Jack "Randy" Phillips scans the beige stucco facade of the Sheraton Hotel and Spa in downtown Fort Worth and squints.
"It is very '70s, and I think the color palate is a bit gauche -- nothing I would pick," he says. Not only that, but "utilitarian" and "uneventful" as well.Phillips isn't complaining. He's diagnosing.Hotel leaders expected feedback when they invited Phillips and his 11 classmates in the University of Texas at Arlington's advanced landscape architecture class to design a new look for the main entrance's drab exterior.The hands-on conceptualization project for instructor Taner Ozdil's postgraduate class resulted in 12 distinct visions to spice up what the hospitality industry calls the guest "arrival experience.""It can be improved upon," acknowledged Jay Best, the hotel's director of sales and marketing. "It was built in the '70s. It's not glass, splash and glitter the way some of our competition is."Most of the designs used waterfall walls, foliage and benches to visually tie into the Fort Worth Water Gardens across Commerce Street from the Sheraton entrance.A judge panel awarded Phillips first place -- and gift cards for $1,000 worth of rooms and dining at the hotel -- for his concept, which also included changing the main entrance to the building's north side on East 15th Street and converting the street in to an "auto plaza" with trees and paving bricks.Nhasala Manandhar took second place for her plan for building a rooftop restaurant and shrinking the horseshoe drive-in to allow more room for water features and outdoor dining furniture.The Sheraton was proud to serve as the subject of the class project, said John Beier, the new general manager. But to be clear, there are no immediate budget plans to take the proposed overhaul any further."It's a great community thing," he said. "It gives us inspiration for the future, but it's not going to go from their drawings to a plan."The 430-bed hotel, formerly the Fort Worth Plaza Hotel, closed in 2006 for major renovations and reopened in 2009 under the Sheraton name. The idea for getting architectural landscaping tips came from a recent brainstorming session of the hotel leadership and Paige Hendricks Public Relations of Fort Worth, officials said. It was pitched to Ozdil, an assistant professor in UT Arlington's School of Architecture.The hotel officials "wanted to look at ways to involve the community as the hotel continues to evolve," said Lauren Kwedar, vice president of the public relations firm.Ozdil said it was a good opportunity to keep his students involved in real-world projects. They has just completed their designs for revamping the Dallas Area Rapid Transit station and surrounding neighborhood near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.For Phillips, 55, a practicing landscape architect for 32 years, the course mostly serves as another step toward landinga college teaching job.But for students like Amber Davissuch exercises may help land job in the field."This is a project that can actually been implemented, so it kind of keeps me grounded a little," she said. "Before, I was kind of thinking up in the clouds."Robert Cadwallader 817-390-7641Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
