brand identity.

The article focuses on designer Yabu Pushelberg's hotel project, the new 260-room St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, California. The project was particularly challenging due to the simultaneous newness and history of the St. Regis brand itself. The venerable hotel chain, now a division of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, may have celebrated the centenary of its New York City flagship last year, but its evolution into a globally recognized brand is merely a decade old. The designers still concentrated on space outside of the guestrooms, but they focused more closely on style and a sense of location. Style, for instance, comes to life most dramatically in the ballroom, where a clutch of oversized, leaf-like Czech crystal chandeliers offer a new take on this most, classic of fixtures. In the spa, meanwhile, limestone walls give the 9,000-square-foot space its own organic feel, while the lobby is accented with natural, but opulent materials ranging from zebra wood-paneled walls and travertine floors to black-and-white marble columns.