Fall 2002
The New Look - a special supplement to Hotel Business

 
Watertown Hotel Achieves Honest Appeal Via Natural Material & Style
By Diana M. Rodiguez

Seattle- Set in a coastal city known for its rainfall, it is no wonder the Watertown hotel here opted for design based on water and nautical features. The interesting twist, however, is the hotel's use of "honest materials" to give off this translucent feel.

"I'd say the theme of the hotel is 'honesty.' What you see is what you get," said Patty Davis, VP. Nootka Hotels and GM of the six-story, 100-room Watertown, which opened in May 2002.

The hotel's owner, Malcolm Goodfellow, head of Nootka, "wanted people to see what they were getting, and have everything out here in the open for everyone to see, like our administration offices and front desk," said Davis.

To achieve this vision the new-build hotel's architects and designers, from the firm of Degen & Degen, worked within an $11 million budget to develop a feeling of honesty and transparency that is evident everywhere from the lobby to the guest baths.

Designs for the lobby's front desk were inspired by an ocean wave, offering a curvy shape made with clear blue glass detailing. In fact, guests entering the hotel are greeted by numerous glass accents, including a translucent wall behind the reception area that looks into the hotel's admin offices.

"It's all out in the open for everyone to see," said Davis.

Designers even left the lobby's ceiling exposed, showing the mechanical pipes and lines. "It adds to the sense of fluidity, transparency and light," said Anita Degen, project principal of the hotel's interiors, who adds the firm also "applied a sense of integrity and honesty in the material used."

For example, the hotel features bamboo floors accented by live bamboo arrangements; natural walnut and cherry wood finishes; stone vanities and countertops in the baths; and natural yellow limestone accents in the public spaces.

While the designers were not limited to natural materials, they were focused on using all materials in the way they were intended.
"There's no false representation. No plastic laminates that look like wood," explained Degen. "Our stairway, for example, is made out of concrete, so we let it as concrete."

This honest design concept even trickled its way into the hotel's operation philosophy, which charges no fees for unique amenities, such as bike rental, telephone usage, Internet access and customized cart rentals.

Created through collaboration between the design firm and the hotel's owner, these amenity carts offer guests a sense of flexibility - allowing them to customize their hotel experience.

For no additional charge, guests can rent any one of a number of themed carts, including a surf cart equipped with an in-room computer for surfing the internet; a spa cart, which features a foot massage, relaxing CDs, soothing tea and aromatherapy bath products; and art cart for those looking to express themselves with crayons, pencils, watercolors, etc.; and a party cart featuring games, snacks and festive CDs.

These benefits have generated significant positive feedback from guests, particularly because of the hotel's "no-extra-charge" philosophy. "We've gotten a lot of guest who, when they're checking out, say, 'it's so nice not to se any extra charges on the bill, we can just enjoy all the extras,'" Davis said.

Expanding on the honest, transparent theme, designers based much of the hotel's design on Seattle's relationship to water.

Subtle touches such as the rainspouts were redesigned to "shoot out water" on a rainy day, said Jeffery Degen, the hotel's architect. The sitting area in the lobby was also conceived as a metaphor for rain with ceiling panels hanging from the exposed ceiling like a low cloud covering, and lights dripping down like rain from the panels.

Guestrooms, which are each created with a $5,000 FF&E budget, also offer a nautical look with porthole-shaped bath windows and built-in galley-styled closest.

Rooms also feature bedspreads, custom-designed by Anita Degen, that continue the bamboo look present in the hotel's lobby. Natural light through over-sized guestroom and bath windows also round out the outdoor theme. "Natural light was very important the guest baths have floor-to-ceiling windows with frosted glass," said Anita Degen.

However, the baths also presented one of the biggest challenges for the interior designer. The oversized, full-length mirrors appear to be leaning on the bath wall, when in actuality they were hinged by designers in a last-ditch effort to make the element work.

She further noted that while the firm was hired for the project in January 1999, the hotel's owner unexpectedly decided to delay development for five months to ensure a spring opening date.