The Alila Marea Beach Resort Captures California’s Beauty

As a boy growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, Mark Zeff slipped out of the house one morning and took a train to the ocean. “My mother woke up and couldn’t find me,” the Interior Design Hall of Fame member and Markzeff principal recalls. “A friend and I had gone on a mission to collect sea creatures.” Armed with jam jars and formalin, they spent the day gathering specimens like anemones and brought them back home. “I was punished heavily, but my mother also encouraged me to do it again,” Zeff says. He’s gravitated to the sea ever since, scavenging, surfing, and scuba diving around the world.

In 2018, Zeff evoked this history in a pitch to design the Alila Marea Beach Resort—the locale of Interior Design‘s 2023 Giant Ideas conference—in Encinitas, a beach city in San Diego County. The dramatic site sits atop sandy bluffs facing the Pacific Ocean to the north and west, and the developers originally envisioned hiring a local who knew the coast. Though based in New York, Zeff proved that his firm belonged on the project. “We won the contract because I put together a visual essay of how I’ve been personally connected to the ocean all my life,” the designer says. As outsiders, he and Stacie Meador—Markzeff director of hospitality design and an avid diver herself—brought a fresh take on SoCal style, creating warm, pared-down interiors that channel the power of the sea.

Behind the Design of the Alila Marea Beach Resort

The 250,000-square-foot building, by Joseph Wong Design Associates, occupies a long 4-acre lot that slopes on both sides “like the back of an animal,” Zeff observes. The location necessitated an unusual layout. Most of the 20-plus hospitality properties the firm has completed, including Hotel Van Zandt in Austin, Texas, and Virgin Hotels Nashville, are towers with a vertical orientation; the three-story Alila Marea, however, has a horizontal plan similar to a cruise ship. Amenities are spread out to maximize views. The lobby, coffee bar, and spa are on the ground level; a central staircase leads to a ballroom and conference area, plus a gym, pool, and sun deck; and the 117-seat Vaga restaurant is on the third floor.

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At Interior Design's 2023 Giant Ideas conference, designer Mark Zeff and James Chatfield, SVP construction at JMI Realty, participated in a Q&A about the building process of the Alila Marea Beach Resort. Check out the interview here.

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How the Encinitas Hotel Design Nods to the Ocean

With 21 luxury hotels across Asia and the U.S., the Hyatt-owned Alila brand aims to celebrate its locations with a natural, authentic aesthetic. For Zeff and Meador, that meant concrete floors, driftwood sculptures, custom oak furniture, and a palette of earthy neutrals—without a seashell in sight. “We weren’t literal with every thread,” Meador explains. “The way the ocean hits the coast there is so powerful that we really wanted that strength in the concept. But it’s also restrained because the ocean can be very quiet.” As divers, Zeff says, they experience a different side of the sea and know there’s only “a muffled and beautiful noise” beneath the crashing waves.

That submarine perspective informed the stillness of the dimly lit spa—with beige textured-vinyl wall coverings and a hemlock-wrapped sauna—and the illumination of the central staircase. “One of the most amazing things about diving is when the sun shines down through the volume of water—the staircase feels like that,” Zeff notes. There’s no skylight at the top, but LEDs shining up and down on each level form a glowing yellow cylinder; white painted-steel rods rise through the center of the stairwell like sun rays. Zeff, who hasn’t lost his boyhood fascination with marine life, says the rods also remind him of an urchin’s tendrils.

Markzeff Turns to Biophilic Design to Create Custom Accents 

Other aquatic references are similarly subtle. The 130 guest rooms echo the colors of the coast with driftwood-finished oak headboards and rope and rattan details. In the ballroom, chandeliers reminiscent of fishing nets hang above a custom Axminster carpet, its swirling lines alluding to kelp forests, the treelike algae found in waters nearby. The lobby’s patterned concrete floor riffs on scientific drawings of marine animals by Ernst Haeckel, a 19th-century German artist whose work Zeff collects. “He studied the symmetry and mathematics of sea creatures, and his work looks at their molecular structure,” Zeff explains. The designers created a giant stencil loosely based on Haeckel’s illustrations, laid it over the concrete, and applied a whitewash stain. “It looks integral to the concrete and has a nice depth to it,” Meador adds.

The beach theme is most evident at the Pocket, the poolside bar. Encinitas is the birthplace of the iconic Bing Surfboards and a mecca for the sport overall, so Markzeff teamed up with surfboard designer Brian Szymanski to craft fiberglass-and-walnut paneling for the space. “Brian went into his archive and found surfboard colors and patterns from Bing’s heyday, which was the early ’60’s,” Zeff says. Streaks of red, teal, and cream alternate with sapele mahogany, the wood giving the rounded room a mid-century air. Kilim ottomans pick up the striped look. With the mighty Pacific steps away, the setting is enough to make guests want to hit the waves—or just kick back with a Pocket Margarita and enjoy the view.

Walkthrough the Alila Marea Beach Resort in Encinitas by Markzeff

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Markzeff: francesca mcculloch; liang lin

joseph wong design associates: joseph wong; rick round; michael tria

neri landscape architecture: landscape consultant

ohm light: lighting consultant

dci engineers: structural engineer

emerald city engineers: mep

wb powell: woodwork

california sheet metal; m.a.s. iron company: metalwork

thunder jones contracting group: concretework

afm contract; biscayne hospitality: custom furniture workshops

suffolk: general contractor

edelman leather: bench upholstery (lobby)

CB2: tables

international treescapes: trees

restoration hardware: chairs (lobby), club chair (suite)

composition hospitality: custom chairs (reception)

david allen: custom desk

resysta: composite panels (facade)

10deka outdoor furniture: chaise longues (pool)

nanimarquina: ottomans (bar)

masaya & co.: chairs

Blu Dot: round table

atelier vierkant: planters

stark carpet: custom carpet (conference area)

gommaire: outdoor chairs

lulu & georgia: outdoor side table

rich brilliant willing: cabana pendant fixture (pool)

helo: wood supplier (sauna)

elitas: cushion upholstery (firepit)

american leather: custom sectional (suite)

noir trading: coffee table

j.a. casillas: custom bed

lostine: lamps

surfacing solutions: custom concrete floor

domingue architectural finishes: limewash paint.