Plan Your Meetings

Design leaps from classroom to hotel boardroom

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American InterContinental University interior design student Kevin Knight won Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts’ Meeting Space-Off challenge for undergraduate design majors with his design for a modern boardroom, transforming the Crowne Plaza Atlanta-Perimeter NW’s The Boardroom into an industrial-style meeting space using environmentally friendly materials and a warm color palette.

“I chose to use sustainable products in my design, while creating an interior that is both visually appealing and enhances meeting productivity,” Knight said. The wood used in the boardroom’s bamboo flooring is replenished in the natural world within three to five years, saving forest-grown wood which takes generations to grow back. Other features included wool furniture fabric, birch panels and cloth bulletin boards.

Knight used colors to stimulate brainstorming and creativity, bring warmth to the space and add sophistication. Carpet inlays were installed in heavily trafficked areas of the room to minimize noise.

“This concept incorporates design elements prevalent throughout the hotel, while integrating new elements a person would not expect to see in a hotel boardroom,” he explained.

General Manager of the Crowne Plaza Atlanta-Perimeter NW Hugh Anderson said, “The new boardroom design expands the versatility of our meeting space and establishes an exclusive selling point for our hotel.” The hotel chain is planning to expand Meeting Space-Off opportunities for undergraduate design students this year.