DOUBLETREE MELBOURNE

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, 2014

PROJECT OVERVIEW...

New Boutique Hotel design including External Podium, Lobby, Public Areas, Meeting Rooms, Gym, Restaurant / Bar.

The guiding design principle was that since the hotel is located in the gritty Flinders Street precinct of Melbourne directly adjacent to the iconic Flinders Street Train Station, the world’s busiest train station in the late 1920’s, the hotel should be equally gritty - yet still comfortable, inviting, unique and exciting.  There is no legacy-branded Hilton Hotel world-wide with such a divergence from a corporate hotel look.

 To appeal to Melbourne’s heightened design aesthetic the new dramatic, gritty look begins along the exterior facade, featuring mild steel panels with differing profiles as well as steel louvered screens covering the windows. Even the corporate hotel sign has been totally re-invented to match the area and new look.

Once inside the customer finds mostly stripped back concrete walls, artistically "aged" and sealed to avoid the usual cold ambience produced by concrete interiors, eclectic steel profile walls, a teak and custom cast brass bar counter where customers check-in -, 4.5 metre (17.75 Ft) high steel, glass and teak wine towers, black leather cladding to the lift wall, a dramatic open kitchen at the rear of the lobby and no ceiling, leaving services exposed and acoustically flocked.

There is a dramatic centre lobby steel fireplace roughly separating the entry bar reception and restaurant areas with steel cage booths lining both walls to add both intimacy as well as intrigue. Dreamtime's founder Michael McCann's daughter Michelena designed a striking matchstick art piece over the bar reception counter depicting the fascinating (then) new art form of lightbombing.

SERVICES PROVIDED...

Concept Creation, Exterior / Interior Design, Kitchen & Bar Design, Illumination Design, Graphic Design & Operational Consulting.

AWARDS…

Winner Best New Hotel Design World-wide, WIN Awards, London, 2015

Finalist in Australia’s prestigious 2015 “I.D.E.A.” Hospitality Design Award for best new hospitality venue of the year.