Westin Hotels & Resorts on Wednesday announced a new workspace concept to re-invent the hotel business center.
After conducting guest research and monitoring business traveler trends, Westin is transforming business centers and dedicated spaces at its hotels around the world into functional workspaces. Modeled to support today’s mobile traveler, the interconnected workspace dubbed Project Hive features media:scape by Steelcase technology, video conferencing, connectivity and collaboration areas.
The workspace is intended to host small impromptu meetings and can be booked by the hour, at a moment’s notice.
The new workspace is currently available at The Westin Boston Waterfront and The Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel and soon at the Westin Grand Munich with plans to roll out globally through 2013.
Project Hive is just one part of Westin’s new lobby concept that will include a vertical garden and redesigned social/meeting space to inspire wellness, according to a Starwood Hotels & Resorts spokeswoman. Its Sheraton brand is also redesigning its lobby space.
Westin’s new workspace features:
- media:scape by Steelcase technology that offers an interactive space for participants to access and share digital information quickly and seamlessly. Video conferencing is also available at a four person seated workspace.
- Samsung televisions, printers, sound systems, Xbox 360 for games or DVDs.
- Floor-to-ceiling white boards and fully stocked office supplies offer convenience and promote collaboration.
- Wired and wireless Internet for no additional fee. Flexible outlets are also located throughout the space allowing devices to power up regardless of location.
- Privacy for groups of up to four to conduct small group meetings or hold calls and teleconferences.
- Quick, impromptu online bookings from anywhere with LiquidSpace.com.
“More than 70% of business travelers told us that an environment that better supports their work objectives would significantly improve their business travel experience and 48% said having facilities available whenever they wanted to use them would positively impact the quality of their hotel stay,” said Brian Povinelli, global brand leader for Westin Hotels. “While a hotel room or lobby is a place where you can do work, this workspace was specifically designed as a smart room that promotes productivity and reflects today’s social and work trends.”
Westin’s Vice President of Design Erin Hoover worked with her team to create a space that also embraced the trend of “co-working” where flexible, temporary, collaborative workspaces are becoming imperative for high-performance work. Within a small footprint of 260 sq ft (24 sq m) or less, the workspace consists of communal, interactive and individual work zones.
The design team used inspiration from nature to create the color palette for the space and a large-scale wall mural. The mural was derived from Fibonacci sequences, which is a sequence of numbers that generate patterns found in nature, like the spiral of a shell. The color palette was also inspired by colors found in minerals and crystals to create a neutral base of grey, with accents of amber, emerald and sapphire blue.