A five-star ultra-luxury hotel in Atlanta’s thriving Buckhead district, branded and operated by Starwood Capital, the Baccarat Hotel offers guest rooms, suites, a luxury spa, grand ballroom, and an upscale restaurant/bar on the ground floor. A general roof top pool, cabana, pool bar, and casual restaurant add to the array of amenities. Thirty-eight private residential units complete the tower and are also serviced by the hotel.
Insured by the rich history of Baccarat, a chic, sexy, and contemporary design combines romantic traditional French elegance with drama, glamour and hints of the southern locale. The atmosphere is moody, sophisticated, and edgy, evoking the sublime, mixed with bold color and clever use of dramatic interior volumes.
Solid, opaque materials are offset by ethereal glittering crystal found at every turn, which is used in both abstract forms and shards in an over-scaled “art installation”, as well as in chandeliers that are transformed in various ways. In the hotel’s central chandelier, for example, electric wiring was replaced with fiber-optic thread, infusing the structure with an ephemeral glow.
The double-height lobby features an elongated grand staircase that rises to a mezzanine balcony wrapped with peek-a-boo shutters, punched windows, and red lacquer walls. The concierge desk is set against an oversized fireplace evoking the historic Baccarat furnace, where the crystal is born.
Part southern mansion, part Paris Opera House, the hotel carries a motif of theatrical participation and observation – or “seeing and being seen” – that extends into the guest rooms, where smoky two-way mirror partitions divide bedrooms from bathrooms and reveal forms and people in a ghostly, ethereal, and tantalizing manner.