#WFH Hospitality Architecture w/ Margit Whitlock, AIA
So, I was thinking about going away (as always...) but we can't really go anywhere without restrictions, etc, though if you want to go to a hotel right now, there are ample ones to choose from, not great rates from what I have seen, but you can get away.
I had the great fortune to speak with Margit Whitlock, AIA of Architectural Concepts who is an architect here in San Diego and who specializes but is not EXCLUSIVE to Hospitality Design, but she has a portfolio full of great vaca hotels.
Margit
E. Whitlock
Principal / Creative Director
Architectural
Concepts, Inc.
3958
First Avenue
San
Diego, CA 92103
Margit E. Whitlock AIA LEED AP | Principal in Charge of Architecture and Interior Design | Architectural Concepts Inc. a San Diego, CA based design firm. Ms. Whitlock is responsible for creating the concepts that drive the creative process. Her professional experience includes all aspects of architecture, design and the building process including project programming and site analysis, interior design, custom FFE, art programs, construction documents and construction administration. She is a licensed architect in the states of CA, AZ, NY, PA, TX, FL and HI. To foster her passion about the built environment and her community, Margit is President of SDAF (San Diego Architectural Foundation) a 501c3 non-profit. For the past twenty-seven years she has focused on resort/hospitality design and construction with projects nationally and internationally. Her project list includes hospitality, commercial, retail, restaurants, civic and timeshare resorts.
Ms. Whitlock is an accomplished speaker with engagements at multiple ARDA conventions, HD Boutique show as well as being frequently published in magazines such as Developments, Resort Trades, Hotel Business, Hiatus, Vacation Industry Review and Resort Management and Operations.
She received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon with academic strengths in urban planning and design and extended studies in Art History and Architecture at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Margit can be reached at Margit@4designs.com or at 619-531-0110.
Interview with Margit E. Whitlock, AIA: click here
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| The Jetsons, Copyright The Jetsons |
Margit's Three Classic Buildings:
Jon Jerde: JERDE Partnership: Horton Plaza
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| The Transamerica Building, San Francisco, CA Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg |
So... Hotels...
Margit and I go over some of our favorites and what we feel are some great reasons for going to a hotel versus a vacation home in the interview and mine is based on the newness of a hotel room vs. sleeping on someone's couch, which i just feel like i am with every bed and breakfast or air bnb that i have ever stayed at. Not actually ever having stayed at an air bnb, just seen them and i know i have friends who rent them out. I have had a bad experience with the next door neighbors pre covid who were renting out their one car garage and i am pretty sure if i had shown up to sleep in my neighborhood thinking that i was going to be on vacation in San Diego but was on a residential street with construction going on next door I would probably be less than happy about it. I would just warn people, "if it shows "beachy decor like pelicans and life preservers and is only $60/night it probably isn't that close to the beach..."
wendell burnette architects: amangiri
So being that the Amangiri is beautiful but prohibitively expensive for me to actually go there ($3500 is what they are quoting for me for my birthday) In this case if it was for one night, I really can't relax for just one night, it really takes me three and with that kind of money, I might as well just buy a lot in the desert and start my own hotel. But what I have decided to do is, stay overnight in the campground nearby and go there for lunch or dinner or a spa treatment to be able to relax in the pool. So, we shall see...
Margit mentioned "Ice Hotels" which I looked and here are two that I found look interesting, I would not be into it because of the cold, and even though we both went to school in Denmark, I grew up in Pittsburgh and find cold a little less romantic than other people, unless you are inside by the fire looking out at the cold.
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| view from the roof of our DIS Arc Studio |
When i lived in Copenhagen as a student, I stayed with a Danish Family and when we travelled on study tours, we rarely stayed anywhere nicer than a Vanderhjem (Youth Hostel) though we did stay at a couple nice hotels when I travelled when "my boyfriend Steve" came over, like two nights that broke the bank, I believe one night was when it was raining and there were no rooms at the inn, and we decided to just get a night at a nicer hotel in the Latin Quarter in Paris, and the last night before he left because we figured we would spend the rest of the money we had on a nice hotel room in Amsterdam by the Rijksmuseum.
But obviously when my parents came over, they stayed at a better hotel in Copenhagen, The Admiral, which is an old warehouse building that was renovated and then the one restaurant became a sensation years later with the haute cuisine chef and his foams....Salt. I figured that when I returned to Europe, I would be able to stay at a hotel, but alas when I returned to Denmark, it was after I had three children, one of them who was returning from study abroad in Spain and thanks to my danish family, my daughter and i lay on our respective mattresses in a fire truck bed that my danish sister's son had given up, (who are we kidding? no child in denmark ever sleeps in his own bed) but it was nice of him to offer.
I still want to go to this hotel, and I will, someday when i will get on a plane again...
The Inn at Price Tower by Frank Loyd Wright
So, one of the best things that i like about this hotel, is that they don't make you sleep on a bed that was slept on by FLW himself or feel like it has because it is so
OLD
When my boyfriend, now husband, now "it's complicated", and I first moved in together in his mother's house, we slept on the same mattress that she had because she left it when she moved to her husband's place, which to me is not so bad or weird, though some people may think it is for other reasons. A few years later after we had moved to Venice, (actually i only made it for 2 months in his mother's house, because paying double the rent and not having a 3 hour commute and a 7 am saturday morning key in the door was well worth it, (millenials take heed...) we had a baby, who slept with us, in spite of having the largest bedroom in the house to herself) and i said, because my back was bothering me, that we should probably get a new mattress and the father of my child said,
"Ya, my mother got this one off of a neighbor"
And i was freaking horrified. now i know why he really didn't feel that bad when we were staying at dumpy $25/night (or was it $15???) Paris hotels with lumpy mattresses where you roll into the middle and might have been made after they had to burn all of the ones from the bubonic plague.
We went to Mattress Discounter in Santa Monica immediately and paid almost more for the mattress, a queen size" because I don't think couples should ever buy bigger than that, than a month's rent...
AND IT WAS WELL WORTH IT!!!
So I am a Hilton Honors member as well as a Marriott W Member but a lot of great hotels are not part of these chains but the thing with those two chains are the absolutely great beds. I love a good bed and i love getting into a clean bed after a day driving or travelling, there is nothing better.
That said, I have a friend who is a great architect and they have done a lot of great rooms in hotels but they like upholstered headboards and I have always said,
"I don't want to have my head where someone has been and it can't be cleaned with a disinfectant"
and they said,
"well, i only design high end hotels and people who go there behave themselves and don't mess up things"
and I say,
"no, they don't and that is why they go to a hotel"
hilton hotels at home beddingl
So, there is a TABLET website that has a lot of great hotels on it that are nice. Here is the one that we stayed at for our honeymoon and as we are architects and got married in an Irving Gill House "The Clarke Estate" and we had our honeymoon night at this Julia Morgan architectural masterpiece. It was not done over when we stayed there in 1991, but it has been redone, not exactly what I would pick for a hotel room because like I say in the interview, if i wanted to stay in a place with junky mismatched furniture and "personal momentos" scattered all over, I would stay in my own house. And I would even say that about some of these hotel rooms in older places, perhaps if you would visit your parents and grandparents more often you would not have an affinity for these old collections in these hotel rooms. I am wondering how much of this stuff will be disposed of now that there is more cleaning going on...
And then we went to Catalina Island at Two Harbors which is where we had gone for a site visit for a second year school project for about no lie, one hour many years before.
Banning House Lodge, Two Harbors. Catalina Island
It looks like we only stayed at places with animal heads on the walls but in 1991, it wasn't a trend it was just historical to the house. However, our daughter who is an animal lover (but she is 26), just loves these heads and skulls and we did take them there one year on vacation when they were three, five and nine so who knows what impression it made on them. I can tell you that one of the biggest impressions it made on me is not to have your kid on your lap when the boat over is really choppy unless you want to walk around in slightly rank clothes for a few hours....
And here's a hotel that I think was the last hotel that I stayed at, LOL! And that was from a year ago... And it was with the AIA CRAN Symposium that will be virtual this year and it is going to break my heart for several different reasons....
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| I suppose this is "mood lighting" |
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| Arizona Morning Sun... |
Nice job, Margit and Michele! Palihouse gets my vote.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Laura!!! YOu need to go to Palihouse, just for the sentiment of staying in a Julia Morgan besides Asilomar. I need to do an interview with you also when we aren't in a zoom call for AIA LAA, lol!!!
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