Langham Hospitality Group's Eaton brand will relaunch in
Washington, D.C., and Hong Kong next year, positioned
as part hotel and part gathering place for the creative community and
political activists.
In an effort to target politically liberal travelers, the
brand, to be called Eaton Workshop, will feature amenities such as an on-site
radio station, rotating art exhibits, a screening room, a coffee house and a yoga
studio.
Each hotel will have so-called "working clubs,"
which will include both individual and communal workspaces.
The 209-room Eaton D.C. is expected to open next spring. The
465-room Eaton Hong Kong will have a soft opening in January and will
officially open by next summer. That hotel, located in the city's Kowloon
district, will include a two-story food hall, two recording-studio guestrooms
and a rooftop pool.
"Eaton Workshop is a new global brand merging
hospitality with progressive social change," the brand says in its fact
sheet. "It will bring to the international market a hybrid model of a
hotel and co-working members club, with an extensive content and programming
agenda underscoring its core advocacy values at the intersection of arts and
social impact."
Heading the brand's makeover is filmmaker and producer
Katherine Lo, the daughter of Hong Kong billionaire Ka Shui Lo, chairman of
Langham Hospitality parent Great Eagle Holdings Ltd.
Eaton Workshop will be designed toward environmental
sustainability, with a focus on renewable construction materials, organic bath
products and mattress materials. Some hotels will have rooftop gardens with
wind turbines for power generation.
Subsequent Eaton Workshop hotels are planned for San
Francisco and Seattle.