MARCH 25, 2015

MORPHOSIS FIRM PROFILE

BIOGRAPHY // THOM MAYNE

BIOGRAPHY // PIUS TRUFFER

BIOGRAPHY // REMO STOFFEL

ARCHITECT’S STATEMENT

PROJECT INFORMATION

PROJECT CREDITS

PROJECT RENDERINGS & MODEL IMAGES

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

101

7132 Hotel & Arrival Press Kit

A

TE

Morphosis is a collaborative architectural practice negotiating the technological, political, and cultural intersections of architecture, urbanism, and design. With projects built internationally, our work traverses a broad range of typologies, scales and contexts across the public and private sector. Drawing from iterative, integrative methodologies and driven by research, we endeavor towards innovative solutions that are responsive to and generate from the specificity of each project. We challenge advanced technologies to reconfigure the intersection of form and performance, yielding buildings and urban environments that are iconic and sustainable. Since its founding in 1972 by Design Director Thom Mayne, Morphosis has received 25 Progressive Architecture awards, over 100 American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards, and numerous other honors. Morphosis buildings and projects have been published extensively; the firm has been the subject of 25 monographs and numerous exhibitions. We maintain offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Shanghai.

LOS ANGELES3440 Wesley StreetCulver City, CA 90232

NEW YORK CITY153 West 27th Street, Suite 1200 New York City, NY 10001

424 258 6226PRESS@MORPHOSIS.NET

WWW.MORPHOSIS.COM 2

Firm Profile//

Thom Mayne founded Morphosis as a collective architectural practice engaged in cross-disciplinary research and design. As Design Director and thought leader of Morphosis, Mayne provides overall vision and project leadership to the firm. With permanent offices in Los Angeles and New York City, the firm currently employs over 50 architects and designers.

Mayne’s distinguished honors include

the Pritzker Prize (2005) and the AIA Gold Medal (2013). He was appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 2009, and was honored with the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Gold Medal in 2000. With Morphosis, Thom Mayne has been the recipient of 25 Progressive Architecture Awards, over 100 American Institute of Architecture Awards and numerous other design recognitions. Under Mayne’s direction, the firm has been the subject of various group and solo exhibitions throughout the world, including a large solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2006. Morphosis buildings and projects have been published extensively; the firm has been the subject of 26 monographs.

Throughout his career, Mayne has remained active in the academic world. In 1972, he helped to found the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Since then, he has held teaching positions at Columbia, Yale (the Eliel Saarinen Chair in 1991), the Harvard Graduate School of Design (Eliot Noyes Chair in 1998), the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands, the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, and many other institutions around the world. There has always been a symbiotic relationship between Mayne’s teaching and practice, evidenced in his concurrent position as Executive Director of the Now Institute at UCLA, a research and design initiative focusing on applying strategic urban thinking to real world issues. He is a tenured Professor at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design since 1993.

TMPortrait_131119MG_3906_MP

Michael Powers

3

Biography of Thom Mayne//

FILENAMES

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT

Pius Truffer (59) is a native of Vals. After studying in London, Paris and Zurich and obtaining a degree in business, he returned to his hometown, where he founded Truffer AG, together with his wife Pia and his brother. Truffer AG is the company that quarries the renownedValser stone, which was used extensively for Peter Zumthor’s Therme.

The thermal baths of Vals and Pius Truffer go back a long way: From back in 1984, when the municipality of Vals acquired the hotel and the baths alongside the rights to the spring water from bank repossessions, until today, he always played a key role in the development of the resort, either in the position of chairman or delegate of the board of directors or as hotel manager. In the 1990s, Truffer saw the requirement to replace the existing baths with a new, architecturally attractive design. He initiated the collaboration between Vals and Peter Zumthor. When Remo Stoffel purchased the Therme and the adjacent hotel three years ago, Pius Truffer returned to the management board of 7132.

Mr. Truffer and his family reside in Vals. He has 5 children. In his spare time, he enjoys alpine sports, motor biking or reading a good book. Together with 7132 AG, he aspires to create a viable and thriving tourism model for the region.

pius_truffer

7132 Ltd

4

7 1 3 2 AGBiography of Pius Truffer//

FILENAMES

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT

Remo Stoffel grew up in Vals, in the canton of Grisons. After completing his commercial education as a banker with the Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft (today UBS), he started his own business in 1996.

Over the following years Mr. Stoffel established several companies within the real estate industry. In 2005 he bought the real estate company Avireal with two business partners from the bankruptcy assets of the former Swiss airline company SwissAir. In 2011 Avireal was integrated into the newly founded Priora Holding AG, which is 100% owned by Remo Stoffel. Since February 2014 Mr. Stoffel has been leading the group division for real estate at Priora as a Managing Director.

Over the last years Remo Stoffel has invested in various projects dear to his heart in his home canton of Grisons. He purchased the Kurhaus Lenzerheide with a view to safeguarding the hotel’s location in the long-run, and has been a member of the administrative board of the Lenzerheide Bergbahnen since 2014. In 2012 he purchased the renowned Felsentherme (thermal spa) in Vals and was elected chairman of the associated 7132 hotel. Over the coming years Mr. Stoffel is planning extensive investments in Vals, adding to a new understanding of Swiss mountain tourism. Remo Stoffel was born in 1977 and is a Swiss citizen.

remo_stoffel

7132 Ltd

5

7 1 3 2 AGBiography of Remo Stoffel//

FILENAMES

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT

The concept of the sublime, an important philosophical idea describing beauty beyond human measure, arose out of the writings of 18th century British philosophers after traveling through the Swiss Alps. The beauty and mythos of the alpine landscape is imprinted on the cultural imagination; writers, artists, and thinkers from Kant to Casper David Friedrich have routinely used the metaphor of man looking out over peaks as an expression of communion with the eternal. Our proposal returns to the origin of the sublime—the encounter with awe-inspiring landscape—to create an experience of nature without precedent in architecture.

Architecture shares the narrative qualities of sculpture at an essential level; both transform the relationship between object and ground into a poetic expression. In Giacometti’s Femme de Venise, an elongated figure lifts from its heavy base, a contrast which elevates the object into a masterpiece of drama and form. Our proposal for the new hotel and arrival uses these same sculptural qualities to create a powerful aesthetic experience for visitors. Moving through the three main building components

- podium, cantilever, and tower - a narrative emerges of landscape and structure, density and lightness, weight and levity, opening and enclosure.

From the valley entry, the hotel’s mirrored surface draws an invisible line against the mountain. On approach, the podium of the new building serves as a

gateway and arrival for visitors to the 7132 complex and enhances connectivity through pedestrian and visual links. Suspended within the existing tree canopy, a cantilever protects a guest drop-off below and houses the hotel’s main public amenities, including a feature restaurant and bar, ballroom, gallery, and library shared by guests and village residents.

Lifting guest rooms high above the Valser Valley, the hotel tower becomes a minimalist object connecting guests to nature. The tower’s reflective skin and slender profile camouflage with the landscape, abstracting and displacing the valley and sky. The combination of one-room-per-floor and a narrow floor-plate afford exclusive panoramic views of the Alps. The material palette for the hotel’s interior and exterior are drawn from the local context, engaging with the landscape and the singularity of the location.

6

7132 Hotel & Arrival Architect’s Statement//

LOCATIONVals, Switzerland

CLIENT7132 Ltd

SIZE570,087 gross ft² / 53,000 gross m²

HEIGHT1,250 ft / 381 m

PROGRAMLuxury high-rise hotel with 107 guest rooms and suites; amenities include grand arrival and reception, spas, restaurants, café, bar, sky bar and dining, ballroom, gallery, library, pool, fitness and business centers; support spaces include administrative, loading and delivery, technical, kitchen and laundry

COMPETITION DESIGN2014

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT2015

PROJECTED DATE OF COMPLETION2019

TYPEHospitality

7

7132 Hotel & Arrival Project Information//

MORPHOSIS TEAM

DESIGN DIRECTOR Thom Mayne

PROJECT PRINCIPAL Arne Emerson

PROJECT MANAGER Arne Emerson

PROJECT ARCHITECT Robin Williams

PROJECT DESIGNERS Tom Day and Jason Minor

PROJECT TEAM Natalia Traverso Caruana, Jessica Chang, Adeline Morin

PROJECT ASSISTANTSNatalie Abbot, Emma Entress, Chip Hubert, Eric Meyer, Nicole MeyerParham Hakimi, Ari Sogin, Henry Svendsen, Derrick Whitmire,Helena Yun

VISUALIZATION Jasmine Park, Sam Tannenbaum

8

7132 Hotel & Arrival Credits//

CONSULTANTS

ASSOCIATE ARCHITECTGiubbini Architekten, Chur.

STRUCTURALThornton Tomasetti, Los Angeles

MEPArup, Los Angeles

COST ESTIMATORGlobal Assistance Development (GAD), Milan

CODE/LIFE SAFETYArup, Los Angeles

VERTICAL TRANSPORTATIONVan Deusen Associates

FIRE PROTECTIONArup, Los Angeles

WINDRowan Williams Davies & Irwin Inc. (RWDI)

9

7132 Hotel & Arrival Credits//

VLH_PEAK

MORPHOSIS ARCHITECTS

FILENAMES

IMAGE CREDIT

10

Project Renderings & Model Images//

VLH_APPROACHVLH_RESTAURANT

MORPHOSIS ARCHITECTS

11

FILENAMES

IMAGE CREDIT

VLH_ENTRYVLH_LOBBY

MORPHOSISARCHITECTS

12

FILENAMES

IMAGE CREDIT

VLH_ROOMVLH_PENTHOUSE

MORPHOSIS ARCHITECTS

13

FILENAMES

IMAGE CREDIT

VLH_IMG_9362_JP

MORPHOSIS ARCHITECTS

14

FILENAMES

IMAGE CREDIT

ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

VLH_IMG_0744_JP

MORPHOSIS ARCHITECTS

15

FILENAMES

IMAGE CREDIT