Hospitality Design - January/February 2015 - 35

perspectives

sketchbook

crowne plaza
> Crowne Plaza's first major guestroom
redesign in 60 years will debut this year at
the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Midtown as well as
in early-adopting properties in the Americas.
"The business world has changed," explains
Gina LaBarre, vice president, Americas brand
management for InterContinental Hotels
Group's Crown Plaza Hotels & Resorts. "The
way people work has changed, so we needed a
better solution," to cater to business travelers
who now expect hotel rooms to be both a
peaceful place to stay and to be productive.
Working for two years with London-based
firms Future Agenda and PearsonLloyd,
which specialize in workspace design, Crowne
Plaza created a guestroom that is divided into
three key areas: a sheltered bed, modernized
workspace, and a nook that can be used for
working, socializing, or relaxing. "We thought
about how we could provide more opportunity
for guests to utilize their own space inside
the room," LaBarre says, including providing

multiple places for them to plug in their
devices. "We did an amazing amount of brand
research, both globally and regionally, to really
understand the needs of business travelers."
Beds are now placed on an angle and

located outside the bathroom wall, with a
newly designed padded and curved headboard
created to reduce room-to-room, corridor, and
street noise. "They create a very cocooning
feeling," LaBarre says.

the gates
> With its "cheeky, thematic vibe, Key
West has not typically been a sophisticated
hotel market," says Andrea Henzlik, the
Atlanta-based designer recently charged
with introducing a new option to the popular
Florida resort town. "With the Gates, Highgate
Hotels was looking for a more residential
approach," she says, adding that she landed
the job because one of the property's owners
lives in Atlanta and was familiar with her
residential work.
And so her first hotel project-the solo
boutique option in a multi-hotel development
from Highgate-opened in December.
Henzlik introduced a luxe condo feel with
custom pieces such as cypress platform
beds finished in the same whitewashed tone
as the wood floors. The 100-room property
(which boasts a rum lounge and pool deck) is
swathed in a monochromatic palette, offset
by the vibrant sea and sky imagery of local
photographer Jorge de la Torriente. The lobby
features petrified wood tables, a bar imported
from Bali, custom rugs, and-in place of a

registration desk-check-in podiums outfitted
with iPads.
From the barnacle-like ceramic
installation and antique horsehair chest in
the lobby to distinctive finishes such as the
black pebble walls in the public restrooms,
"there's not one thing in the hotel that's mass-

marketed," Henzlik says.
"Because I didn't have any kind of
reference point from a designer's perspective,"
she adds, "I thought a lot about what I love and
don't like about hotels from the standpoint of
a guest."

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