Located in the center of Downtown Austin and just steps away from East Sixth St. and Rainey Street Historic District, Hilton Austin serves as a destination travel experience for meeting and conference tourism. Attached to the Austin Convention Center via a covered walkway, Hilton Austin creates a memorable experience for guests, while providing them with an insider’s view of the beloved city of Austin. The hotel’s 801 guestrooms boast a classic, Texan-chic style with 35 meeting rooms and 97,233 sq. ft. of event space.
Eaton Fine Art (EFA), an Austin-based art consultancy firm, was tasked with curating a unique, culturally focused art collection that focuses on the culture of Austin from an insider’s perspective. A multi-phased project, the firm began working on public spaces with the EDG Dallas team—a global hospitality design and branding studio for the art within the public spaces. Drawing inspiration from the city’s dichotomy of nightlife and nature, EFA and EDG Dallas created a large three lenticular panel piece, which provides guests with different images as they move around the piece. From one angle, each piece shows an abstracted view of colorful city lights, but as the guest moves through the space, the pieces change to a colorful wildflower landscape, unique to the Texas hill country. In the next phase, the team collaborated with FlickMars—a Dallas-based hospitality design firm, and added multiple abstract works by local artists within the pre-function and meeting spaces.
Because most guests staying at the Hilton Austin will most likely be visiting to attend a conference, such as internationally-renowned South by Southwest (SXSW), they will be left with little time to explore the city. For the guest rooms—designed by Wilson Associates, Los Angeles studio, the team at Eaton Fine Art created an aesthetic that showcased Austin through the lens of a longtime resident without the interpretation feeling too literal. In order to do so, they collaborated with local artists to create pieces that would provide guests with this unique viewpoint. Within the space, guests can find images of local destinations and ephemera that may not be as well known like the Cathedral of Junk, and the Broken Spoke, vintage neon signage, a custom “longhorn” bicycle, and a mirrored novelty saddle. The guestrooms are a creative expression inspired by the eclectic culture and surrounding nature and are an inspiration retreat of Texan charm.
The carefully curated artwork achieves a look and feel that is subtle while providing guests with an inside look that celebrates the surrounding city. As a result, visitors are introduced to the two sides of Austin—the vibrant, music city and the natural outdoors.
