Las Vegas-Based Architecture and Design Firm Punch Architecture Completes Extensive Makeover of High-End Boston Hotel Lounge When Boston’s award-winning hotel Kimpton Nine Zero embarked on its bold, top-to-bottom transformation last year, they also wanted to take its on-site bar/restaurant Highball Lounge and undergo an extensive makeover to better reflect the hotel’s traditional-meets-contemporary transformation. Las Vegas, NV, October 09, 2018 — When Boston’s award-winning hotel Kimpton Nine Zero embarked
on its bold, top-to-bottom transformation last year, they also wanted to take its on-site bar/restaurant Highball Lounge and undergo an extensive makeover to better reflect the hotel’s traditional-meetscontemporary transformation. Enter up-and-coming Las Vegas-based (with offices in Denver, Los Angeles, and New York City) design and architecture firm Punch Architecture, which was tasked with the makeover of the Highball Lounge to become the Better Sorts Social Club, a glamorous cocktail-forward, elevated-food concept that better fit with Nine Zero’s concept of melding the city of Boston’s history and tradition with the luxurious contemporary design and social aesthetic of today’s finest luxury hotels. Punch Architecture, better known as simply Punch, was tasked with all the interior design and fabricated a portion of the new lounge’s furniture. The project, from conception to construction, took about 18 months for the 3,200-square-foot space “We wanted it to be a little quirky, fun and playful, but also classy,” says Zak Ostrowski, one of Punch’s three partners along with Drew Gregory and Clemente Cicoria. “We wanted it to appeal to the higherend Boston Brahmins era and still relate to a younger crowd. It has high-end cocktails and food, but it’s also a place you could go to after a game at Fenway (Park) or after a Celtics game.” Ostrowski said they wanted to strike a balance between the traditional social club and its low lighting, dark wood panels and stateliness and a more modern upscale cocktail lounge with its open, airy atmosphere, brighter lighting and contemporary furniture. They also wanted to dovetail with Nine Zero’s new aesthetic, which blends modern sophistication with a nod to Boston’s storied history. He says Better Sorts’ design concept is “a throwback to the golden age of classic spirit bars with its elegant sexiness, cheeky sensibilities, and enigmatic sensuality.” The interior materials consist of rich and warm American Black Walnut wood walls and flooring contrasted with moody burnished dark green plaster colors, Nero Marquina marble, weathered