As much as it is our ethos always to keep our hotels and restaurants updated, with Proximity Hotel nearing her tenth birthday, we decided to “go deep” and figure out what we could do to cause our guests to feel even more comfortable and in harmony with this wonderful hotel: pH Balance, get it? (Often, the names of our projects give us a giggle…while others may groan!) With every effort such as this, we not only name the process/project, but we also agree on an “intention,” then endeavor to stay true to it. It seems that life is more full and rich when lived with overtones of sincere purpose and undertones of mirth and levity. We undertook this process/project with all of these ideas right at the center of our field of vision.
Starting about three years ago, our design team—with the extraordinary Bradshaw Orrell as lead designer, the exceptional talent Chip Holton as resident artist, the new mother and all-around amazing Majedeh Modarres Nezhad as QW Design Team Project Manager, a rotating cast of adjunct members and me (DWQ) as me—set out to figure out what we could do to cause outcomes consistent with the intentions that pH Balance led us toward. Jeff Kennedy, the capable and resourceful GM of QW Craft Guild (QWCG), the outfit that does or coordinates most all of the improvements, collaborated with us on every step. We are now close to wrapping up most of the pH Balance enhancements. I will say not-too-modestly that “we done good.”
Proximity Hotel’s overnight guests will notice:
- In most sleeping rooms, a stunning 1½-foot-high by 25-foot-long artistic, antiqued mirror is angled down
to create panoramic visual warmth - Strikingly handsome custom-designed carpets
- A craft-built, adjustable-height stool in the bathing room that is great for putting on makeup
- New 50-inch TVs with even better programming options, including the ability to view most things that
you can watch on your phone or tablet on this big screen - A nifty oak side table/stool next to the reupholstered window bench
- Slick ceramic tile that now covers all of the bathing room walls, from floor to ceiling
- Improvements to the dressing area, including:
- Six to 12 chrome coat/robe/towel hooks on a Shaker-inspired wainscot rail six feet off the floor
- An attractive, durable Chilewich material covering the walls below that rail (This is made by the same people who made the flooring material for Print Works and the Pavilion at the O.Henry. It’s really good stuff.)
- A whimsical lamp on the dresser
- Many more line voltage and USB charging stations, most right next to the bed
Whew…and that’s just the guest rooms! We’ve also improved the guest “living rooms” (the gathering places just for our guests on each floor) and the corridors with that amazing Chilewich wall covering I mentioned, along with a wainscot rail cap, improved lighting that uses even less juice and yet another custom-designed carpet.
Now, for our six suites:
- Jeff Kennedy and his QWCG colleagues built 36 amazing side tables with gold leaf frames and enameled concrete tops. Each table holds a lamp commissioned by the Design Team.
- These suites now have exceptional leather sofas and chairs that we designed in collaboration with our friends at (and I’m not making this up) O.Henry House, Ltd. BTW: The leather is from another local outfit, Tiger Leather.
- We did a lot more than this in the suites, but the powers that be say I’m over my word count.
We’ve also added some comfy leather sofas and chairs to the lobby; plus, early in the process, QWCG—with our friend J. Speetjens doing the woodwork—built the high tables that are in the social lobby. All sorts of craft-made things from right here in our community!
You can see most of these enhancements on our website or in person…but please call Proximity Hotel at (336) 379-8200 or email [email protected] ahead so we can be sure that we have rooms to show.