LAURA R. OATMAN, ARCHITECTS, INC.

Laura R. Oatman, AIA, LEED AP

Laura Oatman

Laura Oatman, AIA, LEED AP is the president and principal designer of Laura R. Oatman, Architects, Inc.  Her architectural career combines over 25-years experience in design, development and construction management of high-end hospitality projects, including resort and urban hotels, spas and restaurants. Her company specializes in architectural design for the hospitality industry, with particular emphasis on boutique hotels, spas and restaurants that desire a unique combination of both high-end luxury design and sustainable green design.  Though her primary practice is architecture, she also provides project management and consulting services for hospitality developers and management companies. She has also recently partnered with her husband, Homer, as a principal with Oatman Architects, lending her hospitality background and expertise into the design of ultra luxury custom residences.

Prior to establishing her current private practice, Laura was the Project Director of Design for Kor Hotel Group, involved in most of their new and renovation hotel and spa projects, both international and domestic, including but not limited to the Anguilla Spa and Spa Village, Tides South Beach, Tides Meads Bay,  Tides Zihuatanejo, as well as their LA based hotel renovations – Viceroy Santa Monica, Chamberlain, Avalon and Maison 140 in Beverly Hills. She helped to develop the Viceroy and Tides hotel brands by being intimately involved with design decisions for the young company as it developed, and was the author of the Kor Hotel Group Design Guidelines.  She was tapped for managing most of the Kor projects that had retained their preferred interior designer, Kelly Wearstler, and was the founding board member for Kor’s green initiatives program, Second Nature. When The Kor Group development company transitioned into Kor Hotel Group management company, she also transitioned from providing design and construction management, to hotel operations consulting, working with Related Group on the LEED-Silver Viceroy Snowmass project in Aspen, Colorado (due to open November 2009), and with the Indochina Group on the Viceroy China Beach in Vietnam (currently on hold).

Before going to work in the hotel development field, however, most of her professional career had been spent practicing architecture, specifically in the field of hospitality design, working with WATG Architects, the internationally-renowned hospitality architecture group.  While at WATG, she had worked on a wide variety of hotel projects, from the luxurious Southern California resorts of the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel and the Four Seasons in Newport Beach, to the exotic Pacific Islands Clubs in Guam and Saipan. She then took a fourteen year sabbatical to stay at home and raise her five young children. During that time, she had a small architectural practice, providing design work for residences in Newport Beach, Corona Del Mar, Laguna Beach and Palos Verdes, as well as townhomes in Capistrano Beach and a restaurant in Laguna Hills. Later, she returned to WATG Architects. During her second season at WATG, she received her introduction to her first “green” hotel, the Quinta Do Lorde Resort on the island of Madeira, Portugal. This hotel received an AIA Design Award for Excellence, is currently under construction, and set to open in the summer of 2009. Her final project with WATG was the Viceroy Anguilla Resort in the British West Indies, which proved to be her fortunate introduction to hotel developer, Brad Korzen, and his wife and designer, Kelly Wearstler. The Viceroy Anguilla Resort is also currently under construction and due to open in the summer of 2009.

Laura received her undergraduate education at UC Irvine, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences.  It was here that she developed an interest in the holistic health and wellness, and the impact of environment on psychology and wellbeing. She received her Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UCLA. Her thesis was the design of a “green hotel” along a natural strip of Newport Beach coastline.  She is a registered architect in the State of California, and a LEED accredited professional.  In addition to high-end hospitality design, Laura provides consultation services to hospitality developers, owners, managers and operators, for project-specific needs such as project management or technical services assistance, to more broad services such as developing new brands and concepts.

Laura Oatman is a native of Southern California and currently resides in Newport Beach with her husband, Homer, who is also an architect, and their 5 children.