Hospitality Design - August 2018 - 39

perspectives hd expo recap
By Jennifer Young
Photography courtesy of Admares and Chapi Chapo

1. Chapi Chapo's winning
design, which came
to life on the HD Expo
show floor, features a
cozy bedroom wrapped
in warm wood with a
geometric motif.

OUT OF THE BOX

A new design challenge generates ingenuity

Twenty-four hours to create the next iteration
of the luxury hotel guestroom. That was the
one-of-a-kind journey Hilton and Hospitality
Design sent 12 world-class design firms on during
the inaugural Box competition this year, with
the winning design debuting on the HD Expo
show floor in Las Vegas in May. To judge such a
feat-"the room of the future," as Leo Eskenazi,
senior director of design for Latin America and
Caribbean at Hilton and the mastermind behind
the challenge, puts it-assembling an esteemed
panel with varied backgrounds in the hospitality
industry was necessary. Enter Argeo Hospitality
president and TV personality Anthony
Melchiorri; designer and Queer Eye sensation
Bobby Berk; Larry Traxler, senior vice president

of global design at Hilton; and Maurice Perry,
director at design consultancy Perrysketch.
All met at Frank Lloyd Wright's Arizona
Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix in January, where
they were given the rules and tools for crafting
the luxury digs, which would be housed in
an approximately 13-by-32-foot space built by
Admares using modular technology, with a
twist: their designs-utilizing products from
the two dozen sponsoring companies-had
to channel a 1920s Art Deco aesthetic (a nod
to Hilton's 100th anniversary). "You could see
their minds kind of explode and say, 'Oh, wow,
this is going to be way more intense than I
thought,'" quips Berk. The 1920s was a "point
when the decorative arts and modernism all
came together. It was all about optimism, about
the new world, about new opportunities to go
places," says Rottet Studio principal Richard
Riveire, who participated in the competition.
"It's perfect for the architect who's interested in
hotel design."
The challenge was unique not only because

the designers had a short amount of time to
conceptualize as well as sketch or render, but
they also had to present their concepts in front
of the other participants-their peers. "I have
never had the opportunity to present my design
ideas in front of our competition, and I doubt if
any of the other design firms have either," says
Traxler. "There was a real spirit of camaraderie
and support for the other firms presenting."
Moving past style and material, "they were able
to hear how the other design studios thought
about design and what their methodology was for
solving the challenge of future luxury," he adds.
In the end, four finalists were named for
their different, yet thoughtful designs, including
Toronto's Chapi Chapo Design, the San Francisco
office of HBA, Los Angeles-based Gulla
Jónsdóttir Architecture + Design, and Miami
studio Urban Robot Associates. After another
review and much deliberating, Chapi Chapo was
crowned the winner because the firm pushed "all
the buttons in terms of luxury," notes Traxler. "It
was understated creativity," adds Melchiorri.

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Hospitality Design - August 2018

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