Interior Design <\/em>Hall of Fame member explains, adding that the college town has a devoted football fan base and major game-day culture (Texas Christian University\u2019s Horned Frogs were Big 12 champs in 2023). Although perhaps best known by its nickname, Cow Town, courtesy of its protected cattle industry and stock shows, Rottet continues, \u201cMore recently, it\u2019s come into its own as an entertainment venue and an art destination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThat latter designation is thanks largely to a trio of institutions that line up along Camp Bowie Boulevard in the downtown cultural district: the Kimbell Art Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Amon Carter Museum of Art. Rottet and an \u201call-women power team\u201d from her Houston and Austin offices spent much time in those hallowed blue-chip halls when conceiving the Crescent Hotel directly across the street. The 200-key, 216,000-square-foot luxury property anchors a new-build mixed-use development that includes a high-end residential component and a Canyon Ranch Wellness Club (which the firm designed for the same client, Crescent Real Estate). \u201cThe whole block related to the museums, so we drew on that,\u201d Rottet says. Her team looked at not only the masterworks that hung on the museum walls but also the walls themselves and other architectural finishes. \u201cAll three museums boiled down to two materials\u2014one type of wood, one stone\u2014so we took cues from that and decided to go as purist as possible,\u201d Rottet describes. \u201cThe interior is quite robust in its color and forms and visual interest, but also minimal in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/noscript>At the Crescent Hotel, a 200-key, luxury property in Fort Worth, Texas, by Rottet Studio, a faceted plaster mantel with a two-sided fireplace partitions reception\u2019s seating areas, one with Carolyn Salas\u2019s Figuring No. 4, the other with a wall in the same Calacatta Vision marble as the mantel\u2019s base.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Crescent\u2019s lobby is, naturally, the space that forges the strongest connection with its artful neighbors. Gallery-esque white walls are ample enough to accommodate large-scale canvases, which provide the majority of the color. Sight lines were strategically mapped out, down to the view from within the elevator while waiting for the doors to close. Floors are pale oak, just like those in Louis I. Kahn\u2019s 1972 Kimbell building. Structural columns are partially clad in limestone, referencing Philip Johnson\u2019s 1961 Amon Carter facility, while others were concealed: one within a faceted plaster fireplace, an abstraction of early 20th\u2013century Spanish Mission style (\u201clike what you might have found in a grand house during Fort Worth\u2019s heyday,\u201d Rottet notes), and another behind a floating partition outlined with a subtle reveal, creating a sort of frame and pedestal for a Madeline Peckenpaugh oil painting from the hotel\u2019s impressive contemporary collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The studio\u2019s mission for the F&B spaces was to devise a modular dining zone that could expand and contract according to time of day and flow of patrons and that was flexible enough to host simultaneous shindigs. \u201cThe hotel is very centered around private functions\u2014events are a big deal there,\u201d Rottet emphasizes. \u201cThe challenge was trying to figure out how many parties could be thrown at once.\u201d Sliding glass doors framed in bronze-finished steel screen the restaurant\u2019s open-concept kitchen during morning coffee service and predinner prep, so it always feels activated, never empty. Multiple private rooms have direct kitchen or courtyard access, including one veiled behind a glass wine-storage wall and the white-tablecloth Blue Room, which is the most saturated manifestation of the hotel\u2019s sky-toned palette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/noscript><\/noscript>The Blue Room, another private dining room within Emilia\u2019s and that\u2019s courtyard adjacent, features custom cane-back chairs and the most saturated manifestation of the Crescent\u2019s sky-toned palette.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nGuest accommodations cater to art tourists, Canyon Ranch spa-goers, and attendees of football games, weddings, bachelorette bashes, and other events requiring multiple costume changes. Given this clientele, a minibar and ample wardrobe space were essential and ultimately dictated the layouts. \u201cPushing the bar into the room allowed the dressing area to be more prominent, so there\u2019s a spot to place your shopping bags and take off your shoes as you come in,\u201d Rottet explains. The size of closets and built-in storage was also maximized. \u201cIt\u2019s all about the party and \u2018Where am I gonna hang the dress?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Certainly, one needn\u2019t leave the hotel to have a ball. The courtyard and restaurant are filled around the clock with hotel guests and locals, but the most party-centric space is Ralph\u2019s, the top-floor speakeasy and a decadent departure from the otherwise elegantly restrained vibe. A hand-painted, gold-leaf mural wraps around the bar, M.C. Escher\u2013esque wallpaper sheathes the ceiling, and vintage-inflected multifunctional seating units are kitted out in performance velvet. Barstools embroidered with a dromedary motif nod to the family who once owned the land the hotel stands on. \u201cWe found amazing archival video footage from the \u201970\u2019s, when a camel purchased from the Neiman Marcus catalog was delivered to their home dressed in gold and red tasseled ropes,\u201d Rottet laughs. It\u2019s that kind of locally specific insider\u2019s detail that gives the Crescent a feeling of authentic hospitality. \u201cComing here feels like you\u2019re being invited into someone\u2019s grand home,\u201d she concludes. \u201cIt\u2019s very much designed around entertaining, welcoming you in, and getting a drink in your hand before sitting down together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n