60
the World Of Hospitality
one-of-a-kind hotel offers a refreshing alternative for
guests seeking a more personalized experience and
our aim was to ensure the customer was at the heart of
that proposition. This formed the foundation of our
new brand ethos – ‘Stay Individual’ – which is brought
to life at every touch point and across all branding
materials.’
‘We like to do things differently at the Athenaeum,”
commented General Manager Jeremy Hopkins. ‘We
are stylish and glamorous without pretension and our
team are allowed to let their individual personalities
shine through, so that the guest experience is
enhanced and crafted just for them. When guests
arrive we might say hello to strangers, but we say
goodbye to friends.’
The work led to a re-naming of the hotel as The
Athenaeum Hotel & Residences (formerly ‘&
Apartments’) to stay true to the brand’s English
heritage. The positioning also lay behind the offering
of British classics by The Galvin Brothers on their
restaurant menu for the first time. The updated
identity work then led to a huge raft of graphic
applications, with Kinnersley Kent Director of
Graphics Kenny Sum and team overseeing the design
of almost 80 individual items, from menus and
coasters through to luggage tags, cocktail invitations,
notepads, pencils and guest postcards.
The Athenaeum Hotel & Residences
Design Walk-through:
Lobby and overall interiors palette
Exterior façade, entrance and terrace
For the newly-remodeled, double-height lobby area where the whole mezzanine galleried section has been
squared off and pulled back to double the available
space - the design team applied a playful interior
architectural signature in the form of an eclectic mix
of classic British furniture items, to reflect the hotel’s
strong British heritage, mixed with contemporary and
mid-century-modern European pieces.
The hotel’s external appearance has been transformed,
with an entirely new ground-floor-level façade offering
guests spectacular leafy views out across the Royal
Green Park via new floor-to-ceiling windows. An
impressive new, fully DDA-compliant main entrance
has been relocated to the left of the façade, directly
alongside the ‘Living Wall’ and created according to a
design aesthetic of ‘authentic deco’. It therefore features
classic architectural details of the era, such as stepped
bronzework and geometric shapes, with a pattern
overlaid on the doors, along with bespoke gilded metal
inlays, featuring abstracted art deco shaping.
Outside the front of the hotel, a new terrace area has
been created, forming one of the very few outdoor
dining areas on Piccadilly in what was a relatively lowkey, but very successful, transformation of available
space in the project’s earliest phase. The design team
also converted an existing secondary entrance on
Downs Street into a new glass box with solid doors to
serve as a direct entrance for non-resident guests to
the hotel’s stunning new destination bar – ‘THE BAR
at The Athenaeum’.
‘We think of it as ‘mismatching’ with an educated,
curated eye’, Jill Higgins said, adding that the chosen
materials palette was ‘Rich, understated, high quality,
indulgent and luxurious.’
The scheme features lots of contrast and texture, with
high-gloss and reeded finishes and thin and elegant
metal forms set against a muted and subtle colour
palette, punctuated by bright and contemporary
accents. Materials include mesh-within-glass and a
curated rose bronze that the Kinnersley Kent Design
team created in order to get the exact look and feel
required for the galleried balustrade to the mezzanine.
Stunning, open, metal screens create semi-private
zoning between the open-plan lobby and restaurant
space, whilst the columns, which are a strong feature
of the space, are clad in a striking, narrow-reeded
dark timber. The overall result is both playful and