The Westin Downtown Phoenix is not your typical Westin. Not only does it showcase the brand’s newly debuted room design, but it also is part of a dynamic mixed-use building that required a multitude of complicated plans to keep the hotel separate from the other components of the structure to establish its own identity.
Occupying nine floors of the 26-story building, which mainly houses Fortune 500 mining company Freeport McMoRan, the space the Westin Phoenix Downtown is located in was not intended to be a hotel when the structure was constructed. Local architectural firm SmithGroup was already at work designing the tower when the suggestion of adding a hotel was made. “We knew all along that the top of the building would be offices, but the owner was concerned about the bottom floors staying vacant,” said Brad Lang, architect, SmithGroup. “Then someone just mentioned the possibility of a hotel and the idea suddenly got legs.”
Lang noted there was actually a very real necessity for a hotel in the space, not just to fill out the building, but to help accommodate travelers to the downtown Phoenix area with the recent addition of its new convention center. “The city has this brand new convention center, but there really were not enough hotel rooms downtown for it to host really large groups of people,” he said.
SmithGroup teamed with design firm Gensler to devise a way to assimilate the Westin into the structure in a way that would retain the brand’s hallmarks but also not infringe on the offices. “The separation factor really drove the design. From the start, Freeport McMoRan had a lobby that was exclusively theirs and didn’t want cross traffic there, so we had to create a new entry sequence into the building for the hotel guests.” That entrance is located on the west side of the building and from there, a distinct route was designed for guests to enter, check in, then go around Freeport McMoRan’s lobby to access the elevators. “It’s actually a very long route, but we made it feel very inviting and natural,” he said.
While there were certain necessary adjustments that needed to be made in terms of complying with Westin’s brand standards, Lang said the building actually also allowed for the enhancement of other portions of the hotel that went beyond brand standards. “We submitted deviations [of brand standards]to Westin and they were very accommodating because they recognized this as a unique opportunity. But there were also benefits—the footprints of the guestrooms are very large, about 15-feet wide with floor-to-ceiling glass.”
The Westin Phoenix Downtown’s 242 guestrooms boast the brand’s new prototype with calming colors, sleek furniture and rich textures. Inspired by the location’s natural elements, the rooms incorporate a neutral color palette, natural woods and stone with LED lighting, ergonomic workstations and the Westin Heavenly Bed. “Because of the structural grid system, we were given wider and deeper bays and larger module sizes than typical for a hotel property,” said Steve Upchurch, project manager and hospitality practice leader for Gensler’s Los Angeles office. “This allowed us to create unique guestrooms and raise the bar for Westin standards. It also encouraged us to be more imaginative in creating an exceptional guest experience in the restaurant, bar, large meeting spaces, pool and fitness amenities.”
Province, the hotel’s signature restaurant, is located off the hotel’s lobby and features a large patio for outdoor dining and a waterfall that cascades from the second level pool. On the 11th and 12th floors is more than 15,000-square-feet of meeting space, six hospitality suites and a fitness center with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on the surrounding valley and mountains.
Since its debut in early March, the hotel is already playing a pivotal role in the revitalization of downtown Phoenix. “We took a nine-to-five office building and gave new vitality to the area with a restaurant, bar and lounge located on one of the city’s main street corners. It adds to the nightlife and pedestrian presence, which is what the city has really been striving for,” Lang said.