Haworth Hotel at Hope College

From Conference Centre to Design Destination

Holland, Michigan, is better known for tulips and Lake Michigan than international design. That makes The Haworth Hotel all the more unexpected. Originally opened in 1997 as the Haworth Inn and Conference Center on the campus of Hope College, the 48-room property was comprehensively reimagined by Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola. It was her first project in the region, commissioned by locally based furniture company Haworth, whose founding family helped create the hotel as a meeting point between business, academia and the wider community.

Patricia Urquiola Comes to Holland

Urquiola avoided turning the hotel into an obvious furniture showroom. Instead, pieces from Haworth and its design partners — including Poltrona Frau, Cappellini, Cassina and Janus et Cie — become part of a relaxed, tactile interior. Gan rugs, Kvadrat textiles and lighting by Pablo Designs add further layers, with Urquiola’s characteristic combination of soft colour, sculptural forms and sophisticated materials keeping the atmosphere playful rather than corporate. The centrepiece is the sweeping spiral staircase in the lobby, surrounded by different places to sit, work, meet or simply linger.

A Lobby with a Life of Its Own

This is where the concept becomes particularly interesting. The lobby isn’t designed purely for hotel guests. Hope College students study and meet here, locals come in for coffee, and Haworth uses the property to welcome clients from around the world. Even the ballroom crosses boundaries, doubling as a dining space for students. With 14 meeting and conference spaces, business remains important, but it is woven into the everyday life of the campus rather than hidden behind convention-centre doors.

Calm Upstairs

The guestrooms offer a quieter version of Urquiola’s approach. A restrained palette, warm furnishings and clean lines create spaces intended around relaxation and wellbeing rather than visual spectacle. They are deliberately uncomplicated — a useful counterpoint to the more expressive communal areas downstairs and a reminder that good hotel design doesn’t need to shout.

Small Town, Serious Design

The Haworth Hotel is an unusual hybrid: part hotel, part campus hub, part meeting place and inevitably part showcase for one of America’s most important furniture companies. But its real success is that it doesn’t feel like any of those things exclusively. Patricia Urquiola has created a place where serious international design becomes surprisingly informal — and where a 48-room hotel in a small Michigan town can comfortably hold its own on the global design map.