This brand-new luxury tower is the city’s highest-end hotel and the first JW Marriott in the Midwest, joining 38 other locations in destinations including Cancun, Fiji and Rio de Janeiro.

The $100 million, 24-story hotel, known locally as the JW, is helping turn Grand Rapids into a national destination for business meetings and conventions. The elegant and sophisticated wayfinding system that we developed directs hotel guests and businesspeople to the JW’s 340 quest rooms and 20,000 square feet of conference space.

Many of the wayfinding system’s high-level elements use a decorative glass overlay for their faces. Others use aluminum faces and perforated side panels for a contemporary, high-tech feel.

Electronic kiosks guide event attendees to their destination using the identities of the organizations that have booked the conference rooms. Wall-mounted monitors outside the rooms list the day’s events along with upcoming sessions. The system is networked to allow easy updating by hotel staff.