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million to do so doesn’t seem terribly surprising, but it does add up to
more than a million dollars a room. If one were to do a strictly financial
analysis, one might indeed wonder, as
Los Angeles Times
staff writer
Valli
Herman
did in a May 23, 2007 piece, “where all that money went...”
To answer that query, I and a small group of people intimately
connected with the renovation met in the Biltmore lobby and undertook
a rather exhaustive inspection of the various updates and improvements.
Our team consisted of the aforementioned Victoria Dolan, along with
Douglas Smith
, in charge of furniture procurement for the various Ty
Warner properties,
Gena Downey
, director public relations Four Seasons
Biltmore,
Greg Rice
, executive vice-president of development for Ty
Warner Hotels & Resorts,
Erinn Lynch
, community relations manager, Ty
Warner Hotels & Resorts, and
Barry Winick
, an associate with architect
Peter Marino’s
Santa Barbara office.
A Great Old Structure
The first thing we learned is that the main building with its 14-inch
thick walls, is not adobe; it is actually a wood-frame construction covered
with thick plaster, wire, or horsehair lathe, depending upon when it was
completed. Because of its unusual construction, a seismic upgrade on the
entire property was required. “Each building was a little different,” Greg
Rice explains, “but we had to get behind the walls without damaging
the building too much. That was one of the expenses we took on that
triggered certain things that caused us to do other things.”
Overhead, it is difficult – no, impossible – to distinguish between the
reinforced concrete beams and massive wood beams. “You are not going
to be able to tell them apart, Barry Winick says, “because they’ve all been
treated so that they look the same.”
The terra cotta tiles on all the stairwells were removed, numbered,
cleaned, saved, and then re-installed. “The interesting part of the procedure,”
Winick points out, “is putting them back once they’ve been taken up. It
has to look seamless, and the job required endless hours of waxing and re-
The Biltmore fitness center is of steel construction with French limestone floors inset by
ceramic tiles with a blue glaze. All the concrete (from an existing building that was razed)
was replaced with brick. The workout room and lobby boast a view straight out to the
ocean. In order to capture the look and feel of Barcelona, circa 1918 to 1938, all the
furniture inside was designed to replicate the Modern look of that era. All the landscaping
is new, including the Canary palms and Monterey cypress trees selected for their age
(approximately 75 years old, the same age as the hotel).