While located onsite the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, the Walt Disney World Swan Reserve was envisioned as a counterpoint to the bustling 25,000-acre resort complex. “The property was designed to be a calming escape with its own sophisticated visual story layered in, but with all the conveniences of being park-adjacent,” says Siobhan Barry, design director and principal at Gensler, which handled the project’s architecture and interior design services.
The 349-key hotel, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, totals 375,000 square feet—with 28,000 square feet dedicated to meeting and conference space to accommodate the growing trend of “bleisure” travel. In turn, this meant an increased focus was paid to creating an upscale, amenity-rich environment. “We imagined ourselves in the guests’ shoes, and our vision was to create an airy and breezy destination where the lines between indoor and outdoor blurred,” Barry adds. “We sought to bring the natural environment inside and to use screens, rather than walls, wherever possible.”
Artist James Thomas teamed up with ceramicist Olivia Barry to design the 40 custom handmolded plates displayed in the hotel’s Mediterranean restaurant
The resulting design concept melds South Beach vibrancy with midcentury aesthetics, while still carrying the themes of the adjacent Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resorts, which have existed on premise for more than three decades. “Guests arriving to the hotel will notice the curvilinear shapes of the porte-cochère cover and the unique wing-like gestures of the roofline,” says Gensler design director and principal Peter Wang. “For us, these shapes recall the avian characteristics of the swan and create signature, expressive moments in the architecture.”
The color palette is dominated by cooling neutrals, including blue and green hues that nod to water and gardens. Citrus-inspired tones complement the bold shades featured in the artwork found throughout the property. “On every guest floor,” Barry notes, “the elevator opens to a unique trompe l’oeil mural—all of which are tropically themed—so guests can easily identify their floors.”
“We created a serene hotel that would feel like a sanctuary away from the action of the park,” she adds.
