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Thom Filicia, the interior design dude from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (may it rest in peace), has apparently graduated from redecorating gross dudes' apartments and has taken his talents straight (har har) to the W San Diego.
The hotel's lounge spaces -- the lobby lounge, poolside bar and rooftop bar -- are undergoing huge renovations this summer and Thom's design firm, Thom Filicia Interiors has partnered up with W San Diego's design team.
A frightening explosion ripped through a corner of The Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel which is still under construction near the city's convention center, injuring 14 workers. Five of the workers are in critical condition.
About four lower floors of the waterfront skyscraper near the San Diego Convention Center showed serious damage and debris littered a driveway beneath the area. Facade material dangled from the structure, drapes dangled out windows, and a large equipment room with tanks and pipes was left exposed.
While the blast was original thought to have been a possible terrorist attack, the Deputy Fire-Rescue Chief Perry Peake said the explosion "appeared to have been caused by a mechanical failure or gas."
The 30-story hotel was scheduled to open on December 3, 2008, according to Hilton's Web site.
[Photo: AP]
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by juliana
Art on the walls at Mary Jane's Coffee Shop at the Hard Rock SD.
The LA Times' Valli Herman recently reviewed the Hard Rock San Diego and for the most part, she liked the hotel. We think this is mostly because she was expecting a room and board version of the played-out Hard Rock Cafes, yet she found the hotel to be rather "well-run."
However, she did find the classic rock piping through the hotel to be a bit "goofy". She writes:
With a pantheon of classic, and often dead, rockers on heavy rotation, the hotel also isn't pushing any boundaries musically. After a few too many rounds of the Beatles, the Monkees and the Doors, I was tempted to call it the Classic Rock Hotel.
As we all know, the man responsible for the music at the hotel is Vibe Manager John W. Resnick. Now he might have to actually spend some time working at this job.
Still, Valli Herman had plenty of other nice things to say about the Hard Rock including this reassuring bit: "Snap-to-it service without attitude."
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Looks like Nemo Librizzi, the "Superintendent of Luminous Detail" at The Hotel on Rivington has a new crop of competitors.
The Wall Street Journal recently profiled the Vibe Manager at the Hard Rock San Diego.
Meet John W. Resnick, a 25-year-old New Yorker and Cornell Hotel School grad, who's responsible for keeping the rock n' roll vibe at the new hotel. Why should we sum up his job when he can do it himself:
My job is to create experiences for our guests both musical and cultural that really keep them begging for more, so they know they're at a Hard Rock [and] not a Holiday Inn.
I'm in charge of all the music at the hotel. Literally all the playlists that we make, the thousands of songs in our music library, the energy level in the hotel, and a whole sense of music, from the lobby to the spa to Mary Jane's [café] to the gym.
Wow. A vibe manager who basically just creates playlists all day long. That's kinda cool we guess. But Nemo Librizzi's and his hash-smoking hammock still trumps all.
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Last month, we hit up the opening party for the Hard Rock San Diego Hotel where we caught an energetic show from the Black-Eyed Peas and the incredibly in-shape Fergie.
While the "Glamorous" singer probably got up the next day and ran 5 miles, we decided to ease the pain of our Cosmopolitan hangover at the hotel's MaryJane's Coffee Shop.
Fortunately, the place serves breakfast all day long. Unfortunately, it's a small breakfast menu of omelettes, three eggs anystyle, flapjacks, brioche french toast and fruit. What we really wanted was a taylor ham, egg and cheese on a roll but this is San Diego, not New Jersey so we settled for three eggs any-style.
However, the lunch and dinner offerings are extensive ranging from tacos, to fish & chips to good ole' fashion burgers.
The scene is a modern diner with high-tech elements like comfy, spacious booths featuring Samsung flat-screen TVs. (Diners don't have control over what's being played.) Paintings and photos of rock stars adorn the walls--we sat under Mick Jagger--and there is a traditional counter seating right in front of the pastry items. Mmmmm.
While the place is open late night, it's not open all night so you're still going to have to roll to a Jack in the Box for any grease-craving after 2am.
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You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
There's two ways to think about a hotel that includes the words "Harbor View" in its name. First, you might expect to have a beautiful room overlooking a harbor--that's one of those places with water, a few boats, generally a pleasant sight. The second way is the "glass half empty" method which definitely applied for the traveler who snapped this Anti-View out of their window in the Radisson San Diego Harbor View.
Freeway, endless rows of buildings and the roar of landing aircraft are not the standard components of a harbor view.
Obviously there is a right and a wrong side of the Radisson San Diego, so try and get into a room with a view that lives up to the name. It's about two miles from the airport so it's probably going to be hard to avoid the drone of airplanes, but you could at least arrange to skip the sight of jams of commuter traffic on the freeway and try to enjoy the water.
[Photo: jimfrazier]
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by amandak
There was a very good reason the Black-Eyed Peas were guests of honor and performers at the opening of the Hard Rock San Diego hotel last week. The group actually designed one of the hotel's seventeen rock star suites.
The suite... reflects each member's individual style and unique personality, and hand selected everything from the furniture to the bed linens. Personal touches, such as a video greeting from will.i.am suggesting everything from his favorite haunts in the historic Gaslamp Quarter to choice tunes stashed in his personal music collection will be peppered throughout, creating a one-of-a-kind guest experience.
For serious Fergie fans like ourselves, the room has a framed green jumpsuit of hers signed and stuck on the wall in a glass case. Mmmm...Fergalicious! The suite can be booked by calling the hotel directly at 1-866-751-7625. It's a pricey stay at $5,000 a night but the proceeds will benefit the Black-Eyed Peas charity, The Peapod Foundation.
More pics after the jump.
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As promised, the Black Eyed Peas opened up the Hard Rock San Diego last night. The group performed all their hits from Monkey Business and Elephunk but the crowd was also treated to Will.I.Am's hit "I Got it From My Mama" and four songs from Fergie's solo album--"Clumsy," "Glamorous", "Fergalicious" and "Big Girls Don't Cry."
The crowd probably went the most crazy for the last song from Fergie and indeed it felt like we were at a sorority rush with all the girls around us singing their hearts out. However, most of the crowd was not in college. If anything the average age was at least 35+. And since last night's party was for the owners, the investors and the condo-hotel unit owners, that makes sense.
Anyways, The Peas were watched from above by the owners in suites and by guests who had hotel rooms throughout. We even caught one couple in the window jumping on the bed to the Black Eyed Peas.
More on the Hard Rock San Diego Opening will come later but for now, check out more pictures from the concert.
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