Part of the Hilton line of boutique hotels, DoubleTree is known for welcoming guests with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and heartfelt greetings. These friendly and delicious gestures are part of an overall commitment to providing a rewarding experience for their guests. For the owners of DoubleTree Buckhead, however, the tired and dated interiors they acquired were decidedly unrewarding, uninspiring, and altogether unbecoming of the sophisticated neighborhood surrounding the hotel. So, one of the first decisions made by the new ownership was to enlist the talents of ai3 to help infuse the hotel with fresh comfort and style. 

 

While ai3 is known for their visionary designs and ability to create transportive environments, it’s their resourcefulness that enables big thinking without compromise to budgets. Nowhere is this more true than in the hospitality industry, where capital improvements are multiplied and costs add up quickly. It’s no surprise then that the DoubleTree project came with a tight budget, something that ai3 viewed, not as a limitation, but as a simple factor in the design equation.

 

Part of that design equation involved the magnitude of DoubleTree, which includes 230 rooms and a conference center. ai3 quickly saw an opportunity for DoubleTree to achieve significant impact from simple materials paired with color and texture. To begin, ai3 brightened the communal spaces, painting the dark millwork and removing the tired carpeting in the Lobby and Bar. The resulting setting is more contemporary, with a residential aesthetic that makes the most of existing natural light. The removal of barrier walls around the business center opens the space further. Likewise, ai3 added flexibility, comfort and personality to these areas by replacing outdated task-oriented furnishings with eclectic, multi-functional pieces that can shift easily from day to night.

 

Guestrooms at DoubleTree received a similar overhaul and update. ai3 extended the airy, monochromatic quality of the lobby into the guestrooms, replacing the random mix of colors and patterns with a simple subdued palette that complements, rather than competes with the existing carpet. Guestroom furnishings have improved dramatically with the installation of streamlined casegoods. The new casegoods have timeless style and limitless functionality, providing for storage, desk space, lighting, power accessibility and relaxation. Wall-hung casegoods seem to float in the room, giving the impression that the overall room is larger and more open.

 

Careful not to overlook the spaces that connect the guestrooms and communal areas, ai3 also revived the corridors within DoubleTree with a light color palette and updated lighting, extending the bright, airy quality throughout the hotel.