Re: “Design of DIA hotel is hideous,” Nov. 6 letter to the editor.
A recent letter-writer called the external design of the Westin Hotel at Denver International Airport, which opens Thursday, “hideous.” While beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, to call the Westin design “hideous” is a gross misjudgment.
Principal architect Kap Malik of the global architecture and design firm Gensler — which, among others, took over the DIA makeover after Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava left the project — explained his primary design goal earlier this year.
Malik wrote, in a post on the Gensler on Cities blog, that the goal was to “elevate the experience travelers have before and after they take flight.” He said the new building “takes its formal inspiration from the existing terminal and the surrounding landscape.”
Malik added that the critical objectives for the hotel design were: “1) to create a hotel that offered an urban experience at the airport; 2) to create a seamlessly integrated hotel, one that would be easy for travelers to navigate; and 3) to connect to Denver’s distinct culture and landscape.”
After studying many design options, the firm decided that a horizontal bar form “with an elegant dip” would be the most efficient design. The idea was to create a new gateway to the airport “while also respecting the view corridor and tent structures.”
On its website, the Gensler firm refers to the hotel’s “gentle, flowing curves.” The description continues: “Building upon imagery of flight and aviation, the sleek form resembles a bird with its wings extended … .”
In my opinion, with the new hotel and transit center, and in keeping with DIA’s overall airport design, Denver will have a beautifully enhanced, sophisticated, well-integrated and enviable, truly world-class airport to be proud of, both inside and out, now and for many years to come.
Richard Doerr lives in Louisville.
