Originally Posted by
Fluff Ermine
Had a nice chat with the Guest Experiences manager and she mentioned that the design team doing the renovation was heavily leaning towards eliminating the longer hallway scheme in favor of a grand lobby space. A bit sad since I was a fan of the transitions between spaces, but understandable.
Quite sad indeed, but shouldn’t be surprising if you look at the portfolio of the designer they selected. Completely taken in by all the latest generic design fads around large, cold, uninviting spaces. A shame since Japan was one of the few places in the world that, at least until recently, seemed insulated from this madness.
The lack of a “grand lobby” was one of the signature features of this hotel. If they are planning to ditch that we have a pretty good indication they will have little deference elsewhere to the original design ethos of the property (which is worth noting stood the test of time for 30 years).
Predict whatever they will come up with will be hailed and win a slew of awards (from other designers of course) the year it’s unveiled, then will be dated and tired in 5.