At the Mall of America, the ballroom carpet has a double helix pattern that references the Twin Cities. The hotel’s two sky bridges are a nod to the Minneapolis skyway system that connects various buildings downtown. And the reclaimed Minnesota barn wood in the restaurant brings a cozy, modern atmosphere with an indigenous feel. Some of the references may be a bit of a stretch, but the fact that these stories exist demonstrates the attention to detail behind every decision.
“Can you imagine what it does to a group of clients who are potentially booking a few hundred rooms with you for a conference?” Kirschke says. “If you show the hotel and you’re able to give these little stories, that gives them the sense of people caring.” At the same time, they don’t want design to overtake the hotel and make it not functional anymore. “Every hotel is a tailor-made piece of collective artwork, if you will,” Kirschke says, “and it has nothing to do with design for the sake of design.”
BLU’S CLUES
Construction of the $137.5 million Radisson Blu Mall of America began in May 2011 by Mortenson, a U.S.-based, privately-held construction services company. Carlson and Mortenson are equity partners in the hotel, which features 26,300 square feet of meeting and event space, a fitness center with an indoor pool, and the FireLake Grill House and Cocktail Bar. The hotel offers the only accommodations directly connected to Mall of America, the country’s largest indoor entertainment and shopping destination.
Gordon McKinnon, executive vice president and chief branding officer of Carlson Rezidor, says the project started like every one does in the company’s development wing, with them identifying the flashy design must-haves—like the ornate hand-cut brass wall that surrounds the lobby fireplace in Chicago—and then making compromises from there. Return on investment is always top of mind and McKinnon says the company typically takes about 10 to 15 percent out of the overall cost through value engineering. “We make conscious decisions to over-invest in certain areas even if that’s to the expense of other areas,” McKinnon says. “We’ve just about always pushed the envelope to begin with.”
Pushing the envelope is one thing but making the design work in the context of the environment is another. For that the team got some ideas from the Mall itself. The fact that the Mall of America attracts more than 40 million visitors a year fascinated Hamilton. His wife’s hairdresser traveled all the way from Glasgow to go shopping at the Mall last Christmas. “The desire of people to travel well out of their way to go to a shopping center was strange to me,” he says. Inspired by this unique set of circumstances, Hamilton designed a series of tiny windows at the entryway of the hotel that resemble fireflies when they light up in the evening—drawing shoppers in with their light.
