Adding a Touch of Playful Luxury to Philadelphia's Hottest New Hotel

 

 

 

 

The Hyatt Centric Hotel, located on Chancellor Street in Philadelphia, opened in October 2021 after being in the works for more than 5 years. Centrally located in the heart of Philadelphia, this upscale lifestyle hotel contains 322 rooms, 22 suites and features contemporary guest rooms and hotel amenities such as Drybar Buttercup salon-quality blow-dryers in each room, more than 5,000 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting space, a lobby bar and restaurant featuring American cuisine, as well as a grab-and-go market. Located in Rittenhouse Square, one of Philadelphia's most desirable neighborhoods, the hotel is steps away from tree-filled parks, outdoor sculpture gardens, revered architecture, lauded dining, boutique shopping, and a lively nightlife.

 

 

 

 

Earlier this year, when Crème Design, the firm tasked with designing the hotel, came to us, they initially wanted to use our non-repeating ‘Terrains’ wallpaper in their bathrooms, as they felt it would compliment the palette of the rest of the room nicely. One issue that would arise however, was that for projects that require such a large volume like this hotel did, non-repeating murals may not always be the best option logistically as hospitality budgets tend to be tighter and there is often a great deal of variation between room sizes which can make standardizing pattern dimensions a bit tricky.

 

 

 

 

Instead, I proposed our ‘Dune’ pattern as an alternative which, while not as free-flowing as ‘Terrains’, still has a similar organic line work to it that we both agreed would work well. ‘Dune’ is a great example of a pattern that exists in one format, typically as a screen-print, that can be modified, re-colored and reworked to fit into another format such as a gravure print. We pride ourselves on this level of customization as we find this flexibility improves our relationships with designers. 

While our ‘Dune’ pattern is a repeat, typically it is screen-printed and for this project we needed to gravure print it in order to comply with the client’s budget. Gravure cylinders tend to have different spec limitations when compared to screens, so this required us to re-size the motif in order to make sure the flow of the pattern remained easy on the eyes. While it may not seem like it, a lot of time goes into making sure that a pattern feels seamless and this project was no exception. We also spent a fair amount of time making sure that the silver we chose was soft enough so that it would not feel too busy in the otherwise minimal space.

  

 

 

Looking back on this project, it was nothing short of a success. In fact, Crème Design actually won a Hospitality Design (HD) Award for their work on this hotel, so we were honored that they chose to feature the Dune pattern in it. This project also appears in my hometown, which makes it all the more special.