The hotel industry, once dominated by major chains, isslowly being taken over by boutique hotels. Suspecting the décor may be part ofthe problem, the W hotel is implementing a new conceptual redesign that maybring the big-box hotel back up to speed.

Since launching in 1998 in New York City, the hotel has famously preserved that New York look and feelconsistently throughout its properties. Changing gears, the company is now shying awayfrom this homogeny toward what it calls "localist" décor: dressing itsinteriors to celebrate the city in which it's located. The idea has beenimplemented in outposts around the world, including the "sea and sky"-themed WBarcelona and "enchanted forest"-evoking W Hong Kong.

For the W San Francisco,the hotel tapped the genius of starchitect Stanley Saitowitz of NatomaArchitects to redesign the first two floors. The project, which includes thelobby, the forthcoming restaurant Trace, and two bars, began in April and isexpected to be completed by November.

"We wanted someone who has never done a hotel before," Wgeneral manager Michael Pace told ARTINFO. "Typically hotel designers buildhotels that look like hotels, and we wanted a designer to come in with afreshlook. We also wanted somebody local who got San Francisco,who was living, breathing SanFrancisco."

Saitowitz, a resident of the city for 33 years, seemed like theperfect fit. Moreover, he understands the appeal of localized décor. "A lot ofthe boutique hotels sort of by default, because they're not chains and they'reindividually designed, tend to be quite related to the places they're in,"Saitowitz told ARTINFO. He prefers the grittier places in the city — SOMA, the Mission, and Hayes Valley.Eschewing the obvious Golden Gate Bridge as a theme, Saitowitz instead evoked a line by19^th century San Francisco writer Ambrose Bierce:"This city is a pointupon a map of fog."

"The fog is kind of the other San Francisco, the mysterious AlfredHitchcock city that's been sort of made out in literature rather than the cablecar postcards," explained Saitowitz. "At the same time the W wants to beunique to the city, they have to maintain their brand standards. The clienteleof the W are not, you know, from the Midwest."

Saitowitz went for a darker look at San Francisco, a night portrait of the city usingdark grays and purples for the color scheme. His vision as an architect is so clearlyevident in his work as an interior designer — the décor projects the sensationof being outside rather than in. Playing on Bierce's "map," the floor emulatesthe grid of the city, the furniture extruding from it as its buildings would.Playing on the "fog," the dark color scheme gets lighter and cloudier asoneascends the the hotel, the fog becoming "densest" at the top, much as itwouldbe standing atop San Francisco's Twin Peaks. Guests can faintly make outthetraces of city monuments on the walls. It's truly reminiscent of San Francisco at night,the time when Saitowitz says "cities are most magical and fun."

As for the differing roles between architect and designer, "there'smore liberty in an interior to invent a narrative," said Saitowitz, whose past interiors have been famously high-concept. "It's more circumscribed.You're asked to make a statement or create a kind of world in an interior." These worlds, it turns out, can be quite witty: Saitowitz'saward-winning design for the restaurant Toast emulates the feeling of walkinginside a loaf of bread.