Участник:Northernquest Resort & Casino Expansion Project Almost Finished
India's Kalispell tribe has completed its latest expansion, its second hotel tower with 192 rooms at the Northern Quest Resort & Casino in Airway Heights. Scheduled to open to the public on Monday, May 1, 2023, the new River Tower will offer up to 442 hotel rooms for Northern Quest, making it the largest casino resort in Washington state. River Towers have already sold out on the first weekend and rooms will be filled quickly over the next few weekends.
River Tower is located on the west side of the 250-room canoe tower, which opened to the public in 2010, and is connected by a beautiful new skybridge. The design of the new structure was inspired by the concept of Native American fish wire. Beau was often created by tribal groups, and used as a community-focused fishing technique for indigenous people to gather to fish, trade and celebrate. The exterior design elements of the River Tower give the impression of a hand-woven basket reinforced by wooden accent walls and balconies. The River Tower's overall interior design was inspired by the earthy hues found near rivers and prairies in the Kalispell Reserve. The six-story River Tower, at 130,000 sq ft in total, contains 192 rooms and suites. The breakdown includes nearly 100 Signature King rooms and approximately 75 Signature Double Queen rooms. The rest of the suite has outdoor balcony access and offers new outdoor options for guests to enjoy.
"We are excited to welcome guests to the new River Tower, where they can rely on a luxurious environment as well as the wonderful Kalispell hospitality they have come to expect from Northern Quest," said Nick Pierre, general manager and member of the Kalispell Tribal Committee. "When we broke ground on this hotel tower in February 2021, the world was still in the process of recovering from the global pandemic, but when we worked on this project, we were confident that travel, group business and entertainment would bounce back in a big way. The Kalispell Tribe continues to look to the future and will continue to provide exciting new amenities for Northern Quest as they work to become a local choice."
Tribe-inspired designs continue throughout the public areas of the new river tower, as well as private rooms and suites. The new west-facing river tower lobby features the largest custom arctura wall in the area with perforated LED backlight panels highlighting the historical image of Kalispell tribal members riding a sturgeon nose canoe floating beneath the river Pend Oreil. The new 2,000-square-foot gathering space, called the River Room, right next to the new lobby, has built-in projectors and screens and can accommodate up to 130 guests.
The 1,600 sq ft skybridge connects the existing canoe tower with the river tower. The inspiration for the skybridge design is directly related to the bridge connecting the kusik community across the fend oreil river to the calispell reserve. Skybridge's metal artwork design was designed, produced and installed by members of the calispell tribe working in calispell metal products. Located within Skybridge, the coffee corner kiosk has Thomas Hammer Coffee, which is first open on weekend mornings – Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 6 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., as announced based on a large in-house conference group. The comfortable seating areas throughout Skybridge invite hotel and conference guests to enjoy the fireplace, natural light and beautiful scenery. The state-of-the-art fitness center, located on the second floor, features treadmills, peloton bikes, oval machines, recommit bikes, rowing machines, general purpose weights, interactive fitness mirrors and ballet bars.
Every new room in the River Tower has a famous and luxurious Northern Quest Spa shower and night lights powered by a blue motion sensor built into the bathroom. Each room has its own coffee maker, refrigerator, USB-A and USB-C outlets, ironing and ironing board, gown, and signature sro duvet. Most rooms have hand-woven column mats by Calispell Tribe members, with the shape of the River Pend Oreil on the mats and stored in shadow boxes. Other guest rooms have original works by Kalispell tribal artist Hannah Monkiewicz. Historic Tribe photographs are included in all room amenities, including shampoo/conditioner and soap.
"We are proud to feature many important cultural elements of the Kalispell tribe throughout our new hotel tower," said April Hilborn, a member of the Kalispell tribe and head of rooms. "All suites are named after a tree native to the land of Calispel, as well as having room numbers. The names are listed outside rooms in Salish, the tribe's native language. English translation will be referenced in each suite. We are proud of our heritage and have been deliberate in the way we want to share it with our guests."
For the River Tower project, the Kalispel Tribe hired design-construction teams from Lydig Construction in Spokane, Integrus Architecture in Spokane, and Ankrom Moisan in Seattle.