November 6, 2019

DesignAgency Gives Fort Lauderdale’s The Dalmar Hotel a Mid-Century Modern Cachet

A jade quartzite wall leads to the concierge. Photography by Bob Gundu.

Fort Lauderdale has far more to offer these days than beaches and spring break—it even has a stylish new downtown hotel conveniently located for shopping and dining along Las Olas Boulevard: Tribute Portfolio Hotel’s The Dalmar. DesignAgency and Wurzak Hotel Group collaborated on the 209-room hotel, with work ranging from interiors to branding to gratis flip-flips.

Custom seating, including armchairs upholstered in P Kaufmann and Perennials fabric, join custom tables and rugs and a mixed-media painting by Thrush Holmes in the sixth-floor lobby. Photography by Bob Gundu.

“We took inspiration from the golden age of American travel, drawing on a lexicon of references from South Florida and West Coast mid-century modern design,” says DesignAgency principal and founding partner Allen Chan. Street-level Rose’s Coffee Bar sets the tone, with accordion folding doors leading to an exterior patio, while walnut storage units perk up a linear white marble bar and marble counters. The oceanic Terrace Grill sits nearby, with a wrap-around veranda.

Rose’s Coffee Bar brews up a design featuring a custom sofa covered in Perennials fabric against a wall clad in Design & Direct Source geometric tiles. Photography by Bob Gundu.

Six floors up is the Lobby Bar, with terrazzo-and-mother-of-pearl floors, a pink onyx counter, and a custom stained-glass mural. “We used very local and inexpensive breezeblock on the west wall, which also wraps around the outside of the south façade of the building and creates this idea of continuity that blurs the lines between interior and exterior space,” Chan says. “It’s a simple move but in my mind very effective.”

Guest rooms offer bathrooms clad in tile from Design & Direct Source along with Brizo showers. Photography by Bob Gundu.

Guest rooms, meanwhile, are havens featuring custom brass lamps to illuminate the custom seating in ocean-blue and amber leather. And high above it all on the 25th floor, the team worked with Proprietors LLC to perch Sparrow, the highest rooftop bar in town, which takes mid-century into late ’60s with deep velvet accents and marble and mirror galore—along with a wrap-around terrace with views of the beaches you can always hit tomorrow.

Sparrow cocktail bar on the 25th floor offers custom seating, banquettes, and a bar wrapped in yellow vinyl beneath Calypso pendants. Photography by Bob Gundu.
Panoramic city and ocean views compete with Amauri Torezan’s graphic mural in Sparrow’s wraparound terrace. Photography by Bob Gundu.
The bar at the Terrace Grill is oak topped with Calacatta marble; all seating and tables are custom. Photography by Bob Gundu.
A bathroom includes a wall clad in Hex Mystery Teal Explosion tiles from New Terracotta, and another covered in Kingdom Home’s Tulipa wallpaper in Snow. Photography by Bob Gundu.

Read more: Baranowitz + Kronenberg-Designed Sir Victor Hotel in Barcelona Embraces Communal Hospitality Trend

Recent Projects