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Dear Editor:
Hotel Carmichael is a luxury hotel, Carmel city hall elites claim.
Not being an expert, I contacted a good friend with decades of experience as a luxury hotel interior decorating consultant. Clients literally around the globe ask for insights when opulence is needed – from Dubai to Hong Kong and all points in between.
Here’s what my friend’s professional, practiced eye immediately found unusual: The exterior is a neo-classical and Second Empire hybrid that comes off both odd and banal. Inside, the lobby lounge appears clubby without the modern lifestyle features other upscale hotels offer routinely. Perhaps it is the renderings, but my friend found the lobby stiff. And that was the generous part of the observation.
Making things worse, the analysis came before the stone exterior changed to brick, the slate roof changed to shingles and the marble lobby flooring changed to ceramics.
More fitting for a midwestern, middle class suburb, my friend suggests, would have been a pure Federalist or a pure Americana, even a Mid-Century Modern look.
In architecture, as in life, it seems simple is classy and hybrid is banal.
“Too late for a course correction?” my friend asked.
Too late, indeed; $58.5 million too late.
Bill Shaffer
Carmel