Interior Design magazine has featured the new Delta Sky Club’s distinctly Utah look in Salt Lake City International Airport’s Concourse B.
HOK collaborated with Delta Air Lines to design a 34,000-sq.-ft. Club that creates a nature-inspired retreat within the airport and sets it apart from other premium lounges. “The client asked for a serene, relaxing environment where people can take a deep breath after going through security,” said Sarah Oppenhuizen, director of HOK’s Interiors practice in San Francisco.
Excerpted from Interior Design:
In Salt Lake City, HOK mined the natural beauty of Utah for inspiration. The arrival, on the lower level, evokes winter in Park City with cool colors and metals, like aluminum chains that shimmer by the window. A custom stretched acoustic ceiling forms a 3D diamond pattern like hunks of ice; the geometry mirrors the carved terrazzo floor below.
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At the top of escalator, guests encounter an earth-tone terrazzo path that acts like a hiking trail leading through the lounge and its different vignettes. The main seating area centers around a 360-degree fireplace with a bronze-clad flue; a ceiling paneled in rippled stainless steel and cool-blue carpet allude to the Great Salt Lake. Lounge chairs line the 15-foot-high window wall overlooking the tarmac and the Wasatch and Oquirrh mountain ranges in the distance.
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Beyond, the palette darkens to reference caverns and caves in national parks like Zion, as in bronze-frame seating nooks surrounded by plum-colored acoustical material. The theme is most evident in the moody bar area, wrapped in stonelike paneling that resemble geodes. Cast-glass sconces by local artisan Hammerton look like stalactites, while chandeliers by Dutch Studio Toer channel fireflies.
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With 600 seats throughout the club, members have a mix of upright and relaxed postures to choose from. “There’s not a bad seat in the house, because every area has a focal point,” says Mishael Lake Thompson, Delta Sky Club design and facilities project lead. “HOK did a fantastic job creating scenes within each space that encourage people to come back and try a new spot.”
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The most unusual element, though, is the cocoonlike immersion room, HOK’s response to the challenge to differentiate this Delta Sky Club from its peers. “Our series of large screens mimics the experience of looking out a plane window with the world moving by,” Oppenhuizen explains. Images of Utah landmarks—deserts, mountains, lakes, and rivers, in various weather conditions—appear, accompanied by the sounds of birds or thunderstorms, and colored LEDs in the felt-baffled ceiling shift with each scene.
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The idea for the immersion room stemmed from HOK’s research into neuroinclusive design, which calls for calming, biophilic environments that reduce stress. “Some individuals need a separation from everything going on in the club, and this space offers a visual and auditory escape,” Oppenhuizen says.
Read the entire Interior Design article here.
In addition to designing the Club, HOK served as lead designer for the entirety of the new terminal at Salt Lake City International Airport.