Clockwise from portrait: Designer Alison Antrobus. In her culturally sensitive S Hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica, a hypnotic path of wood planks, similar in scale to a pier and lined with twinkling lanterns, draws guests through the lobby toward the ocean. Inspired by local woven-straw crafts, synthetic wicker wraps a guest room soaking tub. A sunset view can be enjoyed from the rooftop pool. Guests snap photos of the local recipes painted by artist Fiona Godfrey on columns in the restaurant. The project, which won the 2019 Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Award for #1 Hotel in the Caribbean, makes ample use of cut stone, in a nod to historic Jamaican buildings.
Alison Antrobus Founder, Antrobus Design Collective
20 years in the industry ASID breakthrough project
Working with Philippe Starck on Miami’s Icon Brickell honors
DCOTA Rising Star of Design, International Property Award, USA Property Award, IIDA South Florida BRAGG Award
When approached to renovate the former Breezes Hotel in Jamaica’s Montego Bay, Alison Antrobus didn’t think twice. “As a Jamaican who left in the 1970s, I always wanted to return to my island and contribute in some way,” she says. With the saturation of foreign-owned resorts along the coast, Antrobus felt a keen sense of social responsibility to maintain the local culture in the newly named S Hotel, which opened in 2019. She wove cultural elements into the design, from regional recipes painted on restaurant columns to tall lobby screens evoking woven-straw crafts. “It never ceases to amaze me what new design vocabularies arise from a project once you are willing to think outside the box and pay attention to clues of place, program, client, and history,” she notes. It was after earning her BA and BFA degrees from Rhode Island School of Design that Antrobus opened her namesake firm in 2002. Soon after, she was invited to open and lead YOO’s Miami studio for several years, working closely alongside Philippe Starck—who remains a major influence. (A true multihyphenate, she’s also dabbled in fashion, designing watches and handbags.) She’s also a thoughtful advocate for female designers: “As a woman balancing motherhood, marriage, and running a company, I feel a responsibility to take all of the challenging experiences I have encountered along the way and ‘make it right’ for myself and the women around me.” Hear, hear! KEY CONSULTANTS MARA MADE DESIGNS, FIONA GODFREY ART, CLAD LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, MKDA ARCHITECTS PHOTOGRAPHY PORTRAIT: GARY JAMES; PROJECT: ALAN SMITH
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INTERIOR DESIGN