Top Five: Hotels

posted by Matthew Bushey, AIA

Just in time for your summer vacation plans, this week we look at five of our top hotels for interior design.  All of these are places that we have experienced firsthand, and have walked away with a strong impression.  We tried to mix it up so that no matter what kind of vacation you’re planning, or which corner of the country you’re visiting, there is something here for everyone.

We know hotel design, both in our architectural practice and our interior design studio.  But I should mention that we excluded any of our own projects from this list of five.  Instead, this is our unbiased look at the work of other design firms, taking note of where we find inspiration.

1.  HOTEL TERRA, Teton Village, WY

One of our favorite places to stay when traveling out west is the Hotel Terra, located at the base of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and just one mile from the Grand Teton National Park.  Some of the best skiing in the country is right at your door, and you’re just steps from some of the most beautiful expanses of national wilderness you will ever see.  TruexCullins has worked in the neighborhood, on both the Teton Mountain Lodge and Teton Springs Resort, so we’re familiar with the area and all it has to offer.

But beyond the desirable locale, we love the Hotel Terra for its ‘modern mountain’ aesthetic and environmentally-focused design.  The Terra was one of the first LEED-certified hotels when it opened a few years ago.  It is now charting new ground for the whole hospitality industry, proving that sustainability and luxury can peacefully coexist.  In fact, at the Hotel Terra, we would say its environmental amenities actually define the guest experience: natural, healthy, and luxurious.

2.  THE LIBERTY HOTEL, Boston, MA

The Charles Street Jail was built in 1851 on the edge of Beacon Hill, overlooking the Charles River.  After closing in 1990 due to deteriorating conditions, the historic building was transformed into a modern luxury hotel that retains the feel of the century-old prison.  Dubbed the Liberty Hotel, this is our #2 pick for its clever integration of old and new.

The large historic windows have been beautifully preserved, along with the original stone and brick masonry and the prison cell iron bars.  The jail’s central atrium soars 90 feet and forms the core of the hotel lobby, encircled by the catwalks once used by prison guards.  18 of the guestrooms are housed in the original jail, with the remaining 280 rooms located in a new 16-story tower connected to the main building.  Stay in this hotel and you will truly feel like a pampered prisoner.

3.  ARIA, Las Vegas, NV

The Aria Resort is the largest hotel of the $8.5 billion CityCenter mega-development in the heart of the Las Vegas strip.  As with all things Vegas, the scale is impressive, with over 4,000 guestrooms, 16 restaurants, and a dedicated mass-transit system to bring you from one end of the property to the other. CityCenter is the largest private development in US history and takes up 67 acres of real estate in the middle of the Las Vegas desert.  Yet in spite of this massive scale, the hotel has received LEED-Gold certification.

Even more than its scale or sustainability, Aria’s most notable feature is the fact that it represents a radical departure from the themed approach of Las Vegas’ recent past.  Instead of reconstructed Italian piazzas or Egyptian tombs, the architecture of Aria is firmly based on unadorned modernism.  This is its strategy for achieving authenticity: it is not trying to be anything that it’s not.

CityCenter has been called a referendum on modernism itself.  When we were there, just 5 months after it opened in December 2009, the crowds seemed healthy but not overwhelming.  Guestroom occupancy rates are down, and sales of the neighboring residential units are even worse.  Still, the verdict is out whether the masses will embrace this new chapter in the continual reinvention of Las Vegas.

4.  HOTEL AT THE THREE STORKS, Prague, Czech Republic

This is a good time for a trip to Europe, with the American dollar so strong against the Euro.  If your travels take you to the Czech Republic, you should check into the Hotel at the Three Storks. This 5-star luxury boutique hotel is located in the historic center of the city in a recently renovated historic house.  The Renaissance building has been sensitively but unabashedly updated with an unconventional, modern interior.  We especially love the dramatic use of indirect lighting, in the guestrooms and the public spaces.  Light flows from behind objects and around corners, casting a soft glow over the space and accenting key features.

5. ICE HOTEL, Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Quebec

Just north of the border, about 30 minutes from Quebec City, lies a hotel made entirely of ice.  It is actually rebuilt every winter, and open for a few short months during the coldest season.  The Ice Hotel, or Hotel de Glace, changes and grows each year.  It is now up to 36 guestrooms and suites, each with unique ice carvings and some with fireplaces.  Multiple layers of animal pelts keep you warm at night, and you can take a dip in one of the open-air hot tubs to warm up.  The Ice Bar is the center of the action, where the house specialty is Vodka, of course (served in an ice glass).  There is also a chapel that’s popular for weddings.

I was there in 2002, one year after its inaugural season.  It has been rebuilt every year since, and this winter the Ice Hotel celebrated its 10th anniversary.  For the first time this March, it had to close 2 weeks early due to a record warm winter, (another consequence of global warming).  But for those 10 weeks of winter we still have, the Ice Hotel is one of the most memorable hotels you will encounter.

Have you discovered a great hotel?  Leave a comment and share your favorite.

Top Five: Task Lights

posted by Matthew Bushey, AIA

At the lighting exhibit that was held in our office earlier this year, we had the fortunate opportunity to evaluate and compare many of the newest lighting fixtures on the market. One of the goals of the event was to show products that were not just adapted for LEDs, but ones that used the characteristics of these new technologies to influence the design of the fixture itself. We had a variety of fixture types and styles on display, but the one category that I felt best captured the promise of what LEDs can do for lighting fixture design was the workplace task light.

It makes sense that personal task fixtures are the first beneficiary of LED lighting, when you consider the fact that LED modules are a very focused point source of illumination, perfect for directing bright light onto a small, specific area. They’re also not cheap (although the prices are dropping rapidly), so it’s easier to absorb the cost of LED technology into a $300 task light than a $50 recessed downlight, for example. And finally, the companies that are producing most of these task lights have the intellectual and creative firepower to invest in the development of these new products. I’m talking primarily about the Big Three (Steelcase, Herman Miller, and Haworth), and I always love seeing what they are coming out with next.

These five fixtures are good examples of the best designs in personal task lights. And they all happen to use LEDs.

1. Link Lamp by Pablo Designs

The Link Lamp is a contemporary reinvention of the iconic task light, and it was my favorite fixture we had on display. Designed by Peter Stathis for Pablo Designs, the lamp features 15 LEDs that consume just 7.5 to 9 watts of power.

Stathis started with the classic task lamp and simplified its mechanical complexity, stripping away the tension cables and wiring. The head is a flat disc, with no need for a shade, and there is no internal wiring: the power is conducted along the aluminum body. The die-cast zinc base is shaped into an L to fit into the corner of your desk, the aluminum body is highly adjustable, and the diffused LEDs have two brightness settings. The Link is an efficient, sustainable, cradle-to-cradle design, and the form is simple and elegant.

The Link Lamp won best lighting award at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair when it was released in 2008, and has been heaped with acclaim since then. At our exhibit, I had it on display next to the classic Tolomeo (see below), to really appreciate the evolution of the design. It’s fair to say that this one is destined to become a classic as well.

2. Tolomeo LED Task Light by Artemide

The Tolomeo task light by Artemide is a modern classic. A symbol of Italian design for more than 20 years, this fixture has become one of the most recognizable task lights in the world. I think of this as the “Aeron chair of task lights”, with its contemporary articulated armature and its coming of age during the high-tech dot-com years. It is a beautiful and expressive work of industrial design.

One disadvantage of the conventional model is that the shade surrounding the incandescent bulb gets very hot. That problem was solved when Artemide came out with this new LED version of the classic Tolomeo.

LED lamps do produce heat, but the heat is conducted out the back and not radiated forward, as an incandescent bulb does. With a properly designed housing, this heat can be easily dissipated. The LED Tolomeo also provides superior light output and energy efficiency, consuming just 10 watts of power, making it as sustainable as it is timeless.

3. Leaf Personal Light by Herman Miller

Herman Miller is known for beautifully sculpted objects, and the Leaf Light is a perfect example. This was perhaps the most popular fixture at our lighting show, grabbing everyone’s attention with its sculptural, organic form and flexibility. The 9 watt LEDs are controlled with a clever interface in the top of the round base. By dragging your finger along the touch-sensitive grooves, you can change the color and intensity of the light. The thin aluminum blades of the body are movable as well, allowing for an unlimited number of turns and positions. The Leaf Light was designed by Yves Behar and released in 2006. It is already over 4 years old, (a lifetime in the world of LED lighting) but it’s still holding on to its position as one of the top task lights in design and operation.

4. Brazo Lamp by Haworth

Designed for Haworth by Pablo Designs, the Brazo Lamp is another fixture that is highly adjustable by the user. It features LED lights with full dimming control via the knob at the back end of the arm. It is the first task light to offer focus control - the simple rotation of the glass tube dial located at the front of the shade changes the direction and the beam spread of the light. The lamp also features 360 degree head rotation and height adjustment. Overall, it consumes just 9 watts, but because of the linear arrangement of the LED modules and the multitude of available adjustments, this fixture shines the right amount of light where you need it.

5. Soto LED Task Light by Details

Details is part of the Steelcase family, and they named this line of fixtures SOTO for “State of the Office”. Of all the fixtures we’ve been looking at, the SOTO LED task light is even more simple and minimal in its design. This is possible because LED modules are SMALL. There is no bulb or filament or glass housing to deal with. LEDs are an electrical diode, an offshoot of the semiconductor industry, and take up a fraction of the space that we’re used to with conventional bulbs. It’s a liberating technology for the design, because it frees up the fixture to be so much more... or in this case, so much less.

Just like the flat head of the Link Lamp or the thin blades of the Leaf Light, the SOTO Task Light is defined by its minimal profile. The switch to control the light is built into the side of the head - you just slide it slightly to turn it on. The beauty of this fixture comes from its simplicity of form and operation.

The SOTO Task Light wins the low-power competition, coming in at a measly 4 watts. The SOTO comes as a freestanding fixture (shown) or a rail-mounted version. The Mini SOTO is an even smaller option that is able to be mounted via magnet or screws to the underside of a cabinet or shelf, providing illumination in spaces that might not be reachable by typical under-bin lighting. The Mini SOTO is just 7” x 5/8” x 1 3/8” and also uses a 4 watt LED.

Top Five: Chairs

posted by Matthew Bushey, AIA

This new series on the blog takes a look at the Top Five for designs that have recently caught our attention. The initial subject of our investigation is that which many of us designers are enamored with: the chair.

When it comes to furniture design (and more broadly, the entire field of industrial design) the chair is the Holy Grail of form and function. Chairs have perhaps the most challenging performance requirements of any crafted object I can think of: they must be strong enough to support a full-sized adult, ergonomic for different body types, and comfortable for long stretches of time. A good chair should be one that you want to stand back from and admire as a work of art, but also one that invites you to walk up and take a seat.

1. Eames Lounge Chair  by Herman Miller

This list is intended to be a selection of some of our favorites, not a presumption that these are the top five best chairs ever produced. But with this first one, I’m going to break my own rule, and unequivocally state that this is indeed the top chair of all time. The Eames Lounge Chair is the classic example of mid-century modern design at its best. Designed by the dynamic American duo of Charles and Ray Eames and introduced in the 1950’s, the chair incorporated an innovative molded plywood shell, and was – and is still – a perfect example of modern elegance. It goes without saying that it fits you like a glove – a baseball mitt, to be exact.

The Eames Lounge Chair is probably one of the most-imitated chairs out there. There are plenty of copies to be found. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I have a pretty decent knock-off in my own living room that has lasted for years.) One of the first things I notice when I come across an original it how small it actually is. It sits low to the ground and wraps snugly around you. You don’t feel lost when you sit. You feel like every curve is carefully designed to hold and support you. The other telltale signs of an authentic Eames are its lack of visible fasteners on the exterior surface of the bent plywood shell, and the die-cast aluminum 5-star base. This chair is 50 years old, but is still on the top of the list.

2. Dezza Armchair  by Poltrona Frau

The Dezza Armchair was designed by the Italian architect and furniture designer Gio Ponti for Poltrona Frau in 1965 and was more recently reintroduced by the company in 2003. The chair is modern, comfortable, lightweight, and sturdy. It was originally designed to be adaptable, able to be taken down and shipped anywhere. This is evident in the distinctive sharp cut of the slender arms and the simplicity of its construction, with exposed fasteners on the sides. This is an extremely stylish and unique chair. That a single piece can be so elegant, innovative and adaptable at the same time is reason why this chair is one of our top five.

3. Child's Womb Chair  by KnollStudio

As the father of two small children, I couldn't resist this adorable child's chair from the Knoll Kids line of classic modern furniture.  The folks at Knoll took the classic 1948 Womb Chair by Eero Saarinen and miniaturized it, shrinking it to child-like proportions. We saw this chair at the NeoCon trade fair in Chicago two couple years ago sitting alongside its adult counterparts. The standard version already comes in multiple sizes, so it was natural to extend the family to include the kids. The Womb chair is a modern, playful piece, so it’s the perfect chair to make child-sized: casual, comfortable, and stylish.

4. Forest Armchair  by Janus et Cie
This is a new chair by the upscale casual furnishings company JANUS et Cie. It’s similar to the Vegetal Chair by Vitra, but I like the more intricate pattern on this one much more. And while the Vegetal chair is plastic, the Forest chair is constructed of powder-coated die-cast aluminum, so it’s very sturdy. As you can see, the Forest Chair takes an organic motif of a leafy forest and wraps it onto a single, fluid surface. Our Janus rep brought one by our office when it was released, so we can vouch for its comfort. As designers in Vermont, we could easily see this chair as a beautiful complement to any one of a number of our projects around here. It’s modern, but contextual.

5. Caper Chair  by Herman Miller
I had wanted to spread the wealth here, but I have to include one more chair by Herman Miller. The Caper Chair to me is the best example of a lightweight, comfortable, and stylish office side chair. Did I mention this thing was lightweight? It is very light: you can lift this chair with one finger. Yet it sits firmly on the ground. It is unassuming and performs flawlessly when you want it to - with comfort, strength, and a bit of flex - but is also artfully sculpted when you stop to take a look.

Are there other examples of stellar seating that you think I should have included? Leave a comment and share your favorite.