Transforming Daily Life into a Rock & Roll Fantasy
A rockin’ Cleveland hotel and urban lifestyle concept that could have been.
Imagine THIS...
Front row access to Cleveland’s entrepreneurial spirit & cultural diversity
For discriminating travelers seeking escape from everyday life, we (almost) translated the grit and luxury of rock & roll into a dynamic boutique hotel through our unique approach to hospitality design.
Prepared for a multinational music corporation, our team collaborated with a local developer and architectural firm who shared the mission of driving new tourism to Cleveland with craft concepts that made innovative use of space and captured the essence of a rock & roll lifestyle.
Create a unique atmosphere at your property.
THE LOCATION
Situated on prime lakefront real estate adjacent to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the hotel would make a statement that would draw both locals and visitors. From the start, the building was concepted for multi-use: a performance venue, experiential hotel, and residential building in one.
The Opportunity
A rust belt city skeptical of hype craves a buzzworthy space to increase visitation and local engagement. A group of investors takes a risk
The concept needed to fit into the spirit of Cleveland yet be novel enough to excite both locals and visitors. How can a space seamlessly move guests between high luxury and gritty culture?
The Vision
A gateway to all Cleveland
has to offer
Richardson Design collaborated with Kaczmar Architects Incorporated and a local developer to help investors and decision makers visualize the potential of a place that unified art, technology, and culture.
Its waterfront location planned to draw hotel guests, concertgoers, and the general public alike. Unique amenities distinguished the hotel from other downtown locations. The guest experience was modeled to mimic a rock star Rider. Punctuated with personal preferences, this made for a memorable stay.
The Vibe: Tech meets luxury meets industrial grit
Anything but ordinary, this hospitality design concept was slated to contrast lights and darks, dashed with glittering metallic elements to catch the eye.
If this David Bowie lyric was a hotel space, what would it look like? What would it feel like? The space needed to convey a sense of adventure and escape, the possibility of surprise, and the feeling that anything was possible.
From lobby to venue to guest room and every space in between, our team brought together raw elements like salt, steel, light and glass for a bold rock & roll vibe.
The First Floor:
Dynamic elements for an unexpected experience
The performance venue designed for the first floor welcomed the public into an engaging space. As the design agency, we had to carefully balance audacious statements with a seamless first floor experience.
Schematics from salt mines near Cleveland were used as the pattern for theater lobby flooring to welcome visitors with local history.
Our team planned for warm lighting and a floor-to-ceiling screen, both customizable to suit the moods of different events or artists.
The performance venue’s neutral design made it a blank slate for each artist to make it their own. The clean lines of the unadorned walls and ceiling directed all the attention to the performance rather than the space.
The Lobby:
Layered luxury and
comfort on display
The lobby was planned for the second floor – guests could mix with the public downstairs but escape to the lobby to relax like rock & royalty.
The space was a wash of contrasting texture and materials: more luxury, more grit, more rock in the gleaming materials, rich wood and plush seating.
The GATHERING PLACES:
PLACES TO SEE AND BE SEEN
Iconic hotels with effective hospitality design are anchored by restaurants, bars and exclusive access spaces that embrace guests and make a memorable statement. Given that late night revelry is essential to a proper rock & roll lifestyle, the dining and VIP concepts needed to be buzzworthy, in more ways than one.
The venue:
Warm and upscale with sweeping lake views, The Venue restaurant design blended sultry colors with cool steel, glass and technology.
The VIP Bar + Salt Room:
Elevated in both aesthetic and location, the VIP Bar and a salt room were situated at the top of the hotel where guests could enjoy refined opulence in a discreet setting.
The Recording Studio
& Media Lounge:
Inner rock stars come out to play
A luxurious escape in the gritty birthplace of rock & roll deserved its own on-site recording studios. These studios were decked out with the latest recording technology in safe, bold spaces where creativity could run wild. Richardson Design intended this amenity to provide uninhibited opportunities for both hotel guests and the community, with programming planned to attract local musicians and students who had a desire to explore the power of music
The media lounge was a mixed-use space for smaller public events like TED Talks or VIP artist Q&As. The intimate space was designed for ultimate comfort and reflected the high caliber of guest speakers.
The Guest Experience, ELEVATED:
Live the fantasy with your own rock star Rider
Unique, experiential and curated, each hotel stay was intended to be as distinctive as the guests themselves. Through the hotel app, guests completed The Rider, a questionnaire that customized everything from themed room accessories to personalized restaurant specials. This inventive approach served to surprise and delight the guests, while also leveraging vast inventories of musical history and paraphernalia available through the nearby Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
This hotel concept was a pitch of a lifetime that generated buzz and investment on a national scale. Just before it was poised to take flight, economic uncertainty grounded the concept and sent these marquee ideas to the pitch graveyard.
Concept visualization can help activate the potential in any early-stage project. Connect with Richardson, a Cleveland design firm, to learn more about this process here.
Photography Credit: Unsplash
Photography used in this project is property of its respective owners.
Built with Shorthand