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Thompson Hotels hopes to revolutionize the lifestyle sector with a design approach that combines the “aah” with the avant-garde.
By Mary Scoviak
Equity/real estate investors Larry, Michael and Jason Pomeranc and their partner, veteran hotelier Stephen Brandman, had experienced too many lifestyle hotels that weren't about their lifestyle. "We saw a lot of boutique hotels that offered a couple of ‘oh-my-god' design moments and not much more," says Brandman, co-owner of that partnership's New York-based Thompson Hotels. "Lifestyle properties have to be about more than oversized red lampshades."
This luxury boutique management company is one of the young bloods leading lifestyle design deeper into the residential realm. Like a client planning a home, Thompson's leadership challenges interior designers to amp up the impact of the basics rather than relying on flashy gimmicks. Essential design elements from seating to surfacing are the primary design drivers for its 10 diverse hotels. It's the elevation of everyday pieces that carries an immersive "wow" factor from the public spaces through to the guest rooms.
Where over-hip boutique hotels might use neon, lip-shaped lights to shake up guest bathroom design, Thompson and Studio Gaia reinvent the shower as a cocoon-like spiral in the group's newest property, Donovan House in Washington, D.C. Maybe a three-legged chair fits Philippe Starck's lifestyle, but how many frequent travelers want one in their home?
Even creative types pre-booking the soon-to-open Thompson LES (Lower East Side) are more likely to covet the softly sculpted updated wingback chairs chosen by interior designer Jim Walrod. For travelers who want to live like the "The Avengers," there are the custom mod furnishings interior design firm Richardson Sadeki will install in the Smyth Tribeca, which opens in 2009.
Materials and finishes in a high-volume hotel clearly have to be more durable than their residential counterparts, but they don't have to feel or look institutional. "We're not afraid of using unusual elements such as leather or high-end materials such as limestone, walnut or teak. We don't want design that looks too commercial," says Brandman. And, yes, replacement costs are higher, he acknowledges. "But if the design is working for the market, rates and occupancy should be higher, too. Sixty Thompson [the group's first hotel, which opened in 2001] still posts occupancy in the mid-90s at an average rate just under $500 a night."
Siblings, not Clones
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