Hospitality Design - December 2009 - 36

news Ski Style When the Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe opens this month, it will be a new take on the great mountain lodges built at the turn of the century. The hotel, which is going for LEED certification, features a rambling form of local stone bases, shiplap siding, shingles, and pitched roofs punctuated by a grand, central building dubbed the “head house” complete with a 55-foot high weathered granite fireplace column and 25-foot high windows. “We wanted the head house to be a memorable space,” explains Mark Hornberger, lead design principal of San Francisco-based Hornberger + Worstell, which not only handled the hotel’s architecture, but also the project’s masterplan for developer East West Partners. Inside, “the main concept was to preserve, feature, and celebrate the spectacular Sierra Mountain; the goal was to reinforce a unique sense of place,” says San Francisco-based BraytonHughes Design Studios principal Stanford Hughes. With that in mind, landscapeinspired colors (Indian paintbrush red, pine green, and wild rose yellow), materials like green slate and cedar plank wood, and art by local artists celebrate the natural surrounding. Upstairs, the 170 guestrooms feature gas burning fireplaces, a wooden entry foyer, double windows, leather lounge chairs, and soaking tubs. And the two-level, 17,000-square-foot space blends the indoors and outdoors thanks to a “forest hall” that features an abstract interpretation of tree branches. They echo the lobby’s wood frames that act like metaphorical trees. “[I wanted to] f ind that perfect balance between contemporary and traditional mountain lodge design,” Hughes says. Yet the challenge: seamlessly integrating the building into its forest setting. “Studies were conducted to ensure that the hotel nestled into the shape of the hillside,” says Hornberger. “We also selected and tagged important, existing landmark trees so that construction crews could work around the forest as opposed to clear cutting the site.” www.hornbergerworstell.com; www.bhdstudios.com; www.ritzcarlton.com of record. (Baltimore-based Peter Fillat Architects is the design architect.) Thanks to the grand architecture that included two entrances (both a front and back one), this wasn’t a typical hotel lobby for Dallas design firm Design Duncan Miller Ullmann. “It’s interesting from the interiors. It doesn’t have a typical front,” says CEO Kimberley Miller. “When guests walk into the lobby, they can look all the way through the hotel. It was fun creating a different spatial configuration.” And since the hotel is going for LEED Silver, the designers employed recycled fabrics, local woods, recycled glass tiles, and bamboo throughout the 165 guestrooms (which include specialty spa rooms with soaking tubs) and the spa. “This is one of the bigger developments San Antonio has seen in a while,” Miller says. “It is very exciting for us.” www.designdmu.com; www.eilan.com; www.michaelwinstanley.com Tuscany in Texas San Antonio is about to get a dose of Italian luxury, thanks to the $350-million 120-acre, mixed-used Eilan development in the city’s La Cantera area. And at the center stands the namesake boutique hotel, which when it opens in the fall of 2011, will mimic a grand Tuscan villa with a hint of Texan flair. “We made an effort to bring together the two styles: the southwest style [seen] in the large overhangs mends well with the Tuscan style with the use of large Doric columns,” says Mark Yoo, senior associate of Washington, DCbased Mancini Duffy Winstanley, the architect That includes a dramatic staircase, high ceilings with a skylight, large windows, and a verandah. Elsewhere, for a modern Tuscan feel, Miller and her team used distressed wood, Italian marble and stone, European textiles, contemporary artwork, antique reception desks, and a soft color palette of silvery neutral and blue hues with pops of cinnamon and ochre. “It’s like we turned someone’s really big home into a hotel,” she says of her firm’s first ground-up property in San Antonio. “There’s a fine line of bringing in tradition and authenticity, without it feeling old fashioned.” hospitalitydesign www.hdmag.com

http://www.designdmu.com http://www.eilan.com http://www.hornbergerworstell.com http://www.michaelwinstanley.com http://www.bhdstudios.com http://www.ritzcarlton.com http://www.hdmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - December 2009