Laguna Cliffs Extreme Makeover

by Steven Greco on 09/28/09 at 4:11 pm

So what do you do with an outdated and well-worn resort hotel, but in a great location on the waterfront in Dana Point, CA that’s having to compete with the Montage, the Ritz-Carlton and the St. Regis resorts on the Orange County coastline?  Simple, you hire a world-class architect and interior designer to renovate the resort to create a whole fresh new look and feel for the resort.   And that’s exactly what Laguna Cliffs (a Marriott Resort Property) General Manager Jim Samuels did.  He hired resort architect Michael Kollin with Kollin / Altomare Architects and interior designer Susan Caruso with Intra-Spec Hospitality and created a whole new mash-up design style that I like to call ‘California Victorian Beach-Chic.’

The exterior architecture of the property really hasn’t changed all that much and still has that vintage California Victorian style, but many of the common areas have really been updated to reflect a California casual elegance feel to it. Once architects and designers designed the renovation on paper, the resort then hired Focus 360 to create a 3D animated video presentation of what the resort would look like when the renovation is completed. The resort management team is using the 3D renderings/illustrations and animations to market the renovated facilities to corporations for company training events, retreats, seminars, etc., and to individuals for weddings and vacations.  In addition, the resort is displaying the 3D photo-realistic renderings on the lobby interior walls and the video animation is playing on some of the large LCD TVs throughout the resort to show current guests the coming makeover.

Here are a few still 3D renderings/illustrations created from the video animation:

And here is the Laguna Cliffs Animation itself: