Transforming Hotel Spaces with Custom Sculptural Art at Four Seasons New Orleans

Art has the potential to not only beautify a space, but to spark a conversation that’s specific to a time and place. Often hotel clients come to Saatchi Art with a desire to tell the unique story of their property’s history and location through artwork in order to create a more memorable guest experience. Such was the case when Bill Rooney Studio contacted us to integrate artwork into each of the 330 guest rooms at the Four Seasons New Orleans, which opened to the public in August 2021.  

Sitting at the end of Canal Street, the hotel’s iconic 34-story tower was built in 1967 by legendary modernist architect Edward Durell Stone. Now recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, this landmark tower overlooking the Mississippi River has been breathtakingly restored and enhanced to become a five-star Four Seasons property aimed at “celebrating the city’s spirit of survival and rebirth.” 

Saatchi Art senior art advisor Tara LaManna was tasked with finding a unique means of integrating art into the guest rooms in a way that went beyond traditional wall art. In addition to being unexpected, the proposed art element also had to compliment the mid-century architectural finishes and decor of the guest rooms. 

Working in collaboration with the client, Tara devised a novel approach: the artwork would come in the form of custom sculptural panels that would be showcased over each bed. To reference the local surroundings, the intricate bas-relief sculpture was inspired by photographs of flora native to the area and carved out of wood. A mold was then created by hand and the headboards were produced using a resin material to resemble plaster. This process ensured that a hand-crafted quality was maintained for each artwork, while enabling the 300+ pieces to be made efficiently and within budget. The resulting multi-panel headboard is now the show-stopping focal point of every guest room.