HB ON THE SCENE: Gold Key Awards Honors Year's Best In Hotel Design

Posted 11/9/2009 - 11:22:44 AM

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NEW YORK—The 29th annual Gold Key Awards were given out today at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel here. The ceremony honored excellence in hospitality design in a broad variety of categories, including guestroom, suite, spa, lobby and lounge.

Among the winners were AB Concept for the Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Hong Kong for its lobby/reception area; BAMO for design of the spa and the suites at the Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora in Bora Bora, Tahiti; Richardson Sadeki for the Lapis spa at the Fountainebleu Miami; Marcel Wanders Studio for the Mondrian Miami in the lounge/bat category; and Clodagh Design for the guestrooms at the Miraval  in Catalina, AZ. The Four Seasons Bora Bora Resort also took the top honors for Best Hotel Design-Urban, while the Las Alcobas in Polanco, Mexico designed b Yabu Pushelberg won for Best Hotel Design-Resort. 

Also honored during the ceremony was the late Jerry Hruby-Holy, founder of Unilight, with the NEWH Icon of the Industry Award. Hruby-Holy's son, Thomas, Unilight's current president, accepted the award on his father's behalf and also presented student Saray Gill with the Icon of Industry Scholarship award.

Alexandra Champalimaud, president and principal designer of Champalimaud was presented with the Designer of the Year award. Upon accepting her award, she encouraged the design community to look forward to a bright future. "Let's get ready for 2010, it's going to be a tough one. But I think 2011 is going to be fabulous. We're all in this together," she said.