Marriott International’s JW Marriott brand has made its North Carolina debut with the opening of the 381-room JW Marriott Charlotte. HKS Architects handled the design.
Inspired by Queen Charlotte, the city’s namesake, the design of the JW Marriott Charlotte evokes the 18th century British queen consort through classic textiles balanced with a modern sensibility. Ornate details like the flowing custom lobby chandelier that draws inspiration from the patterns of the queen’s royal clothing, are set against grand-scale architecture, which gives the overall aesthetic of the hotel a clean and modern form.
The hotel’s design maximizes natural light while also showcasing regal craftsmanship, finishes and details throughout. The restaurants and bar all have outdoor seating options while the meeting spaces include an outdoor rooftop terrace, a grand ballroom spanning more than 5,100 square feet, a junior ballroom totaling approximately 2,700 square feet and nearly 7,000 square feet of additional breakout space.
All guestrooms and most of the hotel’s 22,000 square feet of meeting space have floor-to-ceiling windows with city, stadium and vista views of greater Charlotte.
DPR Construction used an off-site modular prefabrication approach to manufacture the guest bathrooms in a controlled warehouse environment and reduce the need for laydown on the site. In hospitality construction, bathrooms generate the majority of punch list and coordination issues. Utilizing Surepods, the project team prefabricated all 335 bathrooms offsite and loaded them level by level into the 23-story building over a period of 13 weeks.
Urban Retreat
The on-site Spa by JW has six private treatment suites, a couples’ treatment room and an Express Treatment pod for faster services. The hotel also has a 24-hour fitness center and open-air rooftop swimming pool with private cabanas. The property has three food-and-beverage spaces: a steakhouse, an oyster bar and a rooftop lounge with a pool.
The JW Marriott Charlotte is owned and operated by hotel ownership, development and management company White Lodging, which currently owns and/or operates approximately 90 hotels, 30 restaurants and bars and a collection of ranches. This is the third JW Marriott in White Lodging’s portfolio and is its first property in North Carolina.
The hotel is part of the Ally Charlotte Center, a pedestrian-friendly community developed by Crescent Communities with indoor and outdoor dining, open spaces and urban gardens. The full city block includes 750,000 square feet of office space, 30,000 square feet of ground-level retail, a 12,000-square-foot public plaza with live oak trees and a 1,400-space parking garage.