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L
auren Rottet — Founding Principal of Rottet
Studio, and the first woman to be a fellow of
both the International Interior Design Association
and the American Institute of Architects — is
well-known for her work with commercial office space and
luxury high rises. But she is also fast becoming the go-to for
hoteliers seeking soaring imagination.Shortly after launching her eponymous firm Rottet Studio, an international architecture
and design firm based in Houston with offices in Los Angeles and New York City and a
presence in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Rottet made her presence known in the luxury
hospitality scene with the revamp of The Surrey Hotel on New York’s Upper East Side.
“They had seen an office project of mine that was published in a magazine, that was
French, beautiful and contemporary and they reached out. They let their designer, who
they were not happy with, go,” Rottet recalls, “and told me we had a year to finish the
whole project.”
She jumped at the opportunity. “I love to travel and I’d been dying to do a hotel
because with the good ones it’s all about design. They want a story and I had been
storing up ideas in my head for 20 years. Everything I had always wanted to do just
poured out and it was a big, big hit.”
With rave reviews from both Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure magazines,
The Surrey, housed in a 1925 beaux arts building that was home to superstar chef
Daniel Boulud’s Café Boulud, would become the number one hotel in New York
for nearly a decade. A fine arts major in college before she made the switch to
architecture, Rottet filled it with art she acquired at galleries and auctions, appointing
the luxe rooms with Duxiana beds, Sferra sheets and Waterworks fixtures. The Bar
Pleiades became a magnet for Madison Avenue’s fashion elite.
“That was 2008, the height of the recession, and it came on with such a big
bang that we were almost instantly approached by others,” she says. “They were
all renovations because no one could afford to do a new build. While the office
business stopped flat, the hotels took us through the downtime and we loved the
work. Now, while we still do high-rise residential [she is currently at work on the tallest
all-residential building in the world, Central Park Tower in Manhattan], hotels are
probably the largest part of our business.”
Following The Surrey, high-profile hotel projects included the Loews Regency Hotel
in Manhattan, The James Royal Palm in Miami Beach, the St. Regis Aspen Resort and,
most recently, the Renaissance Atlanta Airport Gateway Hotel by Marriott, a three-year
project that would be eventually be named Best of Year Winner for Small Chain Hotel
by Interior Design.Alternate Flight Path
Unlike archetypal airport hotels — where the best thing that can be said
about the accommodations is their proximity to a terminal — Rottet and
her team set out to counter the genre cliché. The result is a four-star
experience for the business traveler, filled with luxurious, modern
comforts and amenities inspired by the local life, culture and energy of
Atlanta, two minutes from the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
According to Rottet, the property’s development was grounded
on rebranding, expanding and redefining the typical airport hotel for
travelers seeking an escape. In keeping with the Renaissance brand
mantra — “business unusual” — the project embodied three key themes:
a high/low mix of materials and experiences, true placemaking, and the
idea of looking, then looking again. As such, every detail is embedded with
elements of surprise and discovery for travelers seeking creative experiences toGrounded in luxury design,
interior architect Lauren
Rottet (right) let her creativity
take wing in the Renaissance
Atlanta Airport Gateway
Hotel, which has been called
“an inviting alternative to
OPENING IMAGE: ERIC LAIGNEL, LAUREN ROTTET HEAD SHOT: DAMIAN MIRANDAstaid airport lounges.”