As the architecture and design community looks ahead to the highly anticipated Monterey Design Conference on October 25–27, many regulars of that convocation might notice a subtle change in town: the opening of the newly renovated Monterey Beach Hotel.
Photo © Ron Starr
This beachfront property has been a distinctive fixture of the Monterey landscape since it first opened in 1967. Over the years, though, it had fallen into disrepair, becoming more of an eyesore than a destination. Thanks to a thoughtful redesign by Los Angeles–based Indidesign, the Monterey Beach Hotel is back up and running—and reconnected to the spirit of mid-century California Modernism that was so much a part of its original design.
The 192-room property is sandwiched between two fabled landscapes: on one side, 600 linear feet of direct shoreline access (it is the only beachfront hotel in Monterey), and, on the other, the legendary Highway 1.
Built as a roadside motel, it long profited from those adjacencies: the allure of the beach and the romance of the open road. But after going through a few ad hoc renovations over the years and falling into neglect, the hotel felt out of place. “The hotel no longer made sense with its context,” says Indidesign principal and founder Beatrice Girelli. “The property didn’t change location, of course, but it’s just that everything around it changed.”
Seeing the potential of its setting, the hotel’s new ownership team—investors Ascendant Capital Partners and Centerbridge Partners with hotel management firm Highgate—hired Indidesign, a 15-person firm that specializes in luxury and lifestyle hotel design, to undertake a comprehensive renovation.
For inspiration, Indidesign looked to three categories: the historic allure of the Highway 1 road trip, the environmental context of the beachfront dunescape, and the quintessentially Californian connections between indoor and outdoor.
The team fully reconsidered the hotel’s interiors, incorporating a natural material palette inspired by the rugged environment. “It has a very tactile quality,” says Girelli, pointing to rough-hewn wood accents in the guest rooms, textiles that have a canvas-like feel to them, and textured tiles.
Photos © Ron Starr
For colors, Girelli and her team didn’t go far. The neutral palette—“not neutral, like beige,” Girelli clarifies—are drawn from Monterey’s own coastal landscape. Here, “not beige” means the blues, greens, and pinks of the landscape that have been softened and desaturated.
To personalize the hotel’s interior environments, Indidesign oversaw an art program sourced from local artists, including Jessica Bovert, Emily Hess, Jess Soriano, and James Aarons. As a standard practice, the studio creates bespoke furniture for its interiors, and the Monterey Beach Hotel is no exception, with Girelli and her team developing a furniture program inspired by mid-century Modernism.
Photos © Ron Starr
With a lounge, a restaurant (The Lantern Room), and a cocktail bar (Tidewater), the hotel offers a range of shared spaces for eating and drinking. As promised in Indidesign’s brief, these breezy areas connect with an outdoor terrace that includes a heated pool and direct access to the beach.
With the redesign done, the Monterey Beach Hotel seems very much of the place yet again. “This is such an incredible location,” Girelli says. “You could never build anything like this on this site now, so it is a really special feeling to be there.”
