North America’s first landscape hotel is on its way

When it comes to design, sometimes a setting dictates the vision, and nestled amongst the red rocks of Sedona, one plot of land is doing just that. 

A property that blends in with and highlights the natural beauty of its surroundings, North America’s first landscape hotel is slated to open next year, on three acres of land with unimpeded views of both Coconino National Forest and Sedona’s signature, stunning rock formations. Designed by Scottsdale’s ASUL Architects and developed, owned, and managed by local family-run company Two Sister Bosses, Ambiente, A Landscape Hotel will be collection of 40 cubed-shaped, elevated atria that literally reflect their environment, with floor-to-ceiling bronze-tinted glass that mirrors its environs at dusk, as well as matte charcoal and rusted metal elements that mimic the geological terrain. 

It wasn’t always meant to be that way. “We bought the property with a two-and-a-half story lodge-style hotel already approved right in the center of the property from the previous owner. We could have moved forward with that build right away and had a hotel up and running by now,” says Jennifer May, co-founder of Two Sister Bosses and Ambiente’s owner, developer, and manager. “My father and I went and walked the whole length of the property and were so mesmerized with the beauty of not only the gorgeous views from the site, but the beauty of the hills and valleys of the internal topography and the land-forms, rock outcroppings, and ancient washes it contained. We both agreed it would be a shame to go in and grade that site and take out the hills in the center just to build something that every other hotel developer could do economically without a thought of what was there.” 

That realization sparked a conversation that would lead to the hotel’s current concept. “We started talking about how to build around these key features that we thought were so beautiful, and that is how the idea was born to build individual glass atriums,” May says. Because they wouldn’t require the standard foundations, the team could “individually place the atriums at specific heights and angles to maximize the views, but also to move and place them around the trees and unique land formations on the site,” she says. 

But it wasn’t smooth sailing from there. The landscape that had been so integral to the design proved to be a difficult star. “The topography itself was the main challenge of this site and required many more hours of engineering than building this the way the original owner had intended,” says May. “We have worked and reworked the site plans probably upwards of 50 times in the past two years with our engineering team Sefton Engineering Consultants and our landscape architect John Krizan of Krizan Associates to make this perfect.”

When it opens in late 2020, Ambiente will have at least one neighbor in its corner. Two Sisters’s other development property, Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill, is right next door, drawing an international crowd for chef Lisa Dahl’s creative Southwestern cuisine—and to take in the show as sunset turns the surrounding rock formations a blazing shade of pink. The plot of land is located on the edge of town, far enough from the glow of the lights that at night, guests can look up at the stars and feel like they’re in the middle of nowhere, but a “meandering pathway” will connect the hotel with the restaurant, so they’ll still only be a short stroll away from a world-class meal. “It has been our longtime dream to create a truly exciting and unique experience that is in harmony with the rare beauty of Sedona,” May said in a statement. “It was a win-win for land preservation and to be able to save the natural beauty of what is already there.”

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