NEWH - November 2009 - (Page 36)

project spa at encore Y ou’re So Vain Encore’s spa is one of beauty Photography by Robert Miller After working with Roger Thomas and Wynn Resorts for the past seven years, it was no surprise that Thomas turned to Todd-Avery Lenahan and ABA Design Studio once again for Encore’s top-floor, 70,000-square-foot spa. But no typical Zen design here. “The design aesthetic is one of universal beauty, with a broad array of international influences, all playing in support of opulence and indulgence,” says the Las Vegasbased designer, who also handled the hotel’s guestrooms. “I wanted it to differ from not just Las Vegas offerings but the ubiquitous, esoteric, and trendy direction that the American spa industry has taken towards cliché, Zen design, faux Far Eastern influence, and tedious minimalism. Ultimately, the precedent for the design was based in human response to vanity, modesty, vulnerability, and narcissism, and was an intense exploration in human values above and beyond human response to hospitality interiors.” There’s the spa court, with its dramatic vaulted ceiling of embroidered Egyptian linen set between backlit glass. “The space occurs at the intersection of Encore’s low-rise steel podium and its reinforced concrete tower,” Lenahan explains. “The integration of the structural systems at this location imposed technical parameters upon what was already our mathematically complex vault design.” Middle Easternand European-inspired fabrics abound (think damask drapes in the men’s tranquility room), and there are surprises at every turn—fish sculptures at the entrance; uplit copper Balinese rain chains and stone loungers in the plunge pool area; a Swarovski crystal curtain; and custom light fixtures that inspire. “As with everything in the project, we relied heavily upon our long-standing relationships with vendors and resources all over the world,” he says. “The expectation that Mr. Wynn holds us to is that guests at his resorts should see things that are rare, extraordinary, and unique to the Wynn experience.” The highlight? The two grand treatment corridors, lined by large porcelain vases, lit lanterns, and walls done in a dark silk wallcovering covered with a handpainted chinoiserie pattern and handsewn ribbon lattice, and punctuated by a gold Buddha; the hallways have movement thanks to trickling water features in the vases. “It was designed to completely obliterate the mundanity of walking down a common spa corridor,” he says. > 36 november 2009 www.newh.org tel 800.593.NEWH Above: Balinese rain chains in the women’s plunge pool area at the Spa at Encore. Above, inset: The elegant reception desk. Right, inset: One of the dramatic treatment halls. http://www.newh.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NEWH - November 2009

NEWH - November 2009
Contents
News
POV: Sustainability
POV: Spa Design
Scholarship: Icon of Industry
Design 101
Have you Seen?
Product Know-How
On the Scene
Cover Story: Burtco
Project: Bonneville Spa
Project: Spa at Encore
Project: Anaheim Marriott
Save the Date
Resources
New Members
Partner Profiles

NEWH - November 2009