Hotel Chaco

How do you merge the essence of monumental Ancestral Pueblo ruins with a new ultra-modern luxury hotel brand?

MW+C tackled this challenge when our client, Heritage Hotels & Resorts, began building a boutique hotel that will contend with premier travel destinations around the globe. Hotel Chaco is located in Albuquerque’s historic Old Town district and opens in spring 2017. The hotel takes inspiration from Chaco Canyon National Monument, which is located in New Mexico’s four corners region and is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We embarked on an in-depth research assignment to better understand the history of Chaco and its people, hoping to both elevate the hotel’s aesthetic with an infusion of the past and pay homage to this fascinating ancient culture. From exploring the sprawling archaeological site to hands-on examination of relics at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, our team became fully immersed in the Chaco narrative.

Although lesser known, Chaco Canyon’s historical significance and sophistication rivals that of Macchu Pichu and Teotihuacan. Ancestral Puebloans built a thriving cultural and commercial hub with trade routes radiating from Chaco’s center into the heart of Mesoamerica. What’s more, the infrastructure of Chaco Canyon was intricately planned and precisely constructed to interact with key lunar, solar and celestial events.

This rich history provided a well of inspiration for our team to tap into. Textures, iconography, patterns and colors were fused to create perfect balance between past and present. Expressing a distinctly modern Southwest character through its sights, smells, sounds and textures, Hotel Chaco is poised to be one of the most unique boutique hotels in the world.