Wonder twin power

George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg take on Minneapolis at Le Meridien

Kendell Cronstrom -- Interior Design, 10/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

"The notorious Block E." For decades, it was the whipping boy of fair-haired Minneapolis, routinely blasted by civic planners and attacked by local reporters on slow news days. A prime downtown real-estate parcel, it somehow fell victim to failed development plans, petty thievery, and small-potatoes drug dealing. In reality, the block was a G-rated Midnight Cowboy, but Minneapolis finally had enough: After narrowly escaping a future as a parking lot, Block E became . . . a mall! What would one expect from the home of the Mall of America?

Above the mall's Main Street U.S.A. facade stands a 22-story hotel, Le Meridien Minneapolis. Owned by Graves Hospitality, the building looks as unremarkable on the outside as it is spectacular within—the latter assessment being attributable to Yabu Pushelberg, whose principals, George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, came to the project after the guest rooms had been designed but before the 30,400 square feet of public space had been accounted for. "The hotel's owners very generously left us to construct a program that was business-oriented but at the same time more vibrant, a real oasis for downtown," says Pushelberg. Despite the city's lack of formality, Yabu adds, "A strong artistic sensibility pervades its citizens. We took our cue from this dynamic to design a hotel that projects confidence and professionalism as well as a creative spark."

While the entry, sandwiched between a Hard Rock Cafe and a Starbucks, is decidedly low-key, the lobby fairly pulses with unexpected energy—the result of an almost rhythmic linearity. Shimmery bronze slabs run across the walls; floors of creamy Italian stone are striated with DNA-like strands of green; wall veneers display the honey color and stringy graining of paldao wood. "This may be sort of revisionist, but there's a Nordic quality to the finishes and materials that I equate to the ancestry of the area," says Pushelberg. "Everything is intangibly cool and pared down. I like the play of pattern on pattern, the striping of stone against wood against metal."

Because the elevator bank to the rest of the common spaces and the 255 guest rooms was awkwardly located to one side, the architects divided the lobby into a bellman's station and a sitting area. Guests must walk through both to reach the elevators—a conceit employed to further effect for the Infiniti Room, a seductive nightclub at the back of the ground floor, as well as for the fourth and fifth floors' reception area, Cosmos restaurant-lounge, and conference rooms. "Guests have to pass through a series of spaces, with corners and edges," explains Pushelberg. "If everything were opened up, it wouldn't seem as expansive. It wouldn't be as elegant." Screens appear often, designed to complement the hotel's geometrics: the lobby's mesh of blackened-steel squares, the restaurant-lounge's vertical stacks of acrylic slabs. Perforations allow guests at the bar, for example, to get a glimpse of who's checking in.

The architects excel at layering artwork into their interiors, and installations at Le Meridien enhance the overall linearity. Behind the reception desk, bits of recycled paper hang on strands of monofilament to create a loose, thick pile. Along a wall in the restaurant, stacked disks of mirror and loops of acrylic give a wink to vanity.

Such cohesive attention to detail might make the project seem like yet another candidate for boutique-hotel ubiquity, but Pushelberg begs to differ. "We don't follow a formula," he says. "Our notion is to energize the space and condition emotions by manipulating volumes and materials. As soon as you walk through the door, you think you're someplace else."

Previous spread: An ottoman covered in woven stitched leather stands in each corner of Yabu Pushelberg's lobby at Le Meridien Minneapolis. Behind the screens, patterned in solid and open blackened-steel squares, a gauzy Roman shade blocks a view of the hotel's porte cochere. Flooring is Italian marble.

Left, from top: The off-center elevator bank that determined the architects' floor plan for the public spaces. Artist Dennis Lin's panel of sandblasted-wood squares, anchoring the elevator lobby's end wall. Right, from top: In a conference room, Paul Housberg's installation of backlit corrugated glass tile. The flanking walls of stacked light boxes, either recessed, flush, or in relief.

Above: In reception, walls veneered in paldao wood frame a sculptural composition, recycled paper hung on strands of monofilament.

Below: Chunky acrylic slabs, patterned vertically on custom screens, shake things up at Cosmos restaurant-lounge, where the custom tables' paldao veneer complements that of the walls. The chairs are also Yabu Pushelberg designs.

Left, from top: Near the bellman's desk in the lobby, museumlike vitrines house cake-layer lanterns whose glow reflects in the bronze wall panels. Lusty blood-red wool upholsters the VIP lounge at the hotel's nightclub, the Infiniti Room. Right, from top: A ceramic work by Piet Stockmans follows the nightclub's acrylic-covered banquette. A dining niche at Cosmos exemplifies Yabu Pushelberg's efforts to divide public areas into more intimate spaces.

Above: For a wall at Cosmos, the architects commissioned an installation built of stacked mirrored disks and acrylic loops.

PROJECT TEAM: MARY MARK; REG ANDRADE; ANSON LEE; EDUARDO FIGUEREDO; CHERIE STINSON; ALDINGTON COOMBS; MIKA NISHIKAZE; MARC GAUDET; ALEX EDWARD; KEVIN STOREY; CHRISTINA GUSTAVS; SUNNY LEUNG. OTTOMANS (LOBBY): KAI LEATHER PRODUCT DESIGN. CUSTOM LANTERNS (LOBBY): ABRAMCZYK STUDIO. CARPET (CONFERENCE ROOM): OPTIONS TAI-PING CARPET. SUSPENDED PAPER (RECEPTION): STUDIO SAWADA DESIGN. CUSTOM CHAIRS (RESTAURANT): KIOSK DESIGN. WALL FINISH (RESTAURANT, NIGHTCLUB): MIKE POPILEK. CARPET (RESTAURANT), FLOORING (NIGHTCLUB): SULLIVAN SOURCE. CUSTOM TABLES (RESTAURANT), CUSTOM TABLES, CHAIRS (NIGHTCLUB): LES MEUBLES SAINT-DAMASE. BANQUETTE FABRIC (NIGHTCLUB): MAHARAM. CUSTOM BANQUETTES (NIGHTCLUB, RESTAURANT): LOUIS INTERIORS. WALL COVERING: METRO WALLCOVERINGS. STONEWORK: COVERINGS ETC. METALWORK: C-ORE ARCHITECTURE METAL DESIGN. ACRYLIC WORK: MARC LITTLE JOHN. AUDIOVISUAL CONSULTANT: DMX MUSIC. LIGHTING CONSULTANTS: COOLEY MONATO STUDIO; TPL MARKETING. MECHANICAL ENGINEER: HARRIS MECHANICAL. ELECTRICAL ENGINEER: HUNT ELECTRIC CORPORATION. BUILDING ARCHITECT: ANTUNOVICH ASSOCIATES. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: PCL-PLANT CONSTRUCTION.