Firm Principal Randy Shortridge was recently quoted in luxury real estate periodical Mansion Global. [au]workshop’s design for the Mandarin Oriental Honolulu, including the cantilevered sky garden and extensive private lanais, was one of several designs discussed in the context of a rising demand for a connection to the outdoors in urban environments.

“ ‘A connection to nature is vital to everyone’s health and wellbeing,’ said Randy Shortridge, cofounder of [au]workshop and architect of The Residences at Mandarin Oriental in Honolulu. ‘People need sunlight and value the long view, the ability to see the horizon. Landscaping stimulates all the senses, too.’ ”

- Mansion Global - “The Ultimate Amenity”

Read the full article, also featuring design from MAD Architects and Skidmore Owings & Merrill and discussions with developers, here, and see additional drawings and renderings at our project page.

The sky garden at the Mandarin Oriental Honolulu Hotel and residences greets guests with a infinity-edge reflecting pool that reconnects them to the horizon.

Presales for residential units in Confluence are currently underway, with nearly a third of the units already reserved! If you're interested in a residential unit or commercial space, please head over to the Confluence site to learn more before they're all gone!

Below is an example of the two interior finish options in the main living area. We have also added some new images at our project page, if you'd like to see more.

Confluence was featured prominently Sunday in the Business section of the Coloradoan, in a feature on buildings that are reshaping Fort Collins, alongside other projects that are revitalizing the River District. We've received lots of positive feedback on the article, so thank you! If you haven't read it yet, you can find it at the Coloradoan's website, or if you'd like more information on the project, check out our project page or go straight to the Confluence site. 

Presales are going on now, with units going fast!

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We are excited to announce that residential units in Confluence are now available for presale! More information about presales and the commercial spaces available for lease is available at the updated project website. We have also added a few new renderings to our project page. We will have additional information about the individual units (and additional images) in the coming weeks, so check back soon!

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Poudre Garage LLC hosted a ground-breaking ceremony Tuesday at the project site at Remington and Oak in Old Town Fort Collins. Renovations to the interior of the historic Forest Service garage have already begun, and work on footings and foundations for the addition is scheduled to begin shortly.

David Diehl, one of the company's principals, said a few words, thanking the Downtown Development Authority for their contribution to the project, which he indicated made a big impact in the quality of the exterior materials that the project budget could accommodate.

It has been a fun and productive collaboration with the owner, and we are excited to see the project beginning to be realized! More information about the project is available at our project page, and we will provide updates as soon as a leasing website is available.

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[au]workshop is thrilled to announce that the world-renowned Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group will be operating the Mana'olana Place Hotel and Residences as the Mandarin Oriental, Honolulu.

A few selections from the Mandarin Oriental and Salem Partners press releases:

“We are delighted with this opportunity to open a hotel in Honolulu and look forward to bringing Mandarin Oriental’s legendary hospitality back to Hawaii,” said James Riley, Group Chief Executive of Mandarin Oriental. “This new development will be a welcome addition to the brand’s expansion around the world,” he added.

“We are proud to bring the award-winning Mandarin Oriental brand to Honolulu,” said James Ratkovich of Salem Partners. “Mandarin Oriental, Honolulu will set a new standard for luxury service in the islands and will offer a preferred choice to travelers and potential homeowners who desire the finest accommodation,” he added. “We look forward to revitalizing this area at the gateway to Waikiki with the first TOD project in the city and bringing jobs, economic benefits, housing and a world-class hotel to Honolulu.”

Arrival Rotunda

View of Tower from Above Kapiolani Boulevard

View from Outside the Makai Penthouse

Looking Diamond Head

View from Mauka Penthouse Kitchen

Mauka Penthouse Kitchen

Mauka Penthouse Living Area

Luxury Guestroom Bath and Makai Facade

Hotel Pool Deck and Lounge

Hotel Pool Cabanas

Hotel Pool Deck

Resident Amenity Deck

We are excited to have the privilege to continue to work closely with the Mandarin group as the project continues to develop. 

For more information about the project, please see our project page, or the Mandarin Oriental or Salem Partners press releases.

We had some fun with the new aerial camera last week while in Pasadena for another project, so we put together a quick overview of the nearly-completed Andalucia (previously El Molino Court).

We've been working on the project with RTKL, Mill Creek Properties, and Mack Urban Development for quite some time, so we're excited to see the project nearing the finish line!

For more information on the project, please see our project page and http://liveandalucia.com/.

We are extremely excited to be able to announce another project that we've been hard at work on in Honolulu! We have begun having community meetings and are in the process of developing the project further with a potential hotel operator. 

From our project narrative: 

1500 Kapiolani Boulevard is located in urbanized Honolulu, along a tree-lined boulevard which links downtown with Waikiki. The site is within a recently designated transit oriented district, which raises the allowable FAR to 10.0 in order to increase walkability and discourage automobile dependency.

In this context, our client asked us to design an iconic 400 foot tower (the height ceiling) combining street-oriented retail, a four star hotel and complementary housing, with the goal of capitalizing on views over and around existing buildings in all directions. 

Our solution focuses on a simple massing and an iconic form befitting the prestige of Kapiolani Boulevard, distinctly visible from Kahnamoku Lagoon, the Ala Moana Mall, and other areas of the city.  We created two separate small-footprint towers—allowing the overall mass to be oriented Mauka-Makai (Mountains-to-Ocean as desired by island residents) preserving view corridors and breeze patterns. For residents, the two-tower scheme maximizes views and cross-ventilation, as well as value: all eight units per typical level are corner units.

The central design move was to maximize usable common and private open space and create actively programmed spaces on multiple datums, culminating in a lushly-landscaped sky garden bridge/platform for building residents at 350’ in the air, indexing the city’s previous height limit. This sky garden metaphorically replaces a ground level context lost when Oahu urbanized and reconnects the site to the horizon

Hawaii’s mild climate and pleasant breezes are woven into the scheme at every turn with the goal of dissolving the barrier between conditioned and exterior space. At higher floors, breezes are mitigated with appropriately placed massing. This is evident at the hotel floors which link the towers, creating a natural wind eddy at the podium, and at the sky garden, where building mass and landscape elements shield the gathering spaces.

Open space/green space is a central focus on vertical and horizontal surfaces in our solution. In fact, as shown in the image above, the cumulative horizontal intensive and extensive open space is nearly 2.3 times the site area and is complemented with additional vertical gardens on multiple surfaces.

This project is scheduled to begin construction in late 2017.

More information is available at the project's page.  We are hard at work continuing the design process and we will continue to post updates, so keep an eye on the blog!

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The site has been cleared and the ground broken! We're very excited to see the project progress! Learn more about the Desiderio Homes (and their awesome site at the base of the Colorado Street bridge in Pasadena) here. To donate to or volunteer for the project, visit the San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity.