Food, Shopping, and Art Intersect at This Community Hub Near Fenway Park in Boston

For decades, Boston’s Fenway neighborhood has been known among outsiders, and even some locals, for precisely one thing: its emerald-green baseball park of the same name. During the season, when the Red Sox play at home, the streets and pubs nearby swell with throngs of fans, the roar of the crowd—and the scent of steaming Fenway Franks—filling the air. But during the off-season, when the park goes dark, area residents—with no central gathering place of a similar scale to go to—are left waiting for another April and the buzz of baseball to return. That’s no longer the case, how­ever, for Bostonians who live in Fenway and beyond, and it’s thanks to a massive three-phase project by Elkus Manfredi Architects. The local firm has reimagined over 1 million square feet of a former Sears, Roebuck & Co. complex into a series of buzzing public spaces for all to enjoy year-round.

Now dubbed 401 Park, the eight-story Sears facility was built in 1928 of limestone and brick in the art deco style and operated for nearly 60 years as a warehouse and distribution center, offering shoppers merchandise at below catalog prices. In 1991, three years after Sears had closed the center, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It stood empty for nearly a decade before being purchased by the Abbey Group; the company hired Bruner/Cott Architects to convert the vast interiors into profitable rental space, which encompassed adding a skylit atrium. Ownership changed to Alexandria Real Estate Equities, and the developer, Samuels & Associates, set about further transforming the complex into a 21st-century hub for innovation, entertainment, and community—where “work meets play”—turning to Elkus Manfredi to carry out the vision. Led by principal Elizabeth Lowrey, the team repositioned the megaspace as a dynamic social center where food, shopping, and art intersect.

Elkus Manfredi Architects Reimagines a Landmarked Site

A main objective was preserving the landmarked site’s heritage. Interiors were stripped to their structural bones, reusing elements wherever possible. “It’s such a strong building because it was a warehouse, so it had to be able to support all that product,” Lowrey begins. “You can’t beat the concrete columns, so we decided, ‘Okay, you can’t hide them, so let’s expose them.’” She’s referring to the immense 32-foot-high square columns in the main entry lobby—part of the project’s 123,000- square-foot phase one—where pieces of original rebar are also visible, honoring the building’s industrial past. While getting to those bare bones meant playing up some of the existing features, it also meant removing others. The latter included Miami-style motifs added in the 1980’s and ’90’s that overly emphasized the art deco details. “Our approach was to make it more authentic, to peel away those things and let the building be the building,” Lowrey adds.

Continuing the industrial aesthetic yet through a modern lens is a new three-story staircase that connects the lower level, where the parking-garage entry is, to the second-floor atrium and concourse. It’s a grand structure rendered in chemically blackened iron. Elkus Manfredi had the balustrades water-jet cut with letters spelling out such entities as Kenmore Square and Berklee College of Music, then installed color-changing LEDs in the risers, yielding a sort of virtual billboard of Boston treasures. Blackened metal, this time hot-rolled steel, also frames the windows and ground-floor storefronts for such F&B and retail outfits as the Time Out Market Boston food hall and REI.

Work Meets Play in the Eight-Story Community Hub Near Fenway

In fact, art is another component of the project about which Lowrey speaks proudly. In the lobby of 201 Brookline, the 500,000-square-foot phase two that’s nearing completion and connected to 401 Park at the pedestrian and fourth levels (421 Park, phase three, another 500K square feet, has an anticipated completion of late 2025), a colossal mural by Portuguese street artist Vhils involved him carving into plaster he layered over the original brick walls images of local landmarks and influential women in science, such as Red Cross founder Clara Barton. “It’s a hand-carved celebration of the neighborhood and these women,” Lowrey concludes. “It’s about success and progress.” It’s also an over the Green Monster home run.

Elkus Manfredi Architects: david manfredi; mark sardegna; john mitchell; john taylor; tracy shriver; brittany locke; tom kinslow; jackie hiersteiner; ulrike manker; moeko hara; vittoria cerqueira; jessica borri; bill ryder

hdlc: lighting consultant

emily fine art; our friends in london: art consultants

mcnamara salvia: structural engineer

thomas burroughs; wsp: mep

vhb: civil engineer

hope’s windows: metalwork

valiant industries: millwork

suffolk: general contractor

o.k. foundry co.; superior rail & iron works: custom stair (stairway)

campania international: planters (lobby)

design communications: floor lettering

Moore & Giles: banquette upholstery (concourse)

galaxy glass: antiqued mirror

longleaf lumber: wood flooring (atrium)

erik rueda design lab: custom display cases (hall)

ici et là handmade design: chairs (lower lobby)

restoration hardware: table

luminis: pendant fixtures

This Park City Property Boasts Stunning Views and Elevated Amenities

Gated communities are not usually known for their architecture. Houses are often dated and ostentatious, with little connection to their surroundings. The Iluminus Group wanted to prove the stereotype wrong at a private enclave in Park City, Utah. The development firm hired CLB Architects to design a timeless residence that was simpler and more elegant than its neighbors—though just as enormous—and would appeal to potential outdoors-oriented buyers. “Their goal was to establish a new standard for thoughtful design in this part of Utah,” CLB partner and architect Eric Logan explains. At the same time, the house would have over-the-top amenities like a climbing wall, sports court, bowling alley, and spa. CLB showed that these directives need not be contradictory.

The 4.9-acre site is on a steep slope in the Wasatch Mountains, thick with spruce, fir, and aspen trees. At 8,500 feet above sea level, the property has commanding views of the Park City Mountain resort and across a valley. CLB approached the landscape with respect. Based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Bozeman, Montana, the studio has decades of experience designing high-end mountain residences and strives to honor the natural beauty of each location. “We take the notion of connecting with place very seriously,” Logan says. “We’ve been lucky to work on some incredible properties in the West, and we try not to screw them up. Sometimes I think, You should do nothing here and make it a park. But something will be developed there, so we do the best work we can.” At the Park City site, CLB aimed to make the house as compact as possible given the extensive program and keep it from sprawling too far into the forest.

CLB built the home, dubbed Monitor’s Rest, into the hillside and designed an L-shape plan. Approaching from above, visitors enter a courtyard and see a structure that looks smaller than its 18,000 square feet. “The courtyard creates a quiet space where you can take in the sky and get oriented, and it also brings light into the home,” Logan says. The building’s exterior establishes the material palette used throughout: Croatian limestone, shou sugi ban cedar cladding, steel-framed windows, and a copper roof. Its simple form is designed to withstand the harsh winters; anything too expressive will leak or get scraped off in the snow.

The experience of the enclosed, serene courtyard deliberately contrasts with the openness of the interior. A limestone foyer, the nexus of the two-story house, leads in three directions. You can turn right to go to the primary bedroom suite and the office or left to the living and dining areas. Straight ahead is a dramatic atrium with windows facing the forest and stairs leading down to the guest bedrooms and bowling alley.

At the back of the ground floor is a small tower. Since the house is built into the hillside, Ostrander wanted a pop-up perch where residents could take in 360-degree views. Measuring 19 by 19 feet, it has a wraparound balcony and references the forest-fire watchtowers found in national parks. “It’s a little retreat that’s whimsical and unexpected,” Ostrander says. Warm and intimate, it practically begs for a kids’ sleepover, though a floating fireplace, rosewood table, and Moroccan Mrirt rug make it plenty sophisticated for adults. Like the rest of the property, the tower is both fun and refined, and brings a whole new perspective to the neighborhood.

clb architects: andy ankeny, brent sikora, jake ostlind, cassidy stickney, jaye infanger, erica hawley

design workshop: landscape architect

magelby construction: contractor

sherwood design engineers: civil engineer

kl&a, inc.: structural engineer

energy 1: mechanical/electrical engineer

orsman design: lighting designer

jouffre: custom sofa (living room)

Eny Lee Parker: lamps

semeurs d’étoiles through invisible collection: custom chandelier (entry)

konekt: ottomans (hearth room)

pierre augustin rose through invisible collection: custom coffee table

place textiles: custom sectional fabric

daniel becker studio: custom chandelier

through tom robinson: vintage dining chairs

miksi through invisible collection: custom rug

christopher kreiling through blackman cruz: lamp (office)

ski lift designs: custom ski lift chair (stair)

bourgeois boheme: custom chandelier (den)

dornstab through kalmar: floor lamp

stark: rug

brunswick bowling: bowling alley

restoration hardware: side table

fromental: wallcovering

juniper lighting: lights (guest bath)

Duravit: sink

clé: tile

marrone: custom range hood (kitchen)

wood stone: pizza oven

Dornbracht: sink fittings

old plank collection: art sheep (hallway)

response hg: flooring (sports court)

the court company: wall panels

luxury mrirt rug through benisouk: rug (tower room)

grand splendid studio: rug

through two enlighten: vintage mirror

crump & kwash: custom desk (guest bedroom)

made goods: desk chair

sutherland furniture: lounge chair

masterpiece millwork & door: custom millwork

craftsman upholstery: custom sofa fabrication (hearth room, bowling alley, tower room)

newell studio: custom coffee table (living room); custom dining table (hearth room); custom wall panels (office); custom shuffleboard table (bowling alley)

through 1stdibs: vintage chair (office); armchairs (den); bench (hallway); table, lamp (tower room)

blueprint lighting: custom pendants (primary bedroom, primary bathroom)

marset: reading lights (bedrooms)

watermark: sink fittings (bathrooms)

This Tropical Modernist Miami Home is at One With its Surroundings

“This house is surprising for Miami,” admits Max Strang, founding principal of Strang Design. While the city’s name typically conjures up visions of South Beach residences packed on prime palm-tree-lined waterfront properties, he and firm partners Alexandra Mangimelli and Elizabeth Starr created something altogether different for a family relocating from Brazil. On an estate-sized oak grove just 20 minutes from downtown, the project accurately reflects the couple’s heritage in everything from the layout and materials to the landscaping and furnishings.

The house that originally stood on the lot was torn down, allowing a new one to grow from the ground up. The studio specializes in contextualizing homes to their immediate surroundings via use of natural materials, eschewing plain white boxes. Here, this approach translated to an earthy palette and the placement of plant life—and the structure itself—in a manner that blurs the line between building and landscape. “We were careful to work with existing oaks and gumbo limbos when siting the house,” Strang recalls. The firm designed planters to wrap the second-floor exterior, supplemented by aluminum privacy louvers that double as trellises, enabling vines to climb up the facade. “Eventually, the elevations will be partially enveloped in the growth,” he predicts.

The project, Strang continues, “presented an opportunity to marry our firm style, which we describe as ‘environmental modernism,’ with the more tropical modernism of the Brazilian aesthetic.” An H-shape footprint creates a series of wings, a configuration that allows light to spill into every corner. Multiple rooms feature floor-to-ceiling glass pocket doors that open onto a pool, abetting an easy rapport between indoors and out while upholding a strong sense of privacy. The sliders are also practical: “Miami is hot as hell, but as long as you have generous shade and a little bit of a breeze, you’re fine,” Strang notes. Starr adds that the openness of the layout suits the clients’ lifestyle: “How the family entertains informed the variety of seating areas and the circulation between them, as well as the creation of interior and exterior spaces that flow into one to another.” The latter include a patio-adjacent club room equipped with an exhaust system to handle cigar smoke.

The furnishings, many of which were collected by the owners over the years, pay poetic homage to the concept of relocation. The living room contains midcentury pieces by Jorge Zalszupin, who moved to Rio de Janiero in 1949 after fleeing his native Poland to escape Nazi persecution, and Jean Gillon, born in Romania and later based in São Paulo. Both were known for their use of local materials and traditional furniture-making techniques. Also inhabiting several rooms is seating by Sergio Rodrigues, frequently referred to as the father of Brazilian furniture design, who made languorous pieces that responded to his country’s tropical climate and easygoing way of life. They’re right at home here.

While the palette is predominantly earth-tone, with travertine flooring and abundant teak paneling, generous moments of color are provided by the homeowners’ art collection. Works on display are drawn from an international roster, including Ethiopian talent Elias Sime; Munich-born New York–based Janaina Tschäpe (who was raised in São Paulo); and Amir Nikravan, an American artist of Iranian and Mexican descent. The design team provided settings that create a rich, varied backdrop. One piece, Sime’s Tightrope: I Want to Slow Down and Think, 2017, a collage of repurposed electronic components, was bought while the house was under construction, “so we had to find a wall that would work,” Mangimelli says. A secondary seating area in the main living space became the designated spot. “The piece really looks like it was meant to be there,” she notes of the serendipitous result.

In keeping with South American tradition, the kitchen is not the central hub, but rather positioned off to one side of the floor plan. That said, it’s no wallflower—note the dramatic geometric-patterned backsplash tile. “It was definitely the right way to go,” Mangimelli says of the attention-grabbing encaustic mosaic.

Although the residence is well-suited to entertaining, it does have a public/private divide, with the more tucked-away second floor housing bedrooms, a family room, and a gym. One wing is devoted to guest quarters and the two childrens’ rooms, the other to the primary suite. Despite the home’s generous size—10,000 square feet—it contains only five bedrooms. The intent was to create spacious sanctums, Mangimelli says, “rather than see how many bedrooms we could fit.”

As for the 1.5-acre plot, the clients’ request was a garden that gives joy. To accomplish this, Strang Design collaborated with La Casona Garden to create a “manifold sensory experience of sight, smell, hearing, and taste—a garden of earthly delights,” landscape designer Ana Miron explains. Plantings are diverse, a mix of ground cover, flowers, small bushes, and various sizes of trees, designed to complement the oaks. Native species are included, as well as a section certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a wildlife habitat, with the land offering ideal conditions, Miron says, “for companion species, birds, bees, butterflies, and squirrels.” And, of course, the property’s human residents.

strang design: maria ascoli, vanessa arteaga peña, viviana conley, catherine crotty

la casona garden: landscape consultant

francisco cuello jr.; henry vidal & associates, inc.: structural engineers

jorge g. maldonado: civil engineer

contemporary builders, inc.: general contractor

david krynauw through southern guild gallery: chandelier (dining room)

restoration hardware: armchairs, tables (patios); beds (primary bedroom, daughter’s room)

apparatus studio: ceiling lights (club room, primary bedroom)

mia cucina: cabinetry, countertop (kitchen)

artistic tile through ceramic matrix: backsplash tile

subzero-wolf: wall ovens, cooktop

ligne roset: ottoman (daughter’s room)

Duravit: toilet (primary bathroom)

vola: sink fittings

opustone: travertine

es windows: windows

dn design studio inc.: millwork

Jennifer Kolstad and Ghafari Associates Propel the Ford Experience Center in Michigan into the Future

2022 Best of Year Winner for Office Transformation

Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903 and today is one of the biggest car companies in the world. Despite its long history, Ford is focused squarely on the future, developing new technologies like smart infrastructure and self-driving vehicles. Yet for over 20 years, the main events facility at its headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, was a dark and uninviting concrete structure. Company executives sought to reimagine it as a cutting-edge “front door” to the 600-acre campus, which itself is being overhauled under a master plan by Snøhetta. They turned to Jennifer Kolstad, the in-house global design and brand director, and her 20-person team to renovate the 1998 building and transform it into the Ford Experience Center, or FXC.

Ford’s leaders envisioned the FXC as a dynamic hospitality-inspired hub for employees, car dealers, and major customers. It would have flexible event spaces, conference rooms, a café, and hot-desking, plus an on-site design lab where employees could work with clients like the City of Los Angeles to customize and prototype police vehicles. The FXC is also meant to reflect a new company-wide emphasis on innovation and collaboration. Positioned across the street from the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, the FXC symbolizes “Ford future facing Ford past,” Kolstad notes. Her design encompasses aspects of both.

Kolstad worked on the 95,000-square-foot project with Ghafari Associates, which served as the architect of record but also designed major elements of the interior and helped with the selection of furnishings. Together, the two teams completely transformed the existing two-story building, keeping only its structure and oval shape. “Even though the space is similar to what it was, an event center, we had to take it to the next level,” architect and Ghafari director of design Andrew Cottrell recalls. The goal was to create an environment that felt open and transparent. “Ford wishes to be the most trusted company in the world, and architecture can help that along,” Kolstad adds.

To start, the concrete walls were out. Ford and Ghafari re-skinned the facade with electrochromic glass that brings ample light to the interior but can also tint for shade. Kolstad, who was a principal at HKS before joining Ford in 2019, brought a focus on wellness and human-centered design to the project. She incorporated two green walls in the café, called the Hive, and ensured that even enclosed rooms have natural light and views of the surrounding lawns. She also integrated the building into the landscape: Terraces allow for events to flow outdoors, and the central corridor aligns with the front door of the Henry Ford Museum.

The FXC showcases the future of automobiles, but it’s grounded in Ford’s history. “The building speaks to the legacy of the company through its use of museum-quality materials,” Kolstad explains. “If the foundation is solid and well-executed, the brand can breathe and take on its own life.” In the central forum, polished white-terrazzo flooring and oak stadium seating form a timeless backdrop for what is in fact a high-tech, production-ready space. At the touch of a button, the lighting can change to suit a cocktail party, presentation, or launch event, and cars rotate on a turntable in the floor. Overhead, a sculpted white ceiling of acoustical plaster conceals lighting and mechanical systems, with cuts that mirror the lines in the terrazzo floor. “We had to coordinate myriad things to make the ceiling look seamless,” Cottrell says.

Like the building, the forum is the shape of the Ford logo: an oval. “You won’t see the logo anywhere, but you’re literally inside the Ford oval,” Kolstad says. “The space tells the company’s story in a subtle, sophisticated way.” Ovals appear in the symbol of the Hive, making the shape of a bee, and in custom lighting fixtures, while velvet in the brand’s deep blue upholsters the café’s banquettes. Covers of retro Ford Life magazines hang in phone booths, and broken ovals appear in the pattern of blue vinyl wallcovering. Kolstad’s team also deconstructed the oval to make a camouflagelike pattern for blue-and-white area rugs. All furnishings, materials, and finishes demonstrate a new palette that will be used in Ford showrooms and offices worldwide, including the nearby workplace by Snøhetta now under construction.

Though Kolstad describes the FXC as an “immersive brand experience,” you won’t find a Ford sign at reception. Instead, there’s a mirrored acrylic work by Detroit artist Tiff Massey, one of several in her team’s DEI-focused art program for the project. Inspired by traditional American quilts, it’s composed of seven designs—representing each of Ford’s company truths—laser-cut onto 90 tiles. An asymmetrical solid-walnut desk in front of it, designed by Ghafari, looks like a sculpture that alludes to movement. Elsewhere, three abstract artworks by Los Angeles artist Robert Moreland refer to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the French car race that Ford won in the late 1960’s. With the FXC, it’s leading again as a cool, tech-savvy company.

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ford environments: julia calabrese; rachael smith; chris small; don zvoch

ghafari associates: michael krebs; brittnee shaw; angela cwayna; joseph kim; delbert dee; justin finkbeiner; stephanie hrit; jennifer hatheway; katy rupp; steve lian; yuqi pan; bruce coburn; justine lim; karan panchal; ali zorkot; christopher olech; ryan raymond; cynthia harman-jones; kristina allder

illuminart: lighting consultant

farmboy: art consultant, custom wallcovering

denn-co construction; ganas; navy island: woodwork

devon industrial group: general contractor

tacchini: benches (forum)

viccarbe: benches (lounge)

dwr: chairs

bernhardt; designtex: banquette fabric (café)

Coalesse: tables (café), chair (phone booth)

geiger: chairs (café, innovation)

Stellar Works: sofas (break-out, collaboration, grand hall)

carnegie: wallcovering (break-out)

stua: coffee table

zauben: green wall (café)

preciosa: custom pendant fixtures

keilhauer: stools

Tarkett: carpet (phone booth)

Humanscale: lamp

Blu Dot: tables (innovation, grand hall)

restoration hardware: lamp (grand hall)

michielutti brothers: flooring

shaw contract: custom rugs

benjamin moore & co.: paint

BHDM Design Breathes New Life into the Novotel Miami Brickell Hotel

2021 Best of Year Winner for Budget Hotel

The lobby and lounges at this existing hotel had good bones—the ceilings were 19 feet, the windows floor-to-ceiling. But the 4,500 square feet of public spaces lacked “personality and a sense of narrative,” notes principal and creative director Dan Mazzarini of BHDM Design, who quickly, and inexpensively ($173 per square foot to be exact), made amends.

Conceiving of a “sun, sand, surf” theme, he and his team marshalled a peachy palette along with furnishings in rounded shapes that have a “work/live/play vibe.” Costs were kept down with off-the-shelf pieces from the likes of Arteriors, Blu Dot, Frontgate, and Restoration Hardware. Indoor/outdoor chairs resemble rattan but are made of sturdy powder-coated metal, polyamide, and acrylic.

Custom designs came into play, too, such as the cerused-oak bar screen that was inspired by South Beach lifeguard stands but functions as built-in shelving. Likewise, in the textile department, custom-printed ombre sheeting adds softness at windows and in a nook off a lobby entrance, while the underside of the rooftop lounge awning has been printed with a palm-leaf pattern. As for the lobby’s whimsical 12-foot trees mimicking local flora, they’re made of white canvas. Uplit at night, they cast dramatic frondlike shadows across the ceiling. By day, they require no watering—just an occasional dusting.

BHDM Design: Dan Mazzarini; Jennifer Rosenthal

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.