15
© Ewout Huibers © Ewout Huibers
lucrative in rental terms), with 100,000 people visiting on its first weekend. As a brand in the US, M&Ms is huge. Whiles commends McAleer & Rushe, who, he says, put their
heart and soul into the project on such a prestigious site, never questioning design decisions or attempting to ‘value engineer’ the project. The pairing has been a fruitful one. As a result of the partnership here, McAleer and Rushe is now doing a large office scheme on Baker Street, again in Westminster, again with Jestico + Whiles. Angus Monteith, development manager at McAleer & Rushe,
is proud of the project and its impact: “W is a hip New York brand,” he says. “To be in London and the centre of movies and media is exactly where they wanted to be, and the architecture from Jestico + Whiles is exactly the type of cool building they want to be part of.”
Beyond that, the W has its own unique way of providing hotel
facilities and attitude. So what is that way? For Whiles it is to do with language, with
those wacky names for its offerings – the Whatever/Whenever® service, its P.A.W (Pets are welcome) service, and the staff being referred to as ‘talent’. For one of the ‘talent’ I spoke to, the W is also about a ‘vibe’, which is to do with the brand rather than a corporate feel and attracts a particular kind of bar visitor. Ultimately, however, perhaps the best way of describing the
whole W concern is a little leitmotif offered by Monteith for the hotel users, which could equally apply to the building itself. “They’re definitely the In crowd,” says Monteith. “It's definitely Sex in the City.”
© Ewout Huibers
© Ewout Huibers
Clockwise from top left: Sweat; eWow suite bedroom; Away spa entrance; W Studios
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6