Room Histories
David Ahmanson Suite for Kids
Traveling with children is inevitably an adventure, and parents who take their offspring along on holiday soon learn to expect the unexpected. For such courageous explorers, nothing could be more unexpected than the David Ahmanson Suite for Kids.
Designed by Sticks a Des Moines firm that specializes in functional art, the David Ahmanson Suite for Kids is sophisticated enough to appeal to adults, while capturing a child's imagination.
There are many creative elements interwoven into the Sticks design of the David Ahmanson Suite for Kids, but two stand out the moment you walk through the door. One is an explosion of color - high energy shades of purple, green, yellow, and red - providing a whimsical mood lifter.
The other element is a collection of proverbs, which are painted throughout the rooms.
The David Ahmanson Suite for Kids was named after the Ahmansons' son, David, who at the time was almost six years old. Although other bathrooms in the Hotel Pattee are fitted with black and white tiles, it was decided that the Kids' Suite needed a more colorful approach, so the tile company gave David a pattern and asked him to fill in the colors. David picked turquoise, yellow, and red.
Travel Suite
Like the David Ahmanson Suite for Kids, the Travel Suite was designed by Sticks a Des Moines firm that specializes in functional art, and a riot of color, form, and imagination is the happy result.
The king-sized headboard serves as a centerpiece and celebrates life's journeys. In a sweep of color behind the bed is the sun, setting in a sapphire sky, while a crescent moon rises along with myriad stars and clouds, envisaging a sleepy traveler's dreamscape.
The hand painted furniture and painting by John A. Bayalis, Jr. titled "Geography Lesson" conjure up faraway places with strange sounding names. It is difficult to imagine a more appropriate theme than travel for a hotel suite, and the contemporary folk art style is an ideal complement to both the Travel Suite's theme as well as to the Arts and Crafts motif in the Hotel Pattee.
Whether your family is full of art aficionados, travel experts, design critics, or simply weary pilgrims glad for a night's rest in a cheerful room, the Travel Suite takes you to faraway places and celebrates the travelers seeing the best of the world.
