Sandstone Properties devised an ambitious plan for 6400 Canoga Boulevard property, anchored by a 34-story mixed use high-rise tower designed by Hetzel. The property improvement also includes adaptive reuse of the existing three-story office building. The plan was to turn this structure into a boutique hotel.
Hetzel Design proposed a scheme which retains most of the existing structure yet completely transforms the building function, envelope, and the outdated look. A brand-new trendy hospitality hot spot is born of a tired underutilized office space.
The hotel features a two-story lobby, a specialty restaurant facing the boulevard, and state-of art rooftop pool deck with fitness facilities. Dynamic swoopy exterior is clad in laser cut patterned aluminum rain screen panel. Glass façade features colored glass spandrel panel for accent.
A heroic roof overhang signals the entry into the entire 6400 Canoga complex, providing a bold statement and a point of visual interest along the Canoga Boulevard.

Following on from our involvement in the Futura City master plan, we were asked to design a very dynamic mixed-use development with a strong cultural component, much closer to the Beijing City Center. The program consisted of retail, office space, hotel, museum, and a performance theater on a very urban site.  We used Chinese folklore in search for metaphors.

The performanceJinshan Binhai Resort is Shanghai’s key project aimed to transform the city into a world-famous tourist destination annual attendance of 8-10 million visitors.
Atlantis Island is the landmark development of Jinshan Binhai Resort. Jinshan District strives for the high-level design, high-standard construction, and high-quality operation of the project, to cre¬ate a “centurial masterpiece” and a must-visit destination.
The project planning is done in concert with the overall masterplan, taking advantage of strong connections between the central park and the adjacent entertainment islands.
Atlantis Shanghai brief calls for the iconic architecture.
We believe that the WAVE CONCEPT will put this destination on the world map as a must-see attraction, cultural sensation, and Instagram moment. Urban planning calls for three iconic towers- 220m, 150m and 100m tall, respectively. Our scheme combines the three towers into a seemingly unified wave and provides opportunity for ocean inspired architecture on large scale. The WAVE defines the project’s aquatic nature by its silhouette.
The Aquarium of the Future is at the heart of this project. This is not a typical aquarium, as it com¬bines wildlife marine exhibits with immersive technology, high-tech attractions, and media. The aquarium features impressive architecture and intricate multilevel organization. It also houses a large marine mammal theater where different species can demonstrate their natural behavior in front of large audience. The outdoor garden with numerous tactile exhibits provides opportunities for guests to get up close and personal with the marine life.
The hotel and hotel condo buildings are lined along the beach, featuring amazing sea views from every unit. Major tourist attractions- the aquarium, water activity center, retail, dining, and entertainment facilities are all accessible from the main multilevel pedestrian plaza in front of the island portal. The portal, a vertical circulation node that connect the Atlantis Island to the underground transportation hub, is further enhanced by the iconic observation tower. The tower becomes a beacon for the project a theater, the crown jewel of the scheme, was conceived as a pile of Chinese Jade bi-discs. The museum wraps around it like an ancient wood musical instrument. We shaped the office towers as Chinese Junk sails, angled to maximize solar gain. The ship is sailing HOME- heading towards the moon gate shaped hotel.

Yet another resort scheme done with the MGE for an alternate location in Japan. This site is much more urban than the Hokkaido one, requiring iconic presence and heroic architecture. The scheme revolves around a horseshoe arrangement of the hotel tower, with the casino at the focal point. The complex and elaborate program includes hotel tower, casino, RDE, MICE, performance venue and a large entertainment component (theme park).

Adjacent to Incheon International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world welcoming more than 60 million passengers annually, Inspire Entertainment Resort is perfectly positioned to spark Incheon’s transformation into the industry’s next major entertainment hub. The first phase of Inspire, an international visitor-only casino, opened in November 2023 with multiple phases planned beyond.

Inspire will be the industry’s first true integrated entertainment resort (IER) featuring over 1,200 five-star guest rooms, over 63,000-square-meters of dining, retail and entertainment options, a 15,000-seat Arena, a foreigner-only casino, a climate-controlled indoor pool and water park, 19,000-square-meters of conference and convention space, and a global studio IP-themed park.

Hetzel Design was involved with this project since its very conception, through its several transformations, along with Miura Holdings. Hetzel was honored to take a role of a Design Architect among a very distinguished group of consultants including Gensler (Master Planning), AEDAS (Main International Design Consultant), Arup (Structural, Traffic, Environmental Engineering), and Hyundai (Architect of Record).

For more please visit:

https://inspireer.com

A pristine but tired hotel site adjacent to an ancient garden on Taihu lake awaits an exciting resort addition. Hetzel was appointed to come up with a solution. Several design directions were explored before we focused on the Oyster Scheme- two clam shaped hotel towers, protecting a pearl- a glazed sphere. A high-end champagne and oyster bar seemed like a fitting program for the pearl.

The adjacent RDE is a wood laced toroid built at the end of a meandering waterway.  Sunken gardens, with strategic view sheds towards the waterway invigorate otherwise inert basement level and allow for additional guest amenities, making the most of the very tight construction site.