This is a collection of the most creative restaurant designs in the world, from risky and modern to traditional and laid back. This compilation of vivid photographs and detailed layouts gives examples ...
Travelers may want the comforts of home when they're on the road, but that doesn't mean they want a hotel room in Beijing to look exactly like one in Boston or Bonn. Vantage Hospitality Group is trading on this trend to carve out a niche in China. With its "Freestyle Lodging Membership" alternative to franchising, Coral Gables, Fla.-based Vantage is banking on a have-it-your-way approach to design and operations to accelerate development in Asia's hottest market.
Chinese members are taking advantage of this design freedom to deliver concepts with cross-over appeal to domestic and international travelers. In the China's Best Value Inn North Bund, Shanghai, developer Shanghai Zhe Pong Investment and Management synthesizes the glass-fronted bathroom and statement-making headboard typical of Western-style suites with monochromatic colors and stylized art prints that clearly reference the Asian setting. The fusion is particularly important for this 58-room property located in a district filled with American-style shopping centers.
Vantage's Lexington Collection added the five-star Lexington Plaza, a 600-room property in Shenyang late in 2007. Trendzone Construction keeps the cross-cultural references in the Shenyang hotel sophisticated and subtle: A Chinese red headboard in an otherwise neutral guest room, quiet pattern-on-pattern carpets that typify European design, and rich woods and natural stone that are design idioms throughout the world.
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