
"Convention center hotels can be boring. Their
sheer size makes them feel cold," explains Nunzio.
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Harnessing the immensity of such big moments in
nature would only have played into the impersonal,
expansive feel. "Instead we very diligently worked
to make the program smaller to create spaces that
are intensely human in scale and make the experience inviting with texture and color." One such area
is the rooftop bar and outdoor garden where guests
can enjoy the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean in the
evening and a glittering display of the lighted buildings downtown at night.
"We have worked to change the paradigm of what
a convention center hotel is," Nunzio says. "It's now a
well-tooled place to meet in an urban fabric that feels
like a resort at the heart of Broward County."
The hotel is expected to open in the first quarter
of 2023.
RENAISSANCE MARRIOTT RESTON STATION;
RESTON, VIRGINIA
THE AWAKENING

The Renaissance Marriott Reston Station in Reston,
Virginia, is designed to bring even more life to this
growing, vibrant city. Buzzing from a new town
center district, it embodies the message that this is
the new place to do it all: work, live, play, entertain,
escape and enjoy with a variety of spaces from large
to small, quiet to loud.
But the real star of this town center is the new
hotel and condominiums' vertical discovery the
design offers up, enlivening the community and travelers alike. "The hotel knows how to pamper and
celebrate life through a series of vertically integrated
F&B and lounge components that climb up through

the building," says Nunzio. "They give you an opportunity to engage with the streets and pedestrian traffic
of Reston Station but also connect with the open
spaces and the treetops. The design bridges big city
architecture and small town American elements."
Expected completion is slated for the fourth
quarter of 2022.
BISHOP'S LODGE; SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
ANTIQUED GLAM

It was impossible to not use the history of Bishop's
Lodge as the foundation for a rebirth of the property.
Once reopened, Bishop's Lodge will be under the flag
of the Auberge Resorts Collection. This 1920s retreat is
four miles from downtown Santa Fe in the foothills of
the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rocky Mountains.
Heavy native cultural and nature-inspired influences will also be paired with offerings that create
relevant appeal for a more modern luxury traveler. "With nature and the indigenous architecture of the region playing key roles, we offer guests
unique experiences with rooms that borrow from
the beautiful mountain ridges deep in the canyons
or one-of-a-kind tent experiences that capture the
breathtaking beauty of this place," Nunzio says.
NMDA has taken on the architectural renovation and expansion which include 96 new and
redesigned guestrooms and suites. "We feel a great
responsibility to bring back the soul of Bishop's
Lodge in a manner which celebrates the past but
brings forward a new beginning that sets the stage
for decades to come," says Nunzio.
Look for the hotel's reopening in 2020.

COURTESY OF NUNZIO MARC DESANTIS ARCHITECTS (BISHOP'S LODGE); IAN COLE (DESANTIS; DESANTIS)

BY ANNMARIE MARTIN

http://www.boutiquedesign.com

Boutique Design - July/August 2019

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