Hospitality Design and Construction 2005

Much Bigger and More Charming

 

An $80-million expansion of the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa has added more than 300,000 sq. ft of new facilities, including 15 new buildings with 308 guestrooms and 63 suites; a convention center; and four restaurants.

After 27 months and $80 million, the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa has completed a massive expansion and renovation.

Structures at the the Ojai Valley and Spa consist of haciendas with red tile roofs, decorative ironwork and flagstone terraces.(photo by Greg Aragon)

"It's been a long haul," said Bill Wilhelm, project executive with Irvine-based R.D. Olson Construction, the project's general contractor. "What was initially an 18-month project, has turned into more than two years."

The project, which broke ground in May 2003, was undertaken to recapture the architectural charm of the resort's original Spanish Colonial roots.

"Since we began this project, we've demolished a dozen buildings, laid 15 mi. of cable, buried 5 mi. of pipe and installed 200,000 sq. ft. of Saltillo tile and 20,000 pieces of decorative tile," said Thad Hyland, the spa's managing director. "Now, more than 5,000 gallons of paint, a half dozen new fountains and 125 trees later, we can really see the results of our labor."

When the punch list wrapped up in August, the resort had added more than 300,000 sq. ft of new facilities, including 15 new buildings; four new restaurants; a 40,000-sq.-ft. convention center; two central service buildings totaling 35,000 sq. ft.; and two ballrooms.

What's more, 308 guestrooms and 63 suites were added. The rooms feature four-poster beds, Spanish style fireplaces, terracotta tiles in the entrance foyers and bathrooms, colorful hand-painted decorative tiles and lanterns.

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"We tried to change [the inn] and get it away from the post-modern architecture that was built there in 1985," said William Mahan, the Santa Barbara-based architect in charge of the project. "The whole goal is to return the Ojai Valley to old California Spanish architecture."

Mahan, who also designed the inn's 31,000-sq.-ft. spa in 1994, said that when people visit the newly renovated resort, "they won't feel like they are in a big Doubletree or a Hyatt; they will feel like they are in a little village in Andalucia, Spain."

Mahan, who has been designing structures at the spa for 30 years, said his biggest challenge was keeping a residential scale to the sprawling inn. "The buildings [must] feel like residences; they cannot be huge or imposing," he said. "As a human being, you [should] feel comfortable walking around them."

All of the new guestrooms were built in one-and two story structures.

Rooms at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa feature four-poster beds, Spanish style fireplaces, terracotta tiles in the entrance foyers and bathrooms, colorful hand-painted decorative tiles and lanterns (photo by Greg Aragon).

"I wanted the Ojai Valley Inn to be a whole bunch of little buildings so that it feels like a village," Mahan said.

Located in the idyllic city of Ojai, 73 mi. northwest of Los Angeles and 14 mi. from the Pacific Ocean, the resort sits on 200 rolling acres of oak trees and golf courses. It was built in 1923 by millionaire glass manufacturer Edward Drummond Libbey, who commissioned architect Wallace Neff to design an inn and golf course representative of California's Spanish history.

With the Topa Topa Mountains as a backdrop, Neff created adobe haciendas with red tile roofs, decorative ironwork and flagstone terraces, helping to launch the state's signature Spanish Colonial architectural style.

In the late 1980s, the inn was enlarged and given a post-modern facelift, which lasted until 1997, when the owners decided to bring back some of the classic style that made the inn a popular "Hollywood celebrity" retreat in the 1930s and '40s.