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or boutique DESIGN’s January/February issue, we have highlighted the visionary and prolific work of W Hotels and we are reflecting that focus with our weekly newsletter, featuring Q&A’s with the design teams behind some of W’s most provocative projects. BD spoke with Paul Bentel of Bentel & Bentel, one of four partners in the New York-based architectural firm on the new W Boston, a glinting pearl in a city of somber brick.
What was W’s vision/concept for the W Boston when they approached your firm?
[W] has a very strong brand image but one of the things they rely on is the designers providing the link between the design and the brand. There are no Ws in Boston so it was really introducing a new concept to the environment. We started thinking about W as a brand─ they are all about transformation─ day to night, or according to the needs of the patrons. It’s one of their key management concepts. Boston is a city that highly prizes its outdoor urban spaces, especially gardens. So we created a virtual garden. That is to say, we are not reproducing organic material inside but we are delivering the qualities of a garden; Freshness, vitality, spiritual enhancement, the whole reason that someone would put a garden in the city. We wanted to reconcept the garden to deliver an amenity without actually having plants. So the sculptures, the architectural settings in the context of things like pergolas, trellises, filtered light─those are aspects of the design.
Why do you think W decided to enlist Bentel & Bentel as the firm for the interior work?
We had been talking to W for quite some time. They are always on the lookout for new talent and I think we came onto the radar with places like Craft and the restaurant inside the MOMA in New York. We did not have a huge track record of hotels so it was also an opportunity for [W] to think out of the box. We also were selected largely with the endorsement of the building owner. It was a happy meeting of the minds across many different groups.
We’ve done a lot of work at Station Casino in Las Vegas─all of the high roller suites. We’re currently working on the penthouses and the high roller suites at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas as well, right next to the CityCenter. We’ve done a lot of hospitality work and as a consequence it seemed like very natural solicitation [from W] for this project.
Now that you have worked closely with W, to what do you attribute their growing success during these trying times?
They are a brand that is always trying to think in new ways about some of their core beliefs. Design is one of the areas in which that experimentation is carried out. They are constantly coming back to you and saying, ‘how does this relate to hospitality?’ So we put a lot of things on the table and they are good at parsing. It’s that kind of continual effort to reinvent themselves. They also lean heavily on designers and new blood.
What do you think about the W “brand” and how does W Boston property design fit into it?
I’d say it’s both new and old, consistent and novel. It presents itself with a living room concept─once you walk in, you are part of the family. The design is different [then the brand’s typical look] largely because of the constraints of the site, it’s right on the street. Its’ hanging out there. It’s very exciting. [W] often talked about peek-a-boo elements and gradual unveiling. Instead we’ve got lots of glass. It is a very present W as opposed to some of the others which are more secluded and sequestered. Theatre was also heavily backgrounded. There are veils on the windows that are like scrims in the theatre. And the restaurant has this canopy that is three sided like a proscenium. The pergola elements of the lobby are framing elements that face the street so it’s as though [the guests] are sitting inside a small stage. In all of those cases, we thought about the guests being actors in an urban tableau. All the rooms have artwork which is keen to the virtual garden as well with highly abstract images of New England landscapes─the forest and the pond. We also dipped into Thoreau, Emerson and transcendentalism. It’s very individualistic.
How did you incorporate the brand’s style while also satisfying the particular geographical location, i.e. Boston?
Boston is cold in the winter and hot in the summer. We were conscious of it as a beautiful, proud city that has a fairly harsh environment. We wanted an urban environment that is conditioned to the elements. This isn’t L.A. It’s the opposite. We were very strongly moved by the proximity of New England cities to the sea. The restaurant was concepted around the seashore, the lobby was a garden. There is a heavily textured granite wall behind the reception desk, Quincy granite. It was about bringing the material palette of Boston inside, representing and evoking the quality of the city.
How did you choose the palette and the overall “look” of the design? How would you describe it in your own words?
Bentel is a firm that prides itself on progressive, forward-minded, modern aesthetic and that’s what we tried to deliver. We wanted it to be comfortable, unobtrusive, life-sustaining and enhancing. Lighting for us was hugely important. It gradually shifts throughout the course of the day. We think of it as diurnal, leveraging the human experience in the world. We are a firm that is anti-themed. We don’t like to be literal. Every concept is filtered through a design process.
What makes the W Boston stand out among other hotels in the area and among Bentel & Bentel’s previous designs?
This is a new standard in Boston both in terms of architecture (done by Bill Rawn). It’s brand new, right out of the ground and very distinctive. It’s glass and metal in a city that is brick brick brick. For us, it’s like a pearl. By virtue of that fact it’s a hotel that has an extraordinary amount of glass, which is a gift and a challenge. The building presents itself as a jewel in the crown.
What materials were you drawn to use and why?
Quincy granite. The wood is elm; it’s a very important species to us because it’s the street tree of New England and has a straight grain and a warm color without being overly yellow. We also love polished stainless steel. It’s a tactile material─cold, clean, precise─but it’s also highly reflective and captures movement. All the decorative pieces are fronds of ivy in cutouts of stainless steel. We have metal mesh curtains that frame the pergola elements which are are anodized aluminum. There is silver leatherette for the upholstery material. It’s a very simple palette. The ceiling is an acoustical plaster. There is also frosted glass because it becomes like a glowing element; we used it at the bar. In the lobby as well is the galaxy schist, a New England stone which has a pattern in it created by magnetic crystals at the time when the stone (igneous rock) locks the magnetic field in place. Visually you see this incredible three dimensional pattern. We hope people don’t get hypnotized at the bar. It’s very captivating.
Do you have a design motto?
One of our basic philosophies is that we pride ourselves on being modern─ it’s an ethos, a way of life, not a design philosophy. We frequently say, ‘paint with a broad brush.’ We don’t want things don’t get overly filled up or cluttered. Think big, large─ let people live grand lives.