Even as they shift to a more casual overall style, club properties are still investing in high-end decor and finishes to create ballrooms that stand out among the competition.
Anyone who has planned a special event knows that it’s all about location—the venue sets the overall tone for the day. And even as clubs and resorts modernize and shift toward a more casual vibe, one formal institution remains: the ballroom.
A ballroom is often where the style, grace and charm of a property can be showcased in an extravagant way. Ballroom and event spaces should reflect a property’s unique story and locale, while remaining versatile enough to appeal to a wide range of member and guest tastes and preferences.
SUMMING IT UP
• Many ballrooms are incorporating a neutral color scheme to allow members and guests to personalize their events. • When considering a ballroom redesign, look to your natural surroundings for style inspiration. • Keeping certain design elements of previous ballroom decor—by repurposing furniture or preserving a striking ceiling—pays respect to the grandeur and history of the space, while still modernizing it for member events. |
Making New Space
One of the highlights of Tartan Fields Golf Club’s $2.5 million clubhouse renovation is its newly updated ballroom. With a goal of expanding event-space opportunities, the 17-year-old club in Dublin, Ohio, had to rethink the overall design and layout of its building. In the past, the club had to displace member dining when there was a large event on the property. After expanding the ballroom, however, the club can now accommodate any event without disrupting member dining.
“One of the goals of the renovation was to bifurcate the space,” says Patrick Damer, Vice President of Sales. “Our members understand that weddings and events are vital to the club from a revenue standpoint, but they don’t want them to impact their experience.”
To expand its ballroom and special-event capabilities without affecting member dining, Tartan Fields decided to build another kitchen, so it would have two separate cooking and prep operations. Today, one kitchen (located next to the ballroom) is dedicated to events, while the other is utilized solely for member dining.
The club’s new ballroom space can accommodate up to 200 people, compared to the previous space, which could host about 120. To make this possible, the club reconfigured its existing square footage.
“The big focal point of the former space was a double-sided fireplace that separated member dining from event space, so we removed the fireplace to expand the room,” says General Manager Joe Flynn.
This move—along with removing several pocket doors that compartmentalized the area—proved to be more effective than expanding the building. It added at least 1,200 sq. ft. of usable space to the event area.
The ballroom also received a style makeover, to give it a more upscale look. At the same time, the club wanted to be sure it had a neutral feel, so event hosts could add their own personal touches to the space.
Shall We Dance?
The dance floor is often a focal point of ballroom events. Consider these dance-floor trends to help you set yours apart:
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Decorative sconces, soffit lighting and canned lighting throughout the room help create scale and mood within the space. The club also replaced brushed overhead lighting with elaborate, black-tiered, spherical chandeliers that add a modern, yet upscale, edge.
The ballroom’s color palate was also given a significant “make under.” Old-school navy and green carpet was replaced with bold-patterned ivory and gray carpeting. Gold-toned shimmer wallpaper replaced the dated, monochromatic green wall coverings.
The palate adjustments have made the space more appealing to prospective event hosts. “These transitional, neutral tones allow hosts to customize the space to their own color theme,” says Britney Shafley, Private Events Director. “There is no color that looks bad in there.”
Geographic Inspiration
One of the goals for renovating The Ritz-Carlton Ballroom (see photo, bottom left) and Reynolds Ballroom (see photo, bottom right) at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Ga., was to make them more relevant to consumer demand.
“People want their events and meetings to be more relaxed, but they are still looking for the stellar customer service and great food that they expect from Ritz-Carlton,” says General Manager Ralph Vick. “They just want an environment that is toned down so they can relax, let their hair down and have a good time.”
To create a seamless blend of casual sophistication, the resort looked to its surroundings for inspiration. The property is part of a serene, woodsy getaway surrounded by rolling hills and towering Georgia pines (“Growing a Rich Variety of Attractions at Reynolds Plantation,” C&RB, July 2008). And yet, the lodge’s former ballrooms did not capture this geographic magic. “If you walked into our ballroom, it looked like a traditional Ritz-Carlton design—heavy drapes, dark carpeting and ornate gold-leaf mirrors. It could have been a Ritz-Carlton ballroom in Anywhere, USA,” says Vick.
To capitalize on the resort’s stunning scenery, the new ballrooms boast a more distinctly casual style that reflects the laid-back, lakeside setting. Both ballrooms have a Frank Lloyd Wright look, with clean-lined woodwork and woodsy charm. “We lightened and brightened the atmosphere and brought the outdoors indoors,” says Vick. “We wanted to tell the story of where we are in our destination and make our design relevant to our surroundings.”
The first step to changing the look was removing the drapery to allow light to flood into the space, while also highlighting the picturesque surroundings outside. The resort also added dynamic wood lighting fixtures, and carpeting with leafy forest imagery, to both spaces, Vick says.
New Stickley-style furniture also helped to create a more inviting residential vibe for the space. Creative accent pieces, such as mirrors and lamps that use branches and pine accents, further establish the rustic setting.
While the new design is certainly more casual, the ballrooms still reflect the patented Ritz-Carlton refinement. “It is still elegant,” says Vick. “For instance, the carpet is 100 percent wool and the finest money can buy. We can be refined, but still relaxed and comfortable.”
Putting on the Glitz
As part of a full clubhouse renovation, Fox Hills Golf and Banquet Center in Plymouth, Mich., gave its ballroom a new look and feel to help grow event business. The former ballroom was dated with blue wallpaper, ironwork chandeliers and a tough-on-the-eyes mix of blue, brown and orange carpeting.
Despite the nationwide trend toward casual, the club wanted to infuse its ballroom with more glitz and glamour, to appeal to couples looking for a special wedding venue.
One of the first—and most important—steps was replacing the blue wallpaper. “Blue was hot seven years ago, but trends come and go,” says General Manager and owner Sandy Mily. “It really became an issue for us because brides would come in and say, ‘Ew, I don’t want blue.’ It was often hard for them to put together their own color scheme.”
Today, the ballroom has neutral-toned wallpaper with a silver sparkle running through it. The club also replaced the clash-inducing rugs with rich, dark brown carpet that incorporates a more neutral beige design, and substituted gold chairs with beige backs for the previously orange banquet chairs. “All of these more neutral colors go with anything, and we don’t have any conflicts with anyone’s wedding colors anymore,” says Mily.
Fox Hills also repurposed its traditional museum-style artwork. “We kept a lot of our existing gold frames, but removed the pictures and turned them into mirrors,” Mily says. “The gold frames flow nicely with the rest of the design, and the mirrors look very elegant.”
The next step was adding an explicit surge of glamour to the space—and nothing says glamour like crystal chandeliers. The room’s ironwork chandeliers were replaced with three intricate crystal chandeliers that gave the space the “wow” factor it needed.
All of these updates have served the ballroom well; the club has seen close to a 15 percent uptick in wedding business since the renovation, Mily says.
Historic Elegance
The Engineers Club of Baltimore (Md.) boasts a rich history and an elegant design to match. Through the years, the club has made efforts to attract a younger membership by relaxing some of the more dated club rules. “We have stepped back on dress codes and have more casual areas for our members now,” says Asha Hislop, Catering and Events Manager. “But we have found that a lot of people still want a more traditional, formal look for weddings and other special events. That is one of the main reasons we have kept our ballroom formal.”
Still, when the club started restoring its ornate ballroom, management recognized a need to tastefully modernize the space to meet guest and member expectations.
The club recently added faster Internet access and an advanced computerized lighting system to the ballroom space. “We can change the lighting to any color,” says Hislop. “For opera concerts we can add some blue lighting, and if we want to warm up the space, we can use an amber tone.”
Despite these modern subtleties, the ballroom maintains its traditional charm. The space is bedecked with a burgundy and gold tapestry, which is a replica of the original salmon-toned tapestry that once decorated the space. Ornate sconces and a painted coffered ceiling further establish the style of the area. The club also restored notable artwork throughout the space and focused heavily on restoring the 24-karat, gold-leaf detail on many of the frames. The ballroom also has a recently restored stage area that houses a pipe organ for organ concerts.
Preserving the interior design of the ballroom has been a priority for the club for the past 10 years. “It excites people, and they come here just to check it out,” says Hislop. “It is something that should be preserved, and people appreciate how we’ve kept this up.”
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