In the green lodging world it is huge news when a new 1 Hotels property opens and that was certainly the case this past week with the official opening of the 1 West Hollywood. It is the first West Coast 1 Hotel for Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group and joins three other 1 Hotels in New York City and Miami. As with the other 1 Hotels, 1 West Hollywood will be operated by SH Hotels & Resorts, a subsidiary of Starwood Capital Group. Sternlicht and his team are experts at weaving together luxurious green design, highly efficient operations, unique and...

LOS ANGELES—1 Hotels has opened its fourth property and West Coast flagship, 1 West Hollywood. Formerly The Jeremy, the property has undergone a total transformation, taking its cues from the raw natural beauty of the Southern California landscape. The property will continue to be operated by SH Hotels & Resorts, a subsidiary of Starwood Capital Group, a global private investment firm. When it comes to sustainable hospitality, 1 Hotels walks the walk. With an Energy Star score of 95, “1 WeHo” will be one of the most energy-efficient hotels in L.A. Among its property-wide conservation practices is the inclusion of...

MARIPOSA, CALIF.—AutoCamp announced that AutoCamp Yosemite officially opened its full facilities, including its clubhouse and pool, last month. AutoCamp Yosemite, located a three-hour drive from San Francisco and adjacent to the town of Mariposa, Calif., is the third and largest of the outdoor hospitality properties under the AutoCamp brand. The property features 102 customized Airstream suites, luxury tents, and cabins, as well as a two-story clubhouse, communal fire pits, heated pool, and natural pond. “AutoCamp’s mission is to connect people with the outdoors and each other, and AutoCamp Yosemite represents a landmark moment for our team, the local community, and...

ALMAZORA, SPAIN—Neolith by TheSize has formed a new partnership with PURETi, a leading manufacturer of water based photocatalytic preventative maintenance solutions, to offer architects and designers a sustainable architectural surface treatment for exterior facades. The eco-friendly PURETi surface treatment will be available for the first time for use on Neolith’s 6mm slabs, transforming the Sintered stone façades into self-cleaning air purifiers—consequently reversing pollution, dramatically improving air quality, and enabling the Neolith slabs to stay cleaner for even longer. This technology has the ability to reduce air pollution by destroying nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that contact the treated...

CALHOUN, GA.—The Crafted Convergence carpet collection from Durkan, the hospitality brand of Mohawk Group, was recently recognized by Hospitality Design magazine with an HD Award for flooring at a special ceremony in New York. “It is quite the honor for this innovative collection to be awarded yet again by esteemed industry colleagues and leaders,” said Elizabeth Bonner, Creative Design Director for Durkan. “This has been an incredible partnership that continues to provide inspiration not only to our own team, but the wider hospitality architecture and design community as well.” Crafted Convergence was inspired by Durkan’s collaboration with two museums in Santa Fe, New...

RALEIGH, N.C.—Almost seven months since opening in Raleigh’s Glenwood South district, business at Revisn has been great and the aparthotel has been at full capacity, says Dicky Walia, CEO and Managing Director of Welcome Holdings which developed the “green” Revisn brand. Large corporations are renting the residences. According to Welcome Holdings, Revisn combines the “spacious comfort and relaxing convenience of a luxury executive apartment residence with the hospitality of a boutique hotel.” What Revisn also does is provide guests with a low-carbon experience thanks to its high-tech approach to power generation and heating and cooling. Atop the 48-unit building is...

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CALIF.—Hudson Valley Lighting Group’s Creative Systems Lighting (CSL) brand has a new line of high-performance and adjustable downlighting called GyroShift.  The GyroShift system is ideal in spaces that require precise lighting, such as restaurants, hotels, or retail stores. GyroShift allows side-by-side multiples to point their light beams in all directions, without fear of obstruction or interference on the back end. The GyroShift technology allows the fixtures’ backends to remain stationary while the proprietary CSL GyroShift optic focuses, shifts, shapes, and delivers up to 2200lm of light at targets up to 45 degrees from the nadir, all the...

It is 26 years now since the initial development of the LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) rating system for commercial buildings. It has since expanded to include homes, schools and other categories. The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) points-based certification system is undoubtedly the most successful green building rating system on the planet with 90,000 projects using LEED. In the hotel industry, based on information supplied to me in the past two weeks by USGBC, there are 767 projects listed as “lodging” in the USGBC database. Seventy-one of those projects are not publicly available because the project...

DELRAY BEACH, FL.—GSky Plant Systems, Inc., a global industry leader in the design and production of interior and exterior green walls, announces that its interior Versa Wall living green wall for San Francisco’s McGuire Building is the Grand Award Winner, Green Walls, for I-Plants/Urban Horticulture Magazine’s International Design Contest. GSky’s award-winning Versa Wall design for the McGuire Building in San Francisco marks the first living green wall of its kind to include three free-hanging columns. Completely suspended with no physical connection to the ground, the columns enliven a two-floor atrium space with a variety of colorful tropical plants. The three...

I recently received the latest list of LEED certified hotels from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). I will be writing about the list in my upcoming Publisher’s Point of View column but wanted to offer a few highlights from the list. First, there are a total of 767 projects listed as “lodging” in the USGBC database. Seventy-one projects have been left off the list because the participants have opted to have their projects remain confidential. The list is a global list. Countries represented range from China to the United States to Sweden. There are 51 projects listed as LEED...