Hospitality Design - September 2013 - 71

perspectives

historical
restorations

trends

By Stacy Shoemaker Rauen

KEEPING IT REAL

Four Luxury Collection properties prove authenticity
transcends generations

Renovations are challenging no matter what the project. But when dealing
with restorations of buildings steeped in 100-year-old (and older) histories,
it’s a delicate balance between infusing the new and celebrating the old.
No one knows this quite like Paul James, global brand leader for St. Regis,
W Hotels, and the Luxury Collection. For the latter, Starwood recently
infused $200 million into painstakingly refurbishing four of its heritage
European properties into signature showplaces for the brand.
“We sat down and asked, What do these iconic hotels need to do if
we’re to renovate them for the next twenty, thirty, or so years?” he
explains. “And we knew we had to do some serious work—they are
old buildings that needed care.”
In conducting extensive research and focus groups of both
guests and locals, James and his team found some interesting
revelations that dictated where these and future Luxury Collection
hotels should head. First, the brand’s customer is getting younger—
and more global. “Traditionally, twenty years ago when the brand
was born, our typical guests would be American couples in their
sixties, in the process of retiring, going on a lengthy European tour.
What we’re seeing now is that people are much more likely to go
and stay in these hotels just because they want a great experience
at a time that suits them, whether they’re twenty-five or seventyfive, or from the UK or China.”
The real “ah-ha” moment for James and his team: authenticity as the
element that transcends cultures, age, and travel experiences. “Whether
the guests were European or American, a 28-year-old Italian model or an
85-year-old Englishman, they both said the same thing: ‘Don’t do anything
that damages this amazing property, but it would be really cool if the
wifi worked and the showers were hot.’ We realized we needed to restore
wherever possible, and scrape away the clutter of the years of renovations
to expose as much of the heart of these buildings as we could. We wanted
to boil down the values of each property and capture that sense of
enthusiasm and energy around the destination—we’re not trying to make a
Louis XIV kind of environment in a nineteenth-century villa in Spain.”

Hotel Alfonso XIII, Seville, Spain

For the 10-month, $25 million restoration of the hotel, which was built
in 1929 by King Alfonso XIII, the designers of the Gallery HBA London
“crafted a seductive story” around the “vibrancy and passion of Seville’s
exceptional heritage,” says HBA principal Inge Moore—its 500 years of
Moorish occupation, bull fighting, and flamenco dance culture, and the fact
that the town is home to Don Juan.
The revived color palette (crimson, sapphire, and ochre) is drawn from

1
2

1+2. Hotel Alfonso
XIII’s Moorish-inspired
Reales Alcazares suite
and historic Art Deco
American Bar.

the vivid costumes of matadors, while ornate detailing has been preserved
throughout—from the elaborate handpainted tiles and decorated ceilings
in the double-height reception, to the mosaic-clad colonnades surrounding
the alfresco dining space.
F&B venues underwent the most dramatic reinventions. Take the
American Bar. “At some point a general manager had boarded up the bar
and turned it into a breakfast room for group business,” explains James,
adding that they found locals missed the venue. “We were able to restore
this beautiful thirties Art Deco American cocktail bar.” It is now layered
with dark blue hues, lacquered framed mirrors, and a bar done in polished
brass and macassar ebony. And for a more relevant sense of place, they
turned the previous sushi restaurant into a Mediterranean one. “This is a
Moorish hotel—the whole inspiration was there,” says James. “Food today
has to be local, it has to have a story, and it has to have a point of view.”
A challenge, says Moore, was figuring which of the existing pieces of
antique furniture could be repurposed: “First we took stock of everything,
measuring and photographing each item. And then we assessed where
they would best fit, as well as how they should be reupholstered and
refinished. We were fortunate there were so many wonderful treasures
to reuse.”

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