The Spa's the Thing
Three residential resorts promote world-class spas as a way to relax at your home away from home.
June 1, 2007
As hotel residences have become increasingly popular, so has the list of services offered to owners. Joining the list of essential amenities for a vacation home community—such as concierge service, golf course access and gourmet restaurants—is the designer spa. Here we focus on three new serene spas that are steps away from some of the hottest seaside real estate on the market.Doonbeg Golf Club
Ireland
Top: The Ritz-Carlton’s spa features quartzite walls and a glass
bridge. Photograph by Eric Laignel. Bottom: A sculptural lantern at Doonbeg’s oasis. Photograph by Daniel Aubrey. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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Six years in the making, Doonbeg Golf Club opened in mid-2006
to reveal an old world–style resort development on Ireland’s southwest coast. As
with its sister development, Kiawah Island, S.C., Doonbeg’s emphasis is on golf.
Located in County Clare, about 45 minutes from Shannon, the resort has a
ruggedly spectacular 18-hole Greg Norman–designed golf course along over a mile
of beach and dunes, as well as Tom Colicchio’s the Long Room restaurant.
Membership to the private club—which requires a $70,000 refundable deposit and
$3,600 in annual dues—is by invitation, and only club members are permitted to
purchase real estate. For nongolfers, the area offers dolphin-watching,
horseback riding, helicopter rides, surfing, boating and other water sports.
Top: As with her work at Kiawah Island’s Sasanqua spa in
South Carolina, Clodagh’s White Horses spa at Doonbeg has a neutral color
palette and a Zen-like atmosphere. Photograph by Daniel Aubrey. Bottom: Sunshine was brought into the subterranean
treatment rooms via amber-colored plaster. A kinetic sconce constantly rotates
light like the sun. Photograph by Daniel Aubrey. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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All of Doonbeg’s 56 suites sold out in less than a year (before
the ground breaking), a fully furnished one recently came on the market for
$1.79 million. Additional offerings include the 17 four-bedroom,
3,000-square-foot Links Cottages, which are priced from $1.9 million (19 more
are scheduled for completion by the end of the year). As with Kiawah Island,
architect John Haley and interior designer Jackye Lanham were recruited to
design the bulk of Doonbeg’s structures, while Clodagh was commissioned to
design the White Horses spa.
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"Somebody said the sunshine in Ireland is in the hearts of the people," says Irish-born, New York–based Clodagh, who is best known for her modern Zen-like interiors. "I decided to make the sunshine in the heart of the spa." The dilemma was how to accomplish that in a basement space at the Doonbeg Golf Club with only one source of natural light. Her solution was to deploy polished amber-colored plaster that makes walls veritably glow, and kinetic light fixtures that change the light constantly ("it circulates rather than stagnates," says Clodagh), the way sunshine naturally does.
The treatment rooms have vaulted ceilings that recall the
subterranean spaces of Clodagh’s childhood home. Throughout the spa, Clodagh
signatures—natural, eco-friendly products and materials such as stone tubs and
reclaimed wood surfaces—abound. And, of course, she says, "We were working with
feng shui and biogeometry to make people feel comfortable and to circulate joy
throughout the rooms." Kerstin Florian products and treatments inspired by the
sea dominate the spa and salon menu of services.
Doonbeg Golf Club,
866.366.6234, www.doonbeggolfclub.com
Clodagh, 212.780.5300,
www.clodagh.comThe Ritz-Carlton
Grand Cayman
The Ritz-Carlton, thanks to developer Mike Ryan, is finally
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luxury resort market in Grand Cayman, a place so wealthy that it
has never felt compelled to cater to tourism. "It has the highest per-capita
income in the region, the fifth-largest banking center in the world, the
number-one hedge fund center in the world, and is a leading offshore
financial hub," Ryan says. (Click image to enlarge)
Top and Bottom: The Silver Rain spa’s cool interiors are a welcome
contrast to the heat of Grand Cayman. The locker room areas feature
glacierlike lighting fixtures and opalescent wall coverings. Photography by Eric Laignel. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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Ground broke on the development in 2003 and, after cleaning up
in the wake of Hurricane Ivan, the resort opened its doors to a mix of hotel
rooms and real estate offerings in December 2005. Now luring visitors to Seven
Mile Beach is an "Endless Service" program that includes use of a BMW 6 or 7
Series and a crewed powerboat; the usual array of water sports as well as
stingray feeding on Grand Cayman’s famous "Stingray City" reef; Eric Ripert
restaurants; a Greg Norman nine-hole golf course; a Nick Bollettieri tennis
program; a Jean-Michel Cousteau "Ambassadors of the Environment" educational
program for ages four to 18; and, soon, a marina for 54 boats up to 200 feet.
About a dozen residences in the RC towers are still available,
ranging from $2.9 million to $44 million (2,400 to 20,000 square feet). Three
design packages—Traditional, Beach and Modern—come with Poggenpohl kitchens and
Viking, Sub-Zero, Asko and KitchenAid appliances. On the boards is development
of 22 freestanding homes (priced from $1 million to $2 million) and condos
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As practical as they are decorative, Italian glass mosaic tiles
adorn the surfaces near the whirlpool. "We thought about all the stages of
water," says designer Carl D’Aquino, who gave the common areas a warmer feel. (Click image to enlarge)
To complement the laid-back elegance of the development, the
Swiss skincare and cosmetics company La Prairie recruited New York’s D’Aquino
Monaco to design its spa. "We thought about all the stages of water," says Carl
D’Aquino, "from the purity of the glaciers to, ultimately, the warmth of the
Caribbean Sea." That progression is exactly what they achieved. Leaving the
scorching island sun behind, guests walk through silver-leaf doors that open
onto a chilled foyer where water rushes over quartzite walls and under a glass
bridge. On either side are cast and fused-glass screens that look like
chunks of icebergs.
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Proceeding inward, the color of the water morphs from cool blue
hues to warmer tones. The lobby—all sleek lacquer and streamlined custom
furniture—features columns ringed in beadwork down which water drips
languorously. By the time spa-goers reach the Silver Haven lounge upstairs, the
environment has become warmly enveloping, with low-lit private seating areas
defined by silk shag carpets and floor-to-ceiling drapes covered in millions of
silky pearlescent threads. Finally, guests are guided across a threshold of
river rocks to reach the treatment cabines, which are sheathed in blue silk
wallpaper and glass mosaic tiles.
Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, 345.815.7777, www.residences-cayman.com
D’Aquino
Monaco, 212.929.9787,
www.daquinomonaco.comAcqualina
Sunny Isles, Florida
Developed by the Trump Group and managed by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts,
Acqualina Ocean Residences & Resort is located in Sunny Isles, midway
between the sybaritic meccas of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale (and convenient to
both). It harks back to traditional Mediterranean glamour but updates it with
the latest technology and with interiors by Zeke Fernandez Design.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
ESPA’s Susan Harmsworth and Miami designer Isabel Tragash covered
surfaces in the common areas with Bisazza’s glass mosaic tiles, which glisten
like the sea. They also used materials like Capiz shell, mother-of-pearl, sea
grass and driftwood to make Acqualina’s spa reflective of its beachfront
setting. (Click image to enlarge)
While the immediate surrounds of Sunny Isles lack the nightlife
of South Beach and the boat culture of Ft. Lauderdale, Acqualina has enough
within its four-plus acres to keep guests entertained. Amenities at the resort,
which opened in May 2006, include an
exclusive beach club on a gorgeous stretch of South
Florida’s white-sand coast; Gino and Fernando Masci’s iconic Il Mulino New York
restaurant (ravioli with black truffles and champagne sauce anyone?); golf and
tennis at nearby private clubs; AquaMarine Children’s Program and nanny
services; transportation to the famed Bal Harbour shops; and access to Williams
Island marina (for yachts up to 165 feet). Resale residences within the 51-story
tower—which sold out in six months—are priced from about $1.5 million for a
Milano three-bedroom, three-bath plan to about $7.9 million for a
6,000-square-foot penthouse with a private pool. All have kitchens with granite
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Crisp white upholstery, dark woods and clusters of sea grass
placed on the wall like works of art make for a sophisticated yet relaxed spa
lobby. (Click image to enlarge)
To design the resort’s 20,000-square-foot spa, Rosewood tapped
Susan Harmsworth, CEO and founder of ESPA International, who for the past 15
years has arguably exerted more influence over spa design than anyone else in
the industry. To assist her, Harmsworth, who is based in England, turned to
Miami designer Isabel Tragash. "She took an architecturally strong, modernist
approach in keeping with the Miami style," says Harmsworth of Tragash’s
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The spa’s pool looks up at the 51-story condo and hotel tower,
where residences sold out within six months. Photograph by Dan Forer. (Click image to enlarge)
"ESPA at Aqualina has an oceanview setting. So the interior
design incorporates features relating to the beachfront locale." That translates
to surfaces sheathed in Capiz shell and mother-of-pearl, wallcoverings of sea
grass, shells and driftwood artwork, mosaic tiles evocative of beach glass, and
accessories shaped like sea urchins or made of mother-of-pearl. "These natural
materials and shapes are complemented by the crisp white upholstery fabrics so
appropriately used in the intense Florida light," Harmsworth says. The ESPA
products and treatments patrons have come to expect will all be available, as
well as, she adds, "our advanced collection of signature experiences, which are
possible only in a handful of ESPA spas due to the intensity of training and
advanced skill required from the therapists."
Acqualina, A Rosewood
Resort, 305.918.8000, www.acqualinaresort.com
ESPA, 305.421.6332,
www.espaonline.com