Hospitality Design - March/April 2019 - 42

perspectives interview

042

March/April 2019 hospitalitydesign.com

Wood and earth tones mix in Eaton Wellness, a recent
addition to the DC property from Parts and Labor Design

Designed by Gachot Studios, Eaton DC's reception
area recalls its former home as a bus terminal

The retro-inspired Eaton Hong Kong, designed by AvroKO,
boasts a vibrant mix of colors in the common space
Photos by JULIET BERMAN, LIT MA, ADRIAN GAUT, and JENNIFER HUGHES

vast landmark preservation project involved
close collaborations between Lo and Richmond
International, Rockwell Group, and Dirk Lohan,
van der Rohe's grandson, of Lohan Anderson.
After the hotel opened in 2013, however,
Lo realized that luxury "didn't feel like my true
purpose or calling, or even the style I wanted to
keep working on," so she returned to filmmaking
(she received a master's in film production from
the University of Southern California) until her
father presented her with a new challenge: develop
a hotel brand from scratch for the burgeoning
lifestyle segment.
This resonated on a more profound level with
Lo, who dreamed up Eaton with aspirations of
building a social movement around a "specific point
of view that you're not afraid to stick to and up
for." Eaton hotels double as inclusive community
centers, celebrating partnerships with grassroots
leaders and nonprofits. They also prioritize
sustainability by illuminating such concerns as
food waste, sprouting urban farms on rooftop
terraces, and being built to LEED standards.
Eaton DC, the handiwork of New York firms
Gachot Studios and Parts and Labor Design,
opened last year amid a time of political tumult.
Lo says the 209-room hotel that calls to mind
its bygone days as a bus terminal, complete
with a library, radio station, cinema, and the
20,000-square-foot coworking hangout Eaton
House, only "added more urgency because to have a
place that supports environmentalism and gender
equality meant a lot more."
Almost simultaneously, the 465-room Eaton
Hong Kong debuted in Kowloon "in a trippy
building that looks like it came out of Blade
Runner," Lo points out, with a design courtesy
of AvroKO's Bangkok practice. The firm's San
Francisco office (in conjunction with Leong Leong)
will handle the forthcoming new-build hotel in
that city, while Tokyo architect Kengo Kuma is
tasked with a ground-up building in Seattle.
Lo is on the lookout for potential new sites to
grow the Eaton portfolio, but she's also focusing
on expanding the culture, impact, and wellness
programming at each property, noting DC's
wellness center, which offers amenities that
nurture inner health and spiritual development.
"Now that these beautiful spaces are designed, the
hardware is done, so I'm focusing on making sure
that the software is maximizing the potential,"
she says. At the same time, she's developing
Eaton Media, a sub-branch of the company that
will create original content in film, prose, and
photography. "My dream would be for Eaton to not
only be a hotel brand, but [also] to reach the level
of being a social or cultural movement," she says,
"an authentic platform for the global community to
make a better world."
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