Hospitality Design - July 2015 - 56

perspectives

sketchbook

new york marriott
brooklyn bridge
> Artisanal food, craft cocktails, ironic
mustaches-all things that can be credited
to (or blamed on) a very on-trend Brooklyn.
But in 1998, when the New York Marriott at
the Brooklyn Bridge opened (one of the first
branded, new-build hotels in the borough) the
area wasn't much of a cultural influencer. The
667-room property needed an upgrade and
called upon New York-based Krause + Sawyer
to breathe new life into the public spaces and
guestrooms.
"We needed to make it exciting and
relevant for the neighborhood," explains
principal Tracey Sawyer, who relied on the
new Marriott Modern design initiative to make
spaces dynamic, thoughtful, and polished.
The updated public space, with the bar

as a focal point and functional eatery
MLounge, offers an industrial aesthetic
with a neutral palette punctuated by
Technicolor accents. References to the
hotel's location abound: Blackened iron
structures over subway tile around the
bar represent railways and industry;
modern bronze chandeliers in laser-cut
boxes signify buildings surrounded by
scaffolding; custom carpet is inspired
by city grids; stacked wood tables
strapped together with metal are meant to
mimic shipping crates; and a mural based on
a photo of the Brooklyn Bridge hangs over the
reception area.
"Local photography of the bridge is the
only artwork in the room," adds Sawyer. "It

is layered, recolored, and reinterpreted" to
connect to the lobby art.
"Brooklyn is about layers," says principal
Kajsa Krause, "layers of transportation
methods; layers of neighborhoods, cultures,
enclaves, and languages; layers of history and
change."

quartyard
> Once the team at San Diego's RAD Lab
(research architecture development laboratory)
graduated last year from the NewSchool of
Architecture and Design, they wasted no
time in implementing their thesis project:
Quartyard a 25,000-square-foot mobile urban
park that opened in March in a vacant lot in
downtown San Diego. They turned to locally
based BASILE Studio to retrofit the shipping
containers that would make up the community
space that now houses a restaurant, coffee
shop, beer garden, music venue, and even a
dog run. "We are one of only a few designers in
San Diego that have an occupational license for
prefab buildings," says principal Paul Basile.
"We've become known for our custom windows
and door systems, so this was something that
we could bring to the table."
The process of retrofitting the containers is
fairly straightforward, he says. "We forged the
openings and framed the interior just like you
would a normal building-a standard process,

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July 2015 hospitalitydesign.com

just done within the container structure."
After plugging into electricity and plumbing,
the containers are ready to go-and movable
to another location if necessary, one of the key
aspects of RAD Lab's urban renewal plan that
includes temporarily filling vacant land.
Working with a limited budget (the entire
project was funded by a Kickstarter campaign)

meant that the 14 containers were left fairly
raw, though Basile used OSB wood on the bar
in the beverage container, sanding it down for
a clean finish. "The windows and doors were
fashioned with a counterbalanced flip system,"
using the material cut out of the containers to
create the openings. "The remaining was hot
rolled steel that is meant to rust," he says.
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