Barton Creek™ Announces Extensive Multi-Million Dollar Enhancements

Barton Creek Resort and Spa has begun an extensive multi-million dollar enhancement project that will impact all areas of the popular Texas Hill Country destination long favored by both business and family travelers. The scope of the project includes renovated guestrooms, enhanced meeting space, redesigned lobby bar and grill. A new lobby coffee market and retail gift shop will be added. A new look for the entrance to the resort’s spa will feature a beautifully redesigned salon and enlarged spa boutique. For families and kids, a new feature to be named Fort Barton will be the centerpiece of new facilities and services for family vacationers.

All 150-Tower guestrooms will be refreshed with a contemporary look that will appeal to convention, business, and leisure and family travelers alike. Hallways and guest corridors will also be revamped with new carpeting, millwork and a fresh palette of sage and cream. The décor will be feature a sophisticated look providing a warm welcome to all guests. Enhanced lighting and contemporary bedding are just a few of the key features offered in every room.

The guestrooms will receive new furniture, carpeting, wall coverings, fixtures, enhanced lighting and a 42” flat-screen high-definition television. The interior design of the new rooms features a fresh, updated look using a palette of sage, cream and buttercup combined with rich espresso-hued hardwood furniture. Patterns and textures, such as silks and leather, were mixed with soft, luxurious cottons and linens to create an interesting blend. The addition of enhanced lighting on the oversized desk encourages an evening’s work or the perfect place for room service dining. A generously sized chaise lounge and reading lamp provides an added place for guests to relax in absolute comfort. The wall art reflects the flora and fauna of Barton Creek, and incorporates inked artwork and some with hand-tinted backgrounds.

Special emphasis was given to each room by incorporating hyper-cleaned goose down bedding from the Pacific Coast Feather Company™. Two duvets are used to ensure a sumptuous night’s sleep. One tops the mattress and the other serves as a covering for the bed. A luxurious decorative throw, made exclusively for the resort, is placed at the foot of the bed and replaces the typical hotel bedspread to give the bedding ensemble a “turned-down” look and feel.

The guest bath has been updated with new tile and extensive mosaic detailing. A decoratively framed mirror offers an upscale look to the space. An elliptical shower curtain bar has been included for extra space and comfort. A custom-designed combination sink and shelving unit was added to the second sink area to provide ample storage for bath toiletries and oversized cotton towels. Lighting above the lavatory was enhanced with sconces on both sides of the mirror to provide optimum light.

For convention and meeting groups, The Barton Creek Room and adjacent lobby will be transformed into a perfect setting to host a corporate meeting or intimate social event. New draperies, flooring, enhanced lighting complete new look and feel will allow the room to be used for a variety of events. Two sets of French doors will complement eighteen foot windows which will lead to a furnished outdoor patio. The lobby area adjacent to the Barton Creek Room will showcase magnificent arched columns, intricate millwork and grand chandeliers.

A lobby Coffee Market and expanded gift shop will be completed by the end of March, offering an extensive selection of hot and frozen gourmet coffee beverages, freshly-made snacks and bakeries. The gift shop will feature Texas-themed gifts, sundries and Barton Creek logoed merchandise. The Market will have limited outdoor “bistro” seating near the front exterior entrance of the hotel.

The new lobby lounge will be the place where golfers and resort guests can unwind after a long day of activity. The concept and transformation is the vision of the acclaimed Puccini Group, whose work includes some of the trendiest hot spots and restaurants in the nation. Comfortable leather club chairs and plush banquette seating will add to the “rough meets refined” look. Distressed wooden floors, antique furniture and warm lighting will complete the setting. A sleek wooden bar will serve as a focal point for the lounge which will offer a limited food menu and the latest in cocktails and locally-brewed beers.

The hotel’s casual dining venue, currently known as The Grill, will also undergo a transformation, which is in the development stage with the Puccini Group, and should be determined by March, 2008.

The resort’s new spa entrance is being beautifully designed to promote a distinctive sense of arrival. A new contemporary salon will provide hair services and an enlarged manicure and pedicure area will be created. Also featured will be an expanded spa retail boutique offering a variety of products including luxe robes and throws, home fragrance, candles, spa & fitness-themed books and upscale, Barton Creek logoed women’s clothing and skin care and body products featured in various spa services.
With the demand for family-activities on the rise, Barton Creek is also redefining what families want to enjoy while vacationing at Barton Creek. Fort Barton, a children’s activity area, will be created in the nature trail section of the hotel, incorporating our existing 18-hole miniature golf course as well as cleared spaces in the Live Oak trees.

A series of teepees and a log deck will be built to house some of the programs. Various outdoor stations, themed after historic eras of Barton Creek as well as the lifestyle of frontiersman William Barton, who settled this part of Austin, will be incorporated into the project. One station will include a site where children and adults alike can listen to tales of the old West, while toasting marshmallows for S’mores. Another station re-creates a mining slew, using an existing creek bed. Teens will also enjoy their own brand of activities with an outdoor meeting space, which can be used as a dance floor, movie theater or place to meet.

To round off the activities this Summer, resort guests will be invited to participate in our Barton Creek Summer Camps which will provide four to six year olds and seven to twelve year olds with ten weeks of exciting supervised activities to do daily, Monday through Friday, between June 9th and August 15th, 2008.

Fort Barton will be in place for families to enjoy by summer 2008. All other resort enhancements are to be completed by November 2008.