Mild weather, proximity to Los Angeles, and signature events like Coachella have cemented the Greater Palm Springs region—nine cities in the Coachella Valley—as a tourism fixture. The latest flurry of development dates to mid-2018, when the 150-key Hotel Paseo (by LA firm Kay Lang + Associates) opened in Palm Desert and Martyn Lawrence Bullard unveiled a Moroccan-inspired renovation of the 46-room Sands Hotel & Spa in Indian Wells. Both were the first new hotels in their cities in decades.
Two other highly anticipated properties remain under construction, but stalled due to financing and construction delays: the 169-room Dream Hotel with interiors by HBA across from the Palm Springs Convention Center, and the 250-room Hotel Indigo, the first hotel to be located in Coachella.
Further down the pipeline is the 154-key Delano Hotel and Residences in Indian Wells by WATG, and two cannabis-centric hotels, the Coachill Inn Resort and Grape House, which reflect the area’s laidback lifestyle.
Andaz Palm Springs
A rendering of the Andaz Palm Springs, which will evoke the wild desert terrain
Also coming online this year is the ground-up, 150-room Andaz Palm Springs, with a corner spot in the Uptown Design District and a goal of inspiring the senses “through an unexpected love story between artisanal tradition and wild desert terrain,” says Emily Keip, Hyatt’s vice president of design services for the Americas. With interiors by Toronto-based Chapi Chapo Design, custom touches include headboards and carpets mirroring the mountain panorama and drapery inspired by the textiles of the Cahuilla people. Public spaces will skew more intense, bathed in neon lights and pops of color.
Montage International
The Montage will now cohabitate a space in La Quinta with the Pendry
The 140-room luxury Montage and the 200-key lifestyle Pendry hotels will co-locate in La Quinta—a first for the sister brands. “It’s a market that’s underserved for both,” says Montage chairman and CEO Alan Fuerstman. Gensler is leading the architecture for both properties, and will handle interiors for the Pendry, opting for “warm woods and an eclectic, layered mix of furniture, screens, and draperies,” says Ane Rocha, design director in the firm’s San Diego office. Though a similar neutral palette with blue, sage, and blush accents will mark both hotels, interiors for Montage, courtesy of San Francisco’s BraytonHughes Design Studios, will be more minimal.
Bode
The Bode, shown in a rendering, will be wrapped in whitewashed stucco and wood vertical louvres
Local firm o2 Architecture is working on Bode, the first new build for the limited service brand. Scheduled for a late 2021 opening, the 30-unit property will feature whitewashed stucco and wood vertical louvres and trellising with desert-inspired interiors from Los Angeles-based Studio UNLTD. “The idea of new ground-up hotels in the area hasn’t previously made sense given the large amount of hotel stock,” says o2’s principal Lance O’Donnell. “But now so many of those properties have been rebranded and renovated.”
Dive Palm Springs
The pool courtyard at Dive Palm Springs
The just-opened, 11-room motel redo, Dive Palm Springs—a collaboration between designer Vanessa Schreiber and owner Dale Fox—relies on a restrained material palette to tell its story. Linen, cotton, and silk mingle with brass and oil-rubbed bronze accents, while shades of bright yellow, orange, blue, and red nod to the surroundings. “Palm Springs continues to reinvent itself,” says Schreiber. “Core to this are boutique hotels such as Dive that have been restored as unique expressions of Palm Springs culture. More than a place to sleep, they are experiential, immersive art forms and destinations in and of themselves.”
Photos by Daniel Collopy, Jaime Kowal, and renderings courtesy of Hyatt and Studio UNLTD
This article originally appeared in HD’s February 2020 issue.
