Chosen by Edinburgh-based Gladedale Capital, Ltd., to design the new construction portion of its ambitious $500-million Quartermile adaptive reuse of the historic Royal Infirmary, Lord Norman Foster and his fellow architects at Foster + Partners delivered a series of modern glass and steel structures.
“The new buildings, which include office, residential and retail components, dramatically set off the detailed Victorian former hospital buildings that date back to 1720,” explained Paul Curran, Gladedale Capital managing director.
One of those contemporary buildings is now home to a 107-suite Residence Inn by Marriott, which opened last November, the second of Marriott International’s upscale, extended-stay hotels to open in Europe.
The task of devising the hotel’s interiors—interiors that would respect the architects’ clean lines and modern sensibility, while at the same time providing comfortable surroundings for guests—fell to ICA Interiors, a Scottish design firm based in the Glasgow suburb of East Kilbride.
Working with Marriott International’s Architecture & Construction group in Bethesda, MD, ICA Interiors project leader Dawn Campbell and her team developed a suitable residential look and feel for the guestrooms and public spaces. A second objective was to incorporate traditional Scottish colors and fabrics to give the interiors an important sense of place.
“We created that residential feel primarily by using warm tones and natural materials. Guestrooms include elements that anyone would recognize from their own home, including rugs over hardwood floors, oversized cushions on the sofa and pillows on the bed,” Campbell explained.
Thanks to Foster + Partners’ steel and glass architecture, guestrooms are flooded with natural light during the day. “Lighter timber furniture was chosen to complement the abundance of natural light,” she noted, adding that the flooring is eco-friendly bamboo.
The color palette in both guestrooms and public spaces is strong on neutral tones, including beige, a darker brown and shades of pale yellow and gold. “The colors were influenced by the layering and textural quality of traditional Scottish fabrics,” Campbell said.
While public spaces in extended-stay hotels generally don’t tend to be overly spacious, Campbell said she was pleased in being able to create what she called “pockets of comfort.”
Noted Diane Mayer, Residence Inn VP & global brand manager: “The designers did an excellent job in implementing one of the brand’s core brand standards—the idea that the guestroom be zoned with distinct areas for cooking, eating, relaxation and sleeping.”
Like guestrooms in Residence Inns in the U.S., the Edinburgh hotel’s rooms feature full kitchens comprised of appliances made by such top-of the-line vendors as Bosch, Grohe, Dualite and LovA.
“The kitchens have proven popular, especially for breakfast,” noted General Manager Colin Richards. The hotel offers a complimentary breakfast, but “once the novelty wears off, many guests on an extended stay prefer to make a leisurely breakfast in their room.” Other suppliers include LG Electronics, iHome, Duravit, VingCard and Fishers.
“Having the Residence Inn open has made the Quartermile a more vibrant community,” Curran concluded. “While it’s residential in feel, it’s also added variety and a sense of excitement to the project’s residential apartments that occupy both newly constructed buildings and restored and repurposed former Royal Infirmary buildings.”
