2013 BOY Winner: U.S. Hotel

The largest hotel project yet from Interior Design Hall of Fame member Lauren Rottet, this outpost of the James brand offers 393 rooms divided among three deco-style towers standing beach-front. Rottet’s charge was to revamp them as one cohesive package embodying the James tag line, “Not predictable luxury.” Proceeding from the entry, a long swath of gleaming white terrazzo, retained per historic preservation ordinance, is lined with amenities that encourage stops en route: reception and concierge desks, seating groups, lounges and bars. At the end, Rottet changed the existing stairway up to the mezzanine into a version in articulated ipe planks. The same wood forms a canopy over the restaurant patio, sheltering rows of orange tabletops.

To know Rottet is to know she’s art-obsessed. She also invents a story line for each hospitality project. Here, the narrative has an artist as a protagonist: “Jean-Michel Basquiat and Virginia Woolf meet on the beach, then go back to the hotel to talk.” 

Project Team: 
David Davis; Anja Majkic; Bernardo Rios; Enrique Vela; Chris Evans; Kaitlin Beeman.