2008 Woodie Awards
Hotel as art, art as hotel
Maggie Anderson - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 8/24/06 Section: 80 Hours
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Coralville city officials hope the new eight-floor Marriott hotel, which has its grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. today and open house from 3-7 p.m. Friday, will become the area's ritzy conference destination and luxury hot spot - and it shows. The building's lengthy brick lane, soothing fountains, and elegant series of circular driveways aim to recall 16th-century French palaces or India's Taj Mahal. The amenities include down comforters, Bath and Body Works toiletries, and 32-inch flat-screen plasma TVs in each guest room. Clearly, the hotel is appealing to an upper-class sensibility.
Still, according to the Marriott's website, a "quality room" for tonight costs a relatively affordable $119. And planners have gone to great lengths to make the hotel community-friendly. Rather than distance locals with typical assembly-line design and cookie-cutter art typical of a big-name hotel, the Coralville Marriott's rooms, lobbies, and even the staircase feature Iowa artists' work, including many well-known locals - Mauricio Lasansky, Astrid Bennett, Shawn and Sarah Nelson, and Benjamin Chait, to name a few. The first floor even boasts a cozy Amana-furnished Writers' Workshop library, enticing guests to cuddle up with a novel by world-famous workshop graduates such as Jane Smiley or T.C. Boyle.
"I was so impressed that Coralville committed to doing the project," said Mary Lea Kruse, the art consultant for the Marriott project and owner of the local art gallery Artists Concepts Limited. "I think it gives people a sense of ownership."
From the very beginning of the project, Coralville city officials knew they wanted something different. More than a conference center or a first-class hotel, they wanted a showcase for local Iowans' creativity.
"There is just so much talent here," said Kelly Hayworth, Coralville's city administrator. "The challenge was in choosing, not in finding."
So, with Kruse's help, the city began a somewhat daunting task - compiling a collection of local artwork that, while interesting and diverse, still meshed with the overall design scheme of the hotel.
Still, according to the Marriott's website, a "quality room" for tonight costs a relatively affordable $119. And planners have gone to great lengths to make the hotel community-friendly. Rather than distance locals with typical assembly-line design and cookie-cutter art typical of a big-name hotel, the Coralville Marriott's rooms, lobbies, and even the staircase feature Iowa artists' work, including many well-known locals - Mauricio Lasansky, Astrid Bennett, Shawn and Sarah Nelson, and Benjamin Chait, to name a few. The first floor even boasts a cozy Amana-furnished Writers' Workshop library, enticing guests to cuddle up with a novel by world-famous workshop graduates such as Jane Smiley or T.C. Boyle.
"I was so impressed that Coralville committed to doing the project," said Mary Lea Kruse, the art consultant for the Marriott project and owner of the local art gallery Artists Concepts Limited. "I think it gives people a sense of ownership."
From the very beginning of the project, Coralville city officials knew they wanted something different. More than a conference center or a first-class hotel, they wanted a showcase for local Iowans' creativity.
"There is just so much talent here," said Kelly Hayworth, Coralville's city administrator. "The challenge was in choosing, not in finding."
So, with Kruse's help, the city began a somewhat daunting task - compiling a collection of local artwork that, while interesting and diverse, still meshed with the overall design scheme of the hotel.
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