Ventana Inn & Spa
Ventana Inn & Spa, ranked one of the most luxurious resorts in the world, specializes in tranquility. The Inn boasts a star-studded guest list that includes Hollywood A-listers, business magnates, and government dignitaries; it is where the elite escape to when the only interruption they can handle is the roar of waves along the Pacific coast. In August 2006, the spa suffered a fire in one of the guest rooms. It destroyed the room and damaged an adjacent room. Immediately, Ventana needed a contractor to bring the rooms back to the exacting workmanship of the original construction – workmanship in which everything from the center cuts of pine that made up the flooring to the granite entryway and bath would exhibit the top-of-the-line excellence the resort is known for. All this needed to happen without guests ever knowing crews were working there. Keeping out of sight and out of mind meant sticking to a tight schedule, working only between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays and shutting down on weekends. That left no wiggle room for delays and no time for workers to take more than a quick lunch break or arrive even a few minutes late. At the end of each workday, all tools and equipment were stashed under green tarps and camouflaged. A lot of guests didn’t even know we were working there. Our timely and discrete work reduced loss of clientele at the spa and inn during the reconstruction. The project began on November 2, 2006 and was completed on March 16, 2007. The repair estimate was $420,000.
Perched on cliffs above the awe-inspiring majesty of the Big Sur coast, the Ventana Inn & Spa was conceived as a rustic, yet sophisticated, mountain retreat where rooms range from $600 to $2,800 per night. Part of Ventana’s allure is the beauty of its accommodations, which include amenities such as wood-burning fireplaces, ocean-view decks with private outdoor spas, oversize baths with open-enclosure slate bath/showers, and Japanese hot baths that open up to moonlight and stars. Rebuilding such rooms involves painstaking craftsmanship. The rooms damaged in the August fire had walls made of 14-inch cedar planking fitted together with a tongue-and-groove joint instead of paneling. The hardwood floors were made of center cuts of Monterrey pine. To reproduce it, we ordered special lumber from Virginia. Then our project manager, Lou Arrieta, had each piece of wood cut it down to a 4-by-6-inch block, 2.5 inches thick, using only the center cuts. The tongue-and-groove wall panels had to be fitted board by board. Flagship redid the roof on the entire inn because there was no way to match the discontinued ceramic tile that was damaged in the fire.
Similar to the vast majority of its projects, Flagship was working out of town. So project managers carefully selected subcontractors from recommendations, especially from employees at the inn. Arrieta stayed on site at Ventana throughout the project and made sure the workmanship was first-rate. An important factor for the project’s success was early communication with the subcontractors so they’d be clear on the unique requirements of the project. The crew willingly shouldered the challenges, like carting their equipment to the top of the mountain. (Given Ventana’s reputation as a hideaway, easy accessibility is not part of its charm.) Construction crews carried equipment up a steep trail from the road. “We got them all-terrain vehicles when we could, but most of the time they lugged it up on their backs,” Arrieta says.
Diana Lucio, Risk Manager of Crescent Real Estate, which owned Ventana at the time of the project, says both inn management and Crescent were extremely satisfied with Flagship’s performance. “With Flagship, I felt that if they could do a job at Ventana in Big Sur, California, then they could do a job anywhere because it is so secluded. They just took it on and did a great job,” she says.
Flagship finished the restoration a month ahead of schedule. “It was awesome. They got in there, tackled the challenges, and worked well with the insurance carrier’s consultant and on-site management with minimal interruptions to the inn. And they actually got the repairs done before they were supposed to,” Lucio says.