Project Data:

Firm Name:              WATG

Completion Date:     8/1/2020

Square Footage:      1525500

Building Use:           All-Inclusive Hard Rock Hotel

Location:                 Montego Bay, Jamaica

Project Description:

The Hard Rock Hotel, Montego Bay, Jamaica will be an All-Inclusive Resort. Situated with in the St. James Parish, the site has breathtaking views of the ocean and 854 meters of proposed beachfront development. With only 90 meters of depth (at the widest) in the site, this dictates a single loaded guestroom condition. While this is not the most economical layout, it does provide an advantage to the guest, in that each individual guestroom and suite will have direct views to the ocean.

In regards to the program, the resort offers 1,100 guestrooms, 13 F&B venues, multiple entertainment spaces, 50 treatment room spa, 55,000 sf of conference and banquet facilities and multiple outdoor pool environments.

Design aesthetic for the hotel drew initial planning inspiration from the unique features and proportions of the site itself. With such long and slender site proportions, this allowed the guestrooms, restaurants and public areas to sit perpendicular to the beach front, which allowed commanding ocean views from every space.

The scale of the project warrants an economical and repetitive façade character solution. A tunnel form structural system has been developed for the guestroom towers, while the podium will be conventionally framed. Drawing inspiration from the rhythmic pattern of waves lapping onto the sand, the balcony design takes on an angled rhythm in plan that extends to the next level up and offsets by one module. This back and forth movement, up the façade, creates a dynamic pattern that is fully appreciated when viewing the building from the various pools and outdoor amenities along the beach front. The pattern is also accentuated by angled rooflines, and portions of the building mass that appear to float above the podium elements, while extending a balance to the varying heights and volume of the building as it stretches the length of the site.

C.O.T.E. | Committee on the Environment

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