This Hotel Embraces the Legends of the Lone Star State

Lauren Rottet stands but 5 feet, 3 ½ inches tall. (Add another 3 when she dons her Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos.) Yet the architect is a towering force in the hotel sector. Rottet Studio, where she is founding principal and president, ranks 16th among the Interior Design Hospitality Giants, not to mention 79th on the top 100 list. Headquartered in Houston, the studio has designed properties around the world—from New York and Los Angeles to Bogotá, Colombia, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as well as nearly 70 vessels for Viking Cruises. Her latest endeavor, however, is closer to home: in Lubbock, deep in the west Texas panhandle surrounded by red dirt and tumbleweeds—a far cry from the glamorous urban hubs that typically host her projects. But Cotton Court Hotel is rife with references not only to Lubbock but also the overall Lone Star State, which happens to be where Rottet is from.

Cotton Court is the fourth in Valencia Hotel Group’s Court Collection—Rottet Studio has designed all of them, seven properties total for Valencia—which is all about providing a destination-worthy, boutique-style hotel in a college town. For Cotton Court, that school is Texas Tech University. Rottet and colleague Chris Evans, design director and associate principal, pay homage to it along with the rich history of Lubbock, long a center of cotton production and live music, and Texan-style outdoor living. “Visitors aren’t getting something dumped on them,” Rottet says of the concept. “It’s Lubbock’s own vernacular. That’s what we love.”

The Cotton Court Hotel Honors Its Locale With An Industrial Aesthetic 

The team began with the master plan. Five structures, all new-build but with an airy, sort of repurposed warehouse aesthetic, occupy an approximately 3-acre site, a former parking lot. They’re arrayed around a courtyard with an expansive swimming pool. From there came the exterior materials selection: a tight palette of corrugated and weathering steel and brick is simultaneously minimalist, industrial, and desert. For the interiors, which encompass 50,915 square feet and 165 keys, references to cotton and the local music scene abound, with furnishings and finishes that are luxe yet rustic—oversize tufted-leather sofas, wide wooden floor planks, exposed brick. “People can’t tell it’s new,” Evans says of the project. “It looks as if it’s been renovated.” Or, from Valencia executive vice president John Keeling, “We’re creating adaptive reuse for buildings that don’t exist yet.”

The journey begins in the double-height reception lobby. “We played off the trading floor of a cotton exchange,” Evans continues, noting that Houston has one. At Cotton Court, a wall-size mural on the mezzanine resembles an old futures trading board, its numeric patterns looking like they’re done in chalk. Further, they come together to compose a portrait of musician Buddy Holly, a Lubbock native. (The city was a touring stop for the likes of Elvis Presley and Waylon Jennings.) Under the mural, behind the reception desk, a series of guitars displayed like artworks are available for guests to use.

Rottet Studio Nods to Local Legends 

Cool Off in the Cotton Court Pool

Between the guest-room components stands a low-slung, cotton gin-esque building distinguished by hand-painted signage saying Midnight Shift, which is the property’s restaurant and concert venue (live weekend music is part of the Valencia program). Its cinematic interiors play up the agro-industrial theme. “Pipe framing expresses the machinelike structure,” Evans notes, while the slatted banquette and bar front evoke visions of flat-bed trucks used to transport cotton bales. The restaurant is joined by two meeting rooms envisioned for Monday-to-Thursday professional travel. They can be conjoined as a ballroom for events (there’s also a boardroom capping the entry piece).

If not at Midnight Shift, Rottet says, “Within 5 minutes of checking into their rooms, guests hit the courtyard—to socialize or grab a drink,” or take a dip. Lubbock is hot, with temperatures climbing upwards of 90 degrees during summer. At 50-feet long, the pool is a real swimmer’s pool and the courtyard’s heart. Overlooking it is a shade structure and an outdoor bar with a slatted banquette made to resemble cattle fencing. “It’s like a small urban resort,” Evans says. In fact, pool privileges are extended to locals, so the property has become part of the community, too. “Before Cotton Court,” Rottet concludes, “there was no ‘there’ there for Lubbock.” There sure is now.

Inside the Cotton Court Hotel by Rottet Studio

Rottet Studio: jeff horning; bernardo rios; maksim koloskov; felipe cosio; wade meadors; parker nussbaum; ashlee owens; veronica pesenti

mayse & associates: architect of record

word + carr design group: landscape architect

dci engineers: structural engineer

wh engineering: mep

hugo reed & associates: civil engineer

brand standard furnishings: custom furniture workshop

signco america: custom signage

teinert com­mercial building service: general contractor

through matt camron rugs: vintage rugs (lobby)

Cepac Tile: penny tile

West Elm: coffee tables

schoolhouse electric: sconces

wood goods industries: custom tables (restaurant)

barn light electric: pendant fixtures

Industry West: chairs (restaurant), stools (Pool)

barlow tyrie: chaise longues (pool)

serena + lily: hanging chairs (suite)

rejuvenation: sofa, cocktail table

CB2: side tables

crate and barrel: armchair

daltile: tile (bath­room)

signature plumbing: tub

shaw carpet: custom carpet (guest room)

elegant lighting: custom pendant fixture, custom sconces

wells industries: custom bed

rh: sofa (suite)

new american reel company: custom record table (hall)

ram windows & doors: windows

sherwin-williams company: paint

HOK Creates a Streamlined Office for a Freight Rail Operator in Atlanta

Transportation company Norfolk Southern Corporation traces its history back to 1827. But today it’s firmly rooted in the 21st century. Its subsidiary, Norfolk Southern Railway Company, which oversees 19,000 miles of train tracks across 22 states, relies on technology to ensure safety, move goods efficiently, and reduce fuel emissions. But to be innovative and nimble—and attract top coders and engineers—NS needed to consolidate into a state-of-the-art headquarters. For decades, the corporation was based in Norfolk, Virginia, but its operations and technology teams were in Atlanta. In 2018, NS decided to bring everyone together, and HOK won the bid for the interiors of a new 750,000-square-foot complex in Midtown Atlanta’s Tech Square.

“The client didn’t want this to be treated like a train museum,” HOK firm-wide director of interiors Tom Polucci begins. “The existing buildings had beautiful models of locomotives, but NS said, ‘No, we’re more sophisticated than that.’” Betsy Nurse, HOK Atlanta’s director of interiors, adds: “Norfolk Southern sees itself as a tech company, not a railroad company.” The client envisioned a timeless concept where track workers and administrators alike would feel at home, with ample flex spaces to help the 3,000 on-site employees meet and collaborate. Robust amenities—fitness center, food hall, game room, childcare center—would help the company compete for talent against the likes of Google.

With architecture by Pickard Chilton, the ground-up headquarters is composed of two office towers (10 and 17 stories tall) joined by a five-story podium, which houses the lobby, amenities, and parking. HOK was at the table from the beginning and helped shape some of the architectural solutions, especially in the podium. The parking deck constrained the volume that would become the lobby, which could have been one to three stories high. “We studied different options and how the floors wove together,” Polucci says. The team landed on a 32-foot-high lobby that’s open to loungelike collaboration zones on the second floor and creates energy and buzz. This gave HOK the opportunity to create a monumental circular stair, the defining element of the interior.

The firm conceived of the stair as an iconic sculpture that would make the headquarters unique. Its ribbon of Corian-clad steel twists from the ground floor to the fourth, but the white-oak treads only begin on level two. In the lobby—detached from the stairs for security reasons—the Corian curls to wrap the reception desk. “Our goal was a pure form,” Polucci says. “The ribbon is consistent all the way up; it doesn’t flatten out at each floor.”

The stair grew out of the idea of movement, the guiding theme of the project. “Norfolk Southern was looking to celebrate the idea of motion in subtle, special ways,” Polucci notes. Outside the building’s entrance, a site-specific sculpture evokes tunnels and curved tracks in weathering steel. Nurse points out that the artwork is right outside the lobby, where you can see its relationship to the stair: “One is super refined, the other is raw.”

Artwork populates the interior, as well. In the ground-floor café, which is open to the public, there’s a 19-foot-high mural by HOK’s Experience Design team of a train on a track under a golden moon. Nearby, a painting by local artist María Korol hangs at the end of the main elevator lobby.

On the fourth floor, the stair terminates in front of the network operations center, which is like an air-traffic control room for trains. “From a visitor experience, it tells a story, because you land at the heart of the facility,” Nurse says. The room vividly channels the concept of motion with angular pendant fixtures and 2,000 feet of recessed LED strips that streak across the ceiling and down the walls. The center, which operates 24/7, also glows with blue lighting chosen to be soft on the eyes of dispatchers staring at screens all day.

Employees come together in the fifth-floor canteen that doubles as an all-hands meeting space. Designed like a food hall with six different vendors, it sits between two outdoor terraces; one has a retractable glass wall so the spaces can flow together. Totaling 55,000 square feet, the outdoor areas include another terrace by the gym on the floor below, where employees can do laps on circular walking paths. “Movement is also important to Norfolk Southern from a health and wellness perspective,” Nurse states. Glass-walled stairs in both towers further encourage physical activity.

While the array of amenities might seem like a post-pandemic bid to lure workers back to the office, the program had already been in place. The headquarters was mid-construction in March 2020, and Norfolk Southern stuck to the plan—even keeping a permanent desk for each employee. “That was a key tenant from the beginning,” Annie Adams, Norfolk Southern’s chief transformation officer, says. “It was important that everyone have a space to call their own.” The company, which had a phased move-in that began last fall and was completed in April, had always planned on accommodating hybrid work; meeting rooms are wired to connect remote participants seamlessly. Adams estimates that the headquarters is typically at 80 percent capacity. For her, the project’s success goes well beyond its anticipation of flexible work schedules. “The design reflects who we are and where we’re going,” she says. The future of freight rail, it seems, is right on track.

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HOK: danielle schmitt; kay sargent; diana stanisic; vivien chen; richard saunders; weronika cichosz; francesca meola; crystal latham; valerie roosma; irina sai; erin ezell; emily payne; bethany foss; claire pellettiere; matt mcinerney

HKS: architect of record

OJB: landscape consultant

HOK Experience Design: custom graphics

one lux studio: lighting con­sultant

uzun + case: structural engineer

integral consulting: mep

onsite woodwork corporation: custom fabrication workshop

hitt: general contractor

masland carpets: rug (lobby)

hbf: sofa (lobby), chairs (café)

luum: sofa upholstery (lobby), chair fabric (lounge)

shaw contract: lvt (break room); rugs (break room, lounge), carpet tile (daycare)

Courtesy of Davis Furniture: tables (break room)

jamie stern design: custom banquettes

pollack: banquette upholstery

mortensen woodwork: custom screens (lounge)

curry sawmill co.: custom table

Andreu World: chairs (lounge, café)

Holly Hunt: chair (reception)

art & associates: custom light fixtures (gym entry), custom wallcovering (gym)

wolf-gordon: wallcovering (gym entry)

Bentley Mills: carpet tile (conference center)

russ bassett: workstation (operations center)

lambert & fils: pendant fixtures (café)

nydree floor­ing: floor tile (canteen)

martin brattrud: tables

sandler seating: stools

ton: chairs

nanawall: folding glass wall

atomic 50: ceiling panels (game room)

flor: carpet tile

CB2: ceiling fixtures

hightower: red chairs

ofs: ping pong table

big ass fans: fans (gym)

pliteq: floor tile

flos: track fixtures (daycare)

ef contract: lvt

Dupont: corian

basaltite: stone flooring

kährs: wood flooring

axis lighting; genled brands; hubbell; led linear; 3g lighting; usai lighting: lighting

decoustics; ritz acoustics; usg: acoustical ceilings

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Dufner Heighes Transforms a Historic House in Pelham, New York into a Modern Family Home

Flip back a page, please. Now, kick up your feet, relax—here, have a cocktail—and observe this intriguing wood-paneled room: the resolutely leafy view, that groovy triangular window, the serene quiet, the vintage-heavy furniture scheme. Bet you think this is the living room of some cozy ’70’s-mod cabin on a remote rural plot, right? Well, surprise! In fact, this is the second-floor sitting room of a painstakingly preserved century-old Edwardian-style manse within shouting distance (although please don’t; the baby’s sleeping) of the Bronx.

Dufner Heighes was the firm tasked with future-proofing the historic Pelham, New York, house for a growing family. The 7,100-square-foot dwelling has an intriguing back story. Previous owners include the island nation of Barbados, which used it as an embassy, and a Coca-Cola executive who frequently hosted President Eisenhower there back in the 1950s. Another head of state, George Washington, reportedly stayed on the property, too, in a structure that once stood on this abode’s exact footprint. That provenance piqued the interest of Erica Holborn, CEO of Sandow Design Group (Interior Design’s parent company) and a self-professed real-estate enthusiast. “I’m a house-with-a-story person,” she admits.

When Holborn and her husband, Andrew, first saw the property listing, they deemed the eight-bedroom too big for their needs. Fast forward a year later. Their Dufner Heighes–designed Sutton Place apartment was getting a bit too snug for their expanding family (especially with WFH in the mix), and their upstate getaway, a 1970’s A-frame designed by Frank Lloyd Wright protégés, was too far from the city for full-time residency. Plus, the Holborns got an offer on the latter that they couldn’t refuse. So when the price dropped on the Pelham place around the same time, they finally took a look—and were sold.

Among the structure’s many attributes was that it had been pristinely restored, from the oak millwork to the original hardware. “It was a perfect situation, because the previous owners had updated a few things, like the kitchen, but restored everything else—stripping layers of paint off moldings and all that stuff no one wants to deal with,” notes Daniel Heighes Wismer, firm copartner with Greg Dufner. In short, it was practically turnkey. Early site visits suggested the project would be primarily decorative and cosmetic: reupholstering some existing furnishings, buying new items to fill in a few gaps, replacing antique light fixtures with more modern designs, updating cabinetry, hanging artwork. Midway through planning the new kitchen, however, it became apparent the current footprint was underscaled for the size of the house and had an awkward, dinky island unsuited to cooking and dining. “During one of our meetings with the team from Bilotta, with whom we were designing the kitchen,” Wismer recalls, “someone questioned whether we could tear down a wall to annex the adjoining butler’s pantry—and that changed everything,” necessitating plumbing and electrical rerouting plus new structural steel. “My dream has always been to have a butler’s pantry,” Holborn sighs. “And then I finally buy a house with one—and promptly take it out!”

The monthslong renovation was well worth it. The new scheme is much brighter and airier, with a long Arabescato Corchia marble island that seats four, plus a window-wrapped breakfast nook. Dufner Heighes deployed two patterns of Artistic Tile terrazzo flooring, one incorporating marble chips, to create area rug–like accents that delineate spatial zones. Shaker-style cabinetry is simpatico with the period architecture yet modern enough to suit the décor. The same flooring and cabinetry also extend into an adjacent space, a former family room that now serves as a storage-packed mudroom.

The reinvention of a living space as service-oriented hub made sense, given the floorplan already offered a generous number of hangout areas, including the ground-floor salon and contiguous sunroom, a second-floor playroom for two-year-old Marlowe and baby Bodhi, a sitting room off the primary suite, and the family and game rooms that anchor the daylit basement level. “The challenge,” Dufner says, “was how to make each living space feel like it had a unique function and purpose.” Seating in particular was selected with specific activities and postures in mind. Thus the salon’s more upright Bob sectional, its firm, snakelike form perfect for perching with a glass of wine; the sunroom’s more lounge-y Bouroullec Brothers Ploum sofa, a holdover from the upstate house (albeit newly reupholstered); and the super deep, nap-conducive sofa in the family room, where TV viewing occurs.

Though the house has a traditional layout, with discrete rooms, they open graciously onto each other, and curating sight lines was particularly important. Many features were considered holistically so they would work together from room to room. On the first floor, for instance, “there are points where you can see the ceiling fixtures in the sunroom, living room, entry hall, and the dining room all at once,” Wismer explains. “So the lighting we specified all needed to work within their respective rooms and also as a cohesive group.” Furniture and other accents were chosen and placed similarly, he adds. “There was a balancing of where we could go a little wild and where something had to be toned down so it wouldn’t get too heavy or layered.”

Speaking of going a little wild, check out the dining room wallpaper. The pattern, a trippy graphic confection in riotous hues, tents the room, extending up from crisp wainscoting lacquered a mercurial green-gray color. The op art patterning is the perfect jazz riff on the abode’s 1914 bones. “The contrast between historic and modern is just so great,” says Wismer. A sentiment that summarizes the project top to bottom.

knoll: sofa

dunbar: side table

design for macha: ceiling fixture

through noguchi shop: floor lamp

garrett leather: armchair shearling

kvadrat: side chair fabric

blå station through scandinavian spaces: sofa

house of finn juhl: chairs

Gubi: coffee table

aronson’s: rug

bd barcelona through ddc: green side table.

Fredericia: daybed

lawson-fenning: vessels

bilotta: cabinetry

Artistic Tile: flooring

seungjin yang through the future perfect: pink stool

Blu Dot: yellow ottoman

through noguchi shop: pendant

Louis Poulsen: pendants

voutsa: wallpaper

e15 through stillfried wien: table

Carl Hansen & Son: chairs

iittala through fiskars group: glass birds

bd barcelona through ddc: credenza

aronson’s: rug

mitchell gold + bob williams: sofa

aronson’s: rug

Carl Hansen & Son: Lounge

Blu Dot: side table

through john derian: artwork

ligne roset: sofa

iacoli: coffee table

CB2: side table

Artistic Tile: flooring, counters

bilotta: cabinetry

Carl Hansen & Son: chairs, stools

e15 through stillfried wien: table

Louis Poulsen: pendants

casey johnson studio: custom table

Blu Dot: ottoman

through john derian: flowers

aj madison: appliances

lee jofa: wallpaper

through design within reach: rocking chair

dunbar: sofa

house of finn juhl: coffee table

floyd: shelving

stokke: crib

rejuvenation: ceiling fixture

nessen lighting: gold lamp

&tradition: coffee table, ottoman

Carl Hansen & Son: green lounge chair

mitchell gold + bob williams: sofa

aronson’s: rug

kvadrat: mama bear chair fabric

zak & fox: club chair fabric

design for macha: ceiling fixture

michael robbins: bench

lawson-fenning: bed

once milano: quilt

aronson’s: rug

flavor paper: wallpaper

Gubi: mirror

visual comfort through circa lighting: table lamps (sitting room, dining room, family room, bedroom); ceiling pendant (living room, dining room, foyer); floor lamps (living room, nursery); reading lamp (living room)

through furniture from scandinavia: items from fredericia, house of finn juhl, gubi, carl hansen & sØn, louis poulsen, and &tradition

Crystal Sinclair Designs Transforms a Historic San Antonio Building into a Chic Restaurant

Located in the historic yet buzzing neighborhood of King William in San Antonio, Texas, the restaurant Up Scale opened its doors last October in a storied building. First used as a single family home in 1884 before going through several owners and renovations, New York-based interior designer Crystal Sinclair went back to her roots to bring its new phase to life. 

“In my late 20s and early 30s, I frequented the space when it was another restaurant,” she remembers. “How could I not turn down the opportunity to redesign a place I understood and loved so much?”

Spread over 2,500 square feet, with a layout created by Voges Design, Up Scale comprises a front room lounge, a large open main dining room, and a garden room in the back. 

“The owners love pink and their first restaurant also has a strong pink presence,” says Sinclair. “Then we brought in a deep green, a throwback to the Art Deco era, and bright reds for a strong pop.” Brass touches, marble and velvet, as well as crystal chandeliers and custom chinoiserie silk paper in the garden room complement the glamorous atmosphere while natural white oak finishes add warmth. 

“Up Scale provides an elevated experience from its food to cocktails to décor,” says Sinclair who had interior designer Delia Kenza contribute a few sources. “This restaurant really lives up its name.”

Studio BV Creates A Colorful New Headquarters for Advertising Powerhouse Fallon

The global advertising agency Fallon resided in Minneapolis’s distinctive AT&T Building, with its canted windows and expanses of vision and spandrel glass, for more than 25 years. But the team needed a change of scenery. First, the company and its sister agency Publicis Sapient looked to the hip North Loop neighborhood for a space, settling on a four-floor expanse in a former Western Container building. Then leadership turned to Studio BV to turn its 36,000 square feet into a home.

“We wanted to create a cozy and flexible space that was focused on coming together and making ideas,” says Studio BV CEO Betsy Vohs. “This meant shifting the space allocation from the past office, which had 50 percent of the space dedicated to private offices.” The change allowed for public spaces including a salon, dining and game rooms, and a library, placed across the various floors to inspire the 200 employees to utilize the entirety of their new headquarters. 

The crowning touch is the inviting conservatory and living space on the top floor, connected to ample outdoor space. “This is the space that really reflects the shift away from the old Fallon corporate offices,” Vohs says. “It’s a space that supports a casual and soft lifestyle, and is confident and comfortable.” It’s the new definition of working at home.

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.

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.

Huntsman, Pfau Long, RMW, and SHoP Deliver a Five-Star Campus for Uber Headquarters in San Francisco

It’s been 12 years since Uber disrupted the transportation system with its ride-hailing technology that’s now ubiquitous. Today, the company proves itself another disruptor, this time in workplace architecture and design. Uber’s new San Francisco headquarters is a consortium of four towers, not by one or even two firms, but four internationally renowned studios. Like dating, Uber paired them in a harmonious match. For MB1 and MB2, Uber’s first commissioned ground-up headquarters, SHoP Architects conceived the original building plan, and then RMW came aboard for interiors. Huntsman Architectural Group was mainly responsible for the interiors of MB3 and MB4, originally created on spec by Pfau Long (which has since merged with Perkins&Will). Then Huntsman and RMW collaborated with Uber on the campus master plan. MB, by the way, stands for Mission Bay, the city’s burgeoning, formerly industrial neighborhood. As for stats: MB1 is 11 stories, MB2 seven, including the partially enclosed rooftop, and buildings three and four rise 11 stories each. All told, interiors total just over 1 million square feet and will eventually bring together some 6,000 staffers. “We saw this as an opportunity to unite employees within a campus setting rather than have them scattered throughout the city,” begins Uber director of workplace and real estate Tracie Kelly, who worked alongside project executive Michael Huaco, Uber’s VP of global real estate. As for the design teams? “It was a happy marriage,” Huntsman associate principal Nicole Everett reflects.

On a grand scale, Uber is conceived as a micro-city, one within and connected to the urban area at large where the two pairs of towers align. This micro-city breaks down into boroughs signified by the towers, communities analogous to floors, and neighborhoods as sig­naled by teams. It’s a broad organizational device allowing for—and encouraging—qualities of contributing to a “sense of place bring­ing people together to a positive environment,” Alison Woolf, also a Huntsman associate principal, notes.

Thus everyone, no matter where their location, experiences a shared panoply of indoor-outdoor junctions: public spaces, collaboration areas, and quiet zones in the form of libraries, wellness facilities, terraces, cafés, and break rooms—specifically designed to be communal and active, or focused and calm. Each pair of buildings shares an approximately 30,000-square-foot cafeteria, supplemented by four coffee bars. All together the setting offers a work-from-anywhere scenario, albeit one with dedicated workstations, indicative of an autonomous office paradigm. The fact that each environment presents a uniquely textured fabric induces folks to interconnect and continuously explore the entire campus—much as they would San Francisco’s heterogenous streetscape.

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Given their origins, the two sets of buildings are entirely different. Logic has the introduction start at MB1 and MB2, since the gateway to the campus occurs at the latter. Double-glass facades create layered transparency as a vertical atrium weaving through all floors be­tween the two skins—and a literal and metaphorical connection to the city. The design teams refer to this interstitial space as solariums, for gathering or working. “They give people the choice to choose their own adventure,” SHoP associate principal Shannon Han says. They also add the asset of fresh air. Computer-controlled, operable windows respond to weather conditions creating what she terms “breathing facades.” Yet, adds RMW design principal Hakee Chang, “We were essentially presented with 17 different floor plates due to the various ways in which the solariums engage with the building core.” Unlike typical buildings with a central core, he continues, “Circulation is concentrated along the sides to high­light the bridge connections.” Two reflective glass sky bridges, mirrored on the bottom and visible from outside the buildings, span levels four to six and five to seven with pathways both covered and uncovered.

Inside, the main lobby is a digital experience. “Conduits run from the feature wall behind the 40-foot-long concrete desk, up to the ceiling and along the length of the space,” RMW senior designer Jenna Szczech explains. Then come choices. Grab a coffee or proceed directly to the events space occupying most of the rest of the floor. Like moths to a flame, visitors are pulled to it, since it’s wrapped in a backlit and perforated white screen. Inside, the room is multifunctional and divisible, made so by an accordion-pleated partition that can rise to the ceiling.

These are two of what RMW calls “iconic spaces,” meaning places with campus-wide draw. The cafeteria is another. In MB2, it occupies the entire second floor in a setting every bit the hip restaurant: polished concrete flooring, serpentine white-oak banquettes overlooked by a curvaceous installation of acrylic tubes, and brass floater strips. Up on the sixth floor is the second and main events space. The Forum, preceded by an icy white pre-function environment with a mossy back wall hinting at the rooftop terrace above, counts as an all-hands venue. “The architecture is a beauty,” Szczech states. Indeed it is: a bright, double-height room enclosed on two sides by a floor-to-ceiling window system capped by a grid of skylights.

Work areas, with each team neighborhood introduced by a “front porch” and privy to break rooms, are focused and calm. Quieter still is the cobalt cocoon punctuated by oak and walnut millwork. Sssh, this is the fifth floor’s head’s-down library devoid of any AV component. What’s missing from this complex scenario? Art, as true walls are scarce. For that, all commissioned from locals, cross over to Huntsman’s component. The two buildings face each other across a plaza; MB3 has a terrace off its seventh floor. While the SHoP-RMW parcel has built-in wow factors, “We had to create these spaces after the fact,” Woolf recalls.

For starters, the firm cut through slabs in multiple locations. Now both structures have double-height lobbies, the larger with a slatted wood statement stairway, the smaller a cube framed with dichroic glass tubes, their colors changing according to one’s viewing stance. The ceiling above the bleachers, beneficiary of a cutout between floors four and five, has more fluctuating colors. A double-height break room, itself a novel amenity for the top 10th and 11th floors, has a fiber artwork extending upward over the expanse. Meanwhile, a vibrant, multi-panel painting is installed at the connector stair from yet another break room to the wellness suite.

Uber is particularly proud of this initiative. Almost every floor campus-wide has a mother’s room, but the big push is the mirrored studio for yoga, barre, or dance classes with a bird’s-eye view of the terrace below thanks to glass sliders. There are also adjacent pre- or post-workout chill zones that beckon with hanging wickerlike chairs.

Back inside, the cafeteria serving this part of the quad is anything but corporate. It presents a cheeky take on the green wall with verde tiles. The ceramics combine with stitched, white-bolster fabric to form a dimensional divider between servery and seating. Post-prandial, staffers can head to MB4’s makers’ room for collaborative work or MB3’s library for heads-down work. This version is “a digital and tech-enabled space prompting different neurological stimuli,” Woolf says. Regardless, Huntsman paid some homage to the old-school library format by furnishing it with long tables and carrels. It turns out, some things don’t need disrupting.

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huntsman architectural group: david link; david meckley; rene calara; adam murphy; greg dumont; edna wang; jena kissinger; saruyna leano; amy stock; sierra goetz; hadley bell; patrycja dragan; david hevesi; julio gutierrez; edward sweeney; elias horat; pam robinson; takrit jirawudomchai; joanna heringer; eric nelson

RMW: terry kwik; karen letteney; jin park; owen huang; britni williams; darren barboza; janet braden; sal wikke; oscar catarino; felice rosario; gloria n. rasmussen; annette litle; josh carrell; maurice farinas; jonathan chow; yinong liu

quezada architecture: architect of record (core, shell)

alfa tech: lighting consultant, mep

there: graphics consultant

swa group: landscaping consultant

hush: digital experience design

thornton tomasetti: structural engineer

salter: acoustical engineer

atelier ten: leed consultant, well consultant

acco: mep

mission bell; montbleu: woodwork

concreteworks: concretework

dpr construction; truebeck: general contractors

Yellow Goat Design: custom screen (events space); custom ceiling installation (cafeteria)

steelcase through west elm workspace: bench, tables (lobby)

zehnder rittling: ceiling panels (library)

Interface: carpet tile

Allied Maker: sconces

watson: table

muuto: armchairs

gus modern: side chairs

& Tradition: stools

associated terrazzo co.: flooring (pre-function)

apparatus: pendant fixtures

menu: stools

skandiform: chairs

kristalia: table

filzfelt: acoustic wall panels

designtex: banquette back fabric

Knoll Textiles: banquette seat fabric

minus tio: tables (event space)

arper: stacking chairs

decoustics: ceiling panels

carnegie: wall panel fabric

bendheim: glass panel (break room)

martin brattrud: custom banquettes

global lighting: pendant fixtures (cafeteria)

molo: pendent fixtures: (coffee bar)

goldray industries: dichroic glass panels

pedrali: chairs

west coast industries: tables

muuto: stools (coffee bar, break room, counter)

hbf textiles: cushion fabric (stadium seating)

fermob: chairs (terrace)

kettal: sofas

CB2: tables

landscape forms: custom trellis

woodtech: tables, benches (makers’ room)

solid manufacturing co.: stools

lightolier: ceiling fixtures

ton: chairs (café)

V2 lighting group: pendant fixtures

statements: wall tile

geiger: wall fabric

garret: banquette fabric

sika design: hanging chairs (wellness center)

mafi: flooring

garden trellis co.: custom ceiling

Finelite: linear fixtures

schiavello: screens (library)

turnstone: tables

Hay: chairs

studio trevelyan: pendant fixtures (wellness)

caesarstone: solild surfacing

Mannington Commercial: flooring

grato: wood slats

stone source: stone

dunn-edwards paints: paint

6 Timeless Rattan Furniture Pieces

Today’s lean, lightweight designs are a far cry from the rickety Victoriana and fancy-free 1970s peacock chairs of yore. Take the elegantly attenuated creations of Clara Porset, the awarding-winning Cuban-born talent whose 1950s chair designs have been reanimated by CB2, courtesy of a partnership with the midcentury modernist’s archive at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and manufacturer Mexa Design. Porset lead an erudite life filled with inspiration: she studied at Columbia University in New York, the Sorbonne and the Louvre in Paris, and under Josef Albers at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Settling in Mexico in 1935, she often worked beside renowned architect Luis Barragán.

Her Sillon en Mimbre (aka wicker lounge chair), Silla en Mimbre (wicker chair), and Camastro en Mimbre (wicker chaise lounge) designs mix traditional craft with European modernist influences. Rendered in natural wicker meant to patina and supported by solid iron-rod construction, the collection is handmade in Mexico. Says product development lead Sara Khodja, “Porset’s designs are beautiful, timeless, and modern.” So are the rattan novelties below.

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