Designer Forum: A lodge renovation rests on finishes that echo its natural surroundings – December 2024

By Marcio Decker

Nestled between towering peaks in the High Sierras, Palisades Tahoe Lodge is a revered destination for outdoor enthusiasts, offering access to Alpine Meadows Ski Resort and North Lake Tahoe. Its proximity to cycling and hiking trails, swimming holes and epic ski runs makes it popular year-round. The lodge anchors a community of privately owned condos that serve as vacation rentals, offering guests the chance to stay at the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics and immerse themselves in natural beauty. While the jaw-dropping aesthetic surrounding the lodge is ageless, the lodge’s interior no longer mirrored its world-class appeal, so Aspen Leaf Interiors by Marcio Decker was called in to help reimagine and update the space, which won the American Society of Interior Designers’ 2023 ANDYZ Award for Best Hospitality Space.

DUAL PRIORITIES
Leaning into the site’s unique history and breathtaking mountainous setting, the design firm set out to craft a modern alpine retreat. The team wanted to create a sense of harmony between the interior and the lodge’s natural surroundings. The aim was to design a space that is comfortable but has an edge and a sophistication to match other top resorts, while keeping the sense of location.

Since the lodge is also part of a residential community served by a homeowners association (HOA), there were specific requirements that had to be met. A cost-effective yet contemporary design was prioritized, along with compliance with California Green Building code-similar to LEED Silver standards-for lighting and electrical upgrades, plumbing fixtures and window upgrades.

There were ongoing plan iterations and HOA reviews to implement an affordable design that achieved the HOA’s goals. All materials had to be well researched before final selections for durability and cost effectiveness. This objective was accomplished through strong and clear communication between ownership, management, construction and the design team. Well-thought-out revisions and re-selections during construction allowed everyone’s goals to be achieved.

The design team had to be resourceful and create high-impact visual areas while keeping an eye on the bottom line. The dramatic entry, lobby and reception areas feature elements that reflect the natural environment surrounding the lodge and reference the historic valley in which it sits. Specifying flooring, textiles, wallcoverings and finishes that provide the ambiance of a residential home achieved the goal of retaining the mountain lodge feel.

THE DESIGN
To keep the mountain lodge feel, the sophisticated design creates a sense of location with subtle references to the historic Olympic Valley without relying on obvious and cliché elements. This was accomplished through several means: careful space planning; close attention to scale; changing the color scheme to a bright and high-contrast palette that is still warm and inviting; and updating the various layers of lighting to better illuminate the space.

The reception area creates a grand entrance and a sense of arrival, and there is an increase in transparency between the interior lobby and porte-cochere after eliminating the original large staircase that was situated in the middle of the lobby, promoting connectivity between the spaces. A nod to the valley where the property is located is apparent at the entrance, with light fixtures that resemble Olympic rings and torches. The design on the table is a topographic map of Olympic Valley.

Based on the building management team’s previous experience, they wanted the new flooring material to offer ease of replacement. And it had to provide a weather-resistant solution for the ski gear and rolling loads that the lobby experiences daily, while maintaining guest safety and reducing the likelihood of slips and falls. To satisfy all of these requirements, the team specified a combination of LVT from Shaw Contract, with walk-off carpet from the brand’s Steppin Out Welcome II Tile collection to trap snow, dirt and moisture at the entrance.

Appearing like individual tiles of end-cut wood, Shaw’s Cut LVT in Sienna creates the illusion of a tree trunk, guiding guests into the lobby. The team drew inspiration from nature-rocks, mountains, trees, textures, minerals and metallics-selecting an eclectic collection of natural components that include wood wall cladding layered with a glass art installation, live-edge walnut slab accents and wall art, wood and branch motif wallcoverings that go from abstraction to realism, and birch space dividers. Like branches of a tree, Cove LVT in Cornerstone, laid on a diagonal, splits off of Cut’s marquetry pattern.

Exploration is encouraged through wayfinding flooring material layouts. The unique entrance flooring steers guests in both directions, to reception or into the grand lobby. Removing the central staircase near the entrance allowed for a more open and welcoming space plan and room for a new coffee/wine bar. Various furniture groupings were created to expand the usage of the common areas and provide guests with ample space to gather.

To help with sound absorption and create a cozy environment befitting the two-story fireplace, a large island of Shaw Contract’s Process modular carpet is inlaid in the lobby. The carpet tile’s organic, contoured linears resemble the curves of the mountains and the striations of stone. It was important to be able to match flooring heights throughout the space to reduce tripping hazards, and the predominant use of one manufacturer provided a more cost-effective design.

The design is unique in the mix of materials, where the high contrast and the play with scale are everywhere. The bathrooms and locker rooms maintain the bold color concept with black, white and grey geometric tile from Bedrosians, Daltile, Stone Products Unlimited and Walker Zanger, which contrasts white countertops and light laminate lockers, countertop accents and stall partitions. In the lobby’s all-gender restrooms, for example, Daltile’s Choreo in Sequence creates a refined yet rustic modern parquet porcelain floor that exudes the color scheme and echoes the natural influences throughout. On the walls, Bedrosians’ Chateau encaustic porcelain in Midnight is capped by penny rounds from Cepac Tile in Obsidian.

The new sleek designs for the sauna and steam rooms include wall accents in a corresponding mosaic tile: Lunada Bay’s Normandie Deco in Mica. Its geometric design creates a cascading effect, running down the walls like sheets of water. And Bedrosians’ Hemisphere Crazy Random Square Interlocking Mosaic in Sumatra creates a biophilic base that complements the natural stone and wood used elsewhere on the walls and on the ceiling.

Copyright 2024 Floor Focus

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