Guests are greeted by a jade wall at the Dalmar Hotel
Though Miami gets all the attention, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, nonetheless, is a hotspot vacation destination with a lot of potential. To capture the emerging city’s essence, Wurzak Hotel Group tapped DesignAgency to conceive a modern, yet playful design for the 209-room bolthole, the Dalmar.
“The [hotel] is an urban counterpart to conventional Fort Lauderdale beach hotels that channels the character of South Florida as a sunny destination with its heart close to the beach,” says Allen Chan, founding partner of the Toronto-based firm.
Crafted in collaboration with Sunset, Florida-based firm Sol-Arch, the new build rises above the up-and-coming Flager Village neighborhood with a design informed by the Case Study Houses, which were developed across the U.S. for Arts & Architecture magazine from 1945 through 1966.
Design references range from the tropical colorways of south Florida to midcentury-inspired materials that recall the West Coast. Indeed, sunwashed pastel hues join an expansive material palette of glazed 3D geometric tiles and tambour wood that evoke a residential-style warmth in the street level Roses’s Coffee Bar, Terrace Grill, and a series of open air spaces throughout. Yet, drama unfolds in the 25th-floor Sparrow cocktail bar, where plush velvet seating and rich accents add a moody vibe.
“We wanted to be bold in our design choices,” says DesignAgency’s design director Julia Summerville. “Wrapping each architectural volume with a different material felt indicative of the design narrative we wanted to create: bold statements, a balance of cool tones and warm tones, and colorful furniture that was inspired by the Golden Age of Travel.”
A sanctuary on the sixth floor accommodates a medley of social amenities, including a bar, lounge, and dining space. Linked to the pool deck, the indoor-outdoor hub is lined with breezeblocks that establish intimacy without compromising an airy grandeur. “It creates this idea of continuity and blurs the lines between interior and exterior spaces,” Chan says. “It’s a simple, but very effective, move.” In addition, deep jewel tones and a stained glass installation infuse a 1970s-inspired flair across the bar, where antique brass lighting marries vintage armchairs, terrazzo, and polished plaster on the architectural columns.
The guestrooms and suites foster a more serene approach. A blue motif anchors most rooms, for example, while suites introduce a buttery yellow palette offset by headboards wrapped in a black and white palm leaf pattern—an apt expression of the tropical and urban styles fused onsite.
“Our goal was to create an aesthetic that was holistic with the architectural inspirations we took from the Case Study Houses,” Summerville says, “but it also introduces some asymmetry to the project that leads the guest to explore.”
The lobby bar mixes contemporary details with a midcentury aesthetic
The sixth floor lobby includes a mixed-media piece by Thrush Holmes
Rich materials dress the Terrace Grill
A wood-clad backdrop makes up the ground floor Roses’s Coffee Bar
Breezeblocks line the rooftop pool bar
Sparrow’s outdoor space offers ocean views
The 25th-floor Sparrow bar evokes drama with hanging plants and plush furnishings
Guestrooms boast leather-clad headboards and blue accents
