Colorado Real Estate Journal - December 3, 2014
Reclaimed wood in restaurants is out, visceral is in in hotels and health care design isn’t about the “wow” factor. These are just a few of the topics spoken of during a panel discussion on design trends at the 2014 Commercial Architecture and Interior Design Conference. The Colorado Real Estate Journal sponsored the conference, with association partners IIDA Rocky Mountain Chapter and ASID Colorado, which was held in November at the Inverness Hotel & Conference Center in Englewood. “It used to be just food or just the experience at a restaurant. But now it’s both,” panelist Jeffrey L. Sheppard, AIA, principal Roth Sheppard Architects, said of design trends within the restaurant industry, noting changing demographics and culinary trends have influenced design. “Hotels need to respond to the experience economy,” echoed James G. Johnson, NCARB, LEED AP, founding principal of JG Johnson Architects, noting hotels are moving beyond just service. “Hotel design must respond to experience. Offer something more visceral, more experiences. Not just services.” Additionally, the concierge, service-type feel is growing in design of multifamily properties, according to speaker Paul Campbell, president of Kephart, while the heart of health care remains service, commented Rebecca Brennan, MNCID, AAHID, EDAC, IIDA, LEED AP, senior associate at Gallun Snow. “Health care design isn't about the wow factor, it’s about healing patients and the experience for clinicians in an everchanging environment.” Additional ideas and commentary from the panel discussion included: • Reclaimed wood, industrial nostalgia and transportative themes are on the way out in restaurant design. • Authentic is in in restaurants – rooted in culture and context – and the use of local materials and local foods in which the food is at the forefront and the restaurant is the background. • Organic LED lighting is coming and will change the nature of retail and restaurants. • The design of leasing offices and mailrooms at multifamily properties is changing – moving from just functional space to a design more concierge and service-type in nature with interesting color and art. • Hotel design is changing at an exponential rate. • Authenticity and character also are being incorporated in hotel design, as in the development of the Crawford Hotel at Union Station. • Hospitals are taking a cue from the hospitality industry from increasing ease of wayfinding to helping the public’s experience while at a hospital with patient experience officers. • There is a need for balance and creativity in use of materials that are suitable and safe for usage in a health care setting but also offer a design aesthetic and not void of stimulus for the patient. • Health villages, when health care is an anchor tenant to a commercial retail center or master-planned community, is a growing trend in the industry.