Living & Style DESIGN
San Diego, with a population in the 500s. It is so close to Mexico that you can discern the color of homes over the wall. In the 1930s, it was a hot tourist destination—folks would come in droves to wander the desert and unwind in the hot springs. Clark Gable was spotted there. Marlene Dietrich, too. In the 1960s, Interstate 8 was built, skirting the town by two miles. People stopped coming. Jacumba disappeared from the city dwellers’ lexicon. The town began a period of decline. So before working on the hotel, Strukel, Winters, and Osborne engaged in projects for all of Jacumba. They started a monthly flea market where locals could sell for free. They rehabbed the lake, hacking away overgrown weeds and extracting old tires and other refuse. The lake is now an oasis, where sparkling water meets sandy shores, a rope swing and ready-to-use kayaks perch on the beach, palms jut upward, and hot water burbles from aquifers nearby. Down the block sit the otherworldly ruins of the bathhouse, which the team has repurposed into a music venue where they host monthly, donation-based, candlelit concerts. “We knew we needed to do something for the community,” Osborne says. Considering they’d all but bought the keys to the city, the trio wanted to showcase their good intentions to the locals. “Also, in a selfish way, we live here now, too, and we’d like it to feel cool, fun, and connected,” he adds. Their focus lately has been on the hotel itself, which they began renovating from the ground up in 2021. The reincarnated resort opens in July. Much of the design has been informed by what Strukel and Winters learned planning events—everywhere from Point Loma to Montauk—for more than a decade. “Essentially, we are trying to make an event that lasts,” Winters says. When organizing soirees, they realized the best nights weren’t necessarily the ones that had the most frills, but ones where guests left feeling like magic had occurred. “We’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh, this feels so good,’” Winters explains. “We’d talk to each other about what it was that was making us feel that.”
LEFT Oil-paint nudes adorn the walls of the hotel’s bar. ABOVE The two mineral hot springs pools on the property are said to have healing properties. Those looking to take a dip can purchase a day pass or membership.
At the hotel, creating that magic, as they’ve come to understand it, lurks in the small and often intangible details, like how the shadows from overhead eucalyptus posts shift upon the wall throughout the day and can serve as a makeshift sundial. It’s in knowing that the wind rustling through the giant pines overhead is as much of a character in the overall feel as the hand-plastered, undulating wall encircling the hot-spring pool, and in using a mix of materials to represent all five elements in areas made cozy with plants. The design is not based on the latest round-up of architectural trends—“We aren’t reading magazines or scrolling Pinterest,” Strukel says—but on how they want people to feel in the space. Doorways are critical to them; they imported half-century-old, hand-carved doors from Morocco, India, and China. They intend for the doors to strike curiosity, as well as appreciation for the intricate craftsmanship. “We want to give people that moment of wondering, ‘Wow, what’s behind that?’” Strukel adds. They’ve mixed materials from myriad eras and cultures, hoping that, once ensconced, their guests will feel lost in space and time. The bar is windowless, embedded with custom black upholstered booths and oil paintings of nudes (a few of which are hand-me-downs from the now- defunct-but-forever-adored Mission Valley restaurant,
40 JULY 2023
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