Welcome to Fort Aventura Resort! Fort Aventura is a proposed concept for a large-scale tropical resort in the US Virgin Islands with a theme and story about pirates. The hotel offers amenities such as pools, private beaches, fine dining, live entertainment, and premium interactive experiences.
Team members:
Alex Underwood – Team Lead, Designer, Interactive Game Development
Adrian Gutierrez – Digital Modeling Lead, Rendering, Video Production Lead
Brittany Bryan – Show Writing Lead, Drafting
Dila Kiliboz – Creative Director, Drafting
LaRisa Dunham – Interior Design, Drafting
Monserrat Dominguez – Masterplanning, Designer, Illustration Lead
Design Documents
Approach
Guests park or valet and approach the hotel entrance, crossing a wide footbridge over a shallow “moat.” The steep walls of the fortress are looming, treated with a limestone façade, limestone (several varieties) being typical of Cuban geology. The pirate hosts have seized the fort during a lapse in construction due to funding issues, circa 1660, and parts of the fort are unfinished (and/or destroyed). Otherwise, the structure is pristine.
Lobby
Guests enter the hotel lobby and approach the concierge. The “founding” pirates amassed a large amount of treasure from all over the world. Additionally, pirates who have stayed at the hotel have sometimes contributed their own spoils out of gratitude. The result is a wide array of decorative props (and even furniture), recalling different places and time periods (surrounding and preceding the European Renaissance). These items serve to soften the room and elevate it, as it is naturally austere in form and materiality—resembling, of course, a fort.
Fancy Treasures (Lobby Retail)
The hotel’s gift shop is located off the lobby. The store is the most lavish, elegant room in the entire fort. This place recognizes Henry “John” Avery, known in the late 17th century as the King of Pirates. A massive manhunt was once carried out in search of Avery, who managed to evade his captors and disappear entirely. The shop is staffed by a cast member representing his daughter, Henrietta, who was raised in the lap of luxury and acquired a taste for fine things at a young age. In addition to basic souvenir offerings and snacks, guests can purchase high-end jewelry, antique jewelry replicas, and period clothing.
Accommodations
Guests access their rooms, which appear a little less rugged than the architecture of the lobby while still alluding to the fort. Certain architectural details (such as a shallow alcove around the bed) give the rooms an intimate feeling. Comfortable seating and bedding, more beautiful trinkets, and elevated fixtures in the bathroom speak to the luxury that guests would expect to find in an exotic hotel.
Lagoon (Hotel Pool)
The hotel’s main pool is centrally located and resembles a lush, tropical lagoon, bordered by a looming, interactive shipwreck installation. The pool is zero-entry, reinforcing the illusion of a beach or natural pond. In addition to exploring the shipwreck, which contains access to the pool’s waterslide, guests can swim around/between several rockwork features and play under waterfalls or relax in covered cabanas. In the evening, the main pool closes, and an evening show is performed on a stage that extends from the ship. One of the area’s smaller pools is adult-only and offers swim-up access to the Rum Room. Other features of the area include beach access and a small lazy river.
The Rum Room (Hotel Bar)
The hotel bar is located on the lowest level of the fort, adjacent to the sit-down restaurant and offering partial views of the pool area. The main seating area features rockwork, giving guests the feeling that they are in a cave-like waterway, a secret passage where goods could be smuggled into or out of the fort. The seating area overlooking the pool is smaller, as it offers a swim-up functionality to one of the smaller pools. Small ponds like the ones features in the restaurant also appear in the bar, lending a similar natural-cavern effect.
Below are a series of images from the sheet set. You can see the entire sheet set here or the link at the top of the post.
Resort Master Plan
Lobby Check-In Desk Detail Sheet
Seven Seas Restaurant Elevation
Premium Interactive Experience
Fort Aventura Resort offers guests a premium experience. Guests can purchase a special compass from various retail locations on the property to participate in a scavenger hunt game that reveals the “secret of the resort.” The compass guests purchased contains an RFID chip that can be used at interactive touchpoints installed throughout the resort that offer clues to progress through the game.
Additionally, guests who are booked in the premium family suite will be able to place the compass on a touchpoint to project a star map on the ceiling of the children’s suite.
Resort Merchandise Samples
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