Sawyer & Company Unveils Design Process Behind the Hyatt Centric Buckhead Interiors
We are pleased to announce the completion of our latest project, the brand-new Hyatt Centric Buckhead in Atlanta, Georgia. In conceptualizing the look of the hotel, our team studied the local history, landscape, and heritage of Buckhead’s location, looking to the unique stories and historic details that defined the area through the ages. We found ourselves inspired by both the neighborhood’s unique current identity as well as the history of Georgia’s clay craftsmanship, which has been associated with the region for as far back as five thousand years.
Buckhead’s contemporary society dates to 1838 when Henry Irby bought hundreds of acres of land, and shortly thereafter built a general store and a tavern. Irby’s tavern became the stopping place for travelers in the sparsely populated area. The community began to grow around it with families and businesses taking up residence. Today, the thriving neighborhood is one of the wealthiest in the Southeast and is home to a variety of cultural activities.
The design ideated by our team throughout the 218-room Hyatt Centric Buckhead was inspired by three overarching themes – the Historical Local Context, Compression and Expansion, and Georgia’s vast natural Clay Resources – alongside the Hyatt brands’ international and global spirit of color, pattern, and fashion.
Georgia is famed for its bountiful clay resources and has a rich history of pottery with archaeologists dating pottery remnants found in the region to as early as 3,000 BC. Georgia’s four hundred and fifty or so known folk potters did not consider themselves artists; instead, they were humble artisans, like the blacksmith or basket maker, and primarily focused on the creation of vessels for simple everyday use. Appropriately, a playful expression of clay, pottery, and sculpture throughout the space celebrates the history of these local creators, sculptors, and artisans.
This theme can be seen in the glazing, shape, and color of the front desk, the first stop on any visitor’s journey inside the property, which also features a light installation inspired by the shape of pottery. A pottery wall installation by American artist John Johnson adorns the area next to the front desk, while elevator cab artwork from Quebec-based artist Claire Desjardins again gives off a glazed look. Headboards in the guestrooms are inspired by paint on ceramics, while the pattern on the TV wall wallcoverings was inspired by the crackled texture of worn glazed pottery. Guestroom area rugs express the organic shape of earthenware, along with the greater Georgia clay landscape.
The elegant neighborhood of Buckhead in Atlanta houses both low-rise and high-rise structures, and this compression and expansion is likewise expressed in the hotel’s design. The neighborhood features both urban landscapes and plentiful green space, with architecturally striking commercial and residential buildings prevalent throughout. Buckhead’s convenient location close to many of Atlanta’s most popular destinations makes it an ideal location for a short or long-term stay, while providing a true feeling of a home away from home in a clearly defined neighborhood with a distinct personality of its own. The notion of opposites and contrast along with expansion and compression were seamlessly incorporated throughout the design of the hotel.
Visitors are greeted by a reception wall located behind the front desk, featuring a locally inspired pattern and motif. Robust coloration adorns the elevator lobby wall, and in the guest corridor, a patterned wall covering leads travelers to and from the elevator banks, intuitively guiding guests and easing the internal navigation. In the guestrooms, a chevron fabric pattern highlights the headboards, recalling fashionable elements of the neighborhood. Closets within the rooms are entirely unique, celebrating fashion and the neighborhood’s many varied upscale boutiques.
The wall covering and art chosen to adorn the second-floor meeting space, designed by Red Tape – an Orlando-based studio founded by Peterson Guerrier and Chris Jones – are bold and graphic, relying on negative space to create a defined sense of space. The color palette on the second floor celebrates nature, with the carpet in the guest corridor inspired by both natural elements and the notion of compression and expansion that repeatedly features throughout.
“Our goal was to express the location in a unique way, to celebrate the neighborhood, the land, and the history in a playful and sculptural way through form, pattern and color,” says our founder here at Sawyer & Company, Tracey Sawyer.
In recent years, the Peachtree Road corridor (Buckhead Village) has been given special attention by Buckhead’s commercial planners and developers. As a result of much considered forethought, this area has become home to some of the best shopping, dining, and entertainment in Atlanta, and all of the southeastern United States. Buckhead has been called the “Beverly Hills of Atlanta,” and it’s not hard to see why. Thanks to its history, magnificent homes, landscaping, location, luxury, shopping and amenities, a home in Buckhead today is a home in the most prestigious and wealthiest area of Atlanta.
