Lake House hotel renovation

As we are coming up to the holiday season it’s always a good idea to get into the mood checking out some hotels. Looking around North America we found the recent renovation of The Lake House hotel in Lake placid, upstate NY (famous for holding the Winter Olympics in 1980 and 1932). The challenge here was to create a hotel that had to be in-keeping with the regional style, yet remain modern and stylish to draw visitors from more populous areas to a relatively quiet area of the country. The team tasked with this (Tag Collective) created this environment with a strong focus on the hotel branding and a detailed attention to every aspect of the hotels function.

This boutique hotel sits on the shores of Mirror lake on the outskirts of the village, Its location is right in the centre of the Adirondack mountain range, therefore the hotel is geared towards walking and hiking the nearby peaks.

The designers Tag Collective decided to rename the hotel as ‘The lake House’ rather than its original name suggesting a smaller more cosy guest house instead of an ordinary hotel. Aligning the hotel with their target guests.

The project required a full rebrand of the hotel’s identity. This led to a visual system Inspired by the local area especially the walking and adventure routes surrounding the hotel. Using topographical patterns and co-ordinates and drawing influence from the names of each of the Adirondack’s 46 high peaks. Tag created these visual patterns and muted secondary colour palette. Only using a bold red to combine with the wood as the primary focus.

The bar section uses repurposed floorboards and wooden picnic benches to create a rustic interior. The red window frames draw attention to the views outside. The red becomes part of the way-finding system for the bedroom areas of the hotel. The form and numerical graphics reminiscent of trail markers found whilst walking around the hotel. The red coping to the awning helps highlight the foyer for arriving guests. Although not all guests need a vintage red ’58 Chevrolet Corvette to enter (Or the Ford Mustang for that matter), the hotel is sensibly priced to remain competitive in the region.

Bedrooms are simple but warm with the branded red on each large Bed, Backlighting in the ceiling help to create a modern glow to the rustic interior design. Each room is named after one of the 46 high peaks in the mountain range, with details & co-ordinates for each mountain helping to brand each room separately. Each room has a custom poster designed by Tag to inform visitors of the Mountain their room is named after. The customary free toiletries are rebranded as well helping to continue the boutique nature of the hotel. With a detailed attention to every aspect of the hotel makes for a winning design.

This hotel shows the importance of strong identity, every minuscule & major aspect in the building is designed to connect and match and work together. From large architectural sections to pens, and toiletries. It’s this attention to detail in branding & interior environments that can produce a successful concept and many happy guests.

Images:

Tag Collective