By Design: Pininfarina: Keating and the Quattroporte

Recently, we cruised down to San Diego to visit the Pininfarina-designed Keating Hotel. Now clearly, you can't just roll up at a landmark designed by one of the world's top design studios in just any car. Especially when we're talking about Pininfarina; A design house better known for its car design than for anything else.

So we brought down our own Pininfarina portfolio piece; the fabulous Maserati Quattroporte. And as we walked through the very red lobby of the hotel and down it's stark hallways we couldn't help but ask the question; what do these two completely unrelated design exercises have in common? Can an Italian car and a hotel have anything at all in common for that matter?

The answer wasn't as obvious as you might expect. Sure, the black color of the hallway walls is said to be inspired by the black color of tires. And the red found nearly everywhere else is no doubt there to make the connection to those cars with the prancing horse on the hood. But there had to be a deeper connection there somewhere.

What we determined is that both were designed to appeal to the same sophisticated, upscale customer. It's a case of specialization not by product, but by market psychographics. The logic is that if a company has expertise in understanding what appeals to a particular group of people, they can apply that expertise to any product. In its purest form, the business that Pininfarina is in can be described as: Luxury Goods Design. Be it a car or a hotel interior, the designers at Pininfarina understand what makes a product premium.

In the case of the Maserati, you see this in the subtle, sensuous curves of its sheetmetal as you walk up to the car. You notice the details like the mesh grill with its floating trident Maserati logo, and maybe less successfully, the heat extracting port holes on the front fenders - meant to recall Pininfarina Maseratis of the past.

Once inside, your eyes feast upon the beautiful, rich materials and exquisite craftsmanship of its interior. From the tactile quality in the switch gear to the contrast stitching of the leather dash.

While the hotel isn't immune to a contrived element here or there either - the overuse of the color red in the lobby as mentioned before - it too shows an attention to detail that elevates the common to special.

For example, there are subtle hints of the portal shape of the Keating logo all around you while inside the hotel. From the pattern on a rug, to the handles of a closet door. You don't notice them at first, but then suddenly you start to see them. Everywhere. These portals are supposed to suggest you are entering into the future from the past. It's clever, and not in a contrived way, but in a very subtle, secondary read kinda way.

The details continue to pop up as you spend more time in the environment, be it the cars interior or the hotels. And what becomes apparent is that the details aren't merely details, but an integral part of the whole experience. It is design at work; all the elements coming together to create something truly special. It is attention to detail in the senses of sight, touch, smell, and even the sound of a door shutting, or more obviously, the glorious engine note of that V8 Maserati's elegant GranTurismo shares with the Quattroporte.

The common denominator here is successful design. It is what Pininfarina does. And if you look closely, it is possible to see in both a car and in a hotel.

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SPECIFICATIONS

Layout - Front engine / Rear wheel drive

Engine
- Type: OHC V8
- Displacement: 4.2 liters
- Valvetrain: 4 valves per cylinder
- Fuel delivery: Multi-point fuel injection
- Block/head: Aluminum/aluminum
- Power (SAE) : 400 hp @ 7000 rpm
- Torque : 339 lbs-ft @ 4250 rpm
- Fuel type: Premium

Gearbox
- 6-speed automatic

Chassis
- Wheelbase: 120.6 in.
- Track: (Front) 62.5 in. (Rear) 62.7 in.
- Curb weight : 4400 lbs.
- Brakes: Four ventilated discs
- ABS with EBD
- Suspension: Wishbone front and rear independent suspension with stabilizer bars and coil springs, front and rear suspension leveling

Performance
- 0-60 mph : 5.6 sec.
- Top Speed : 168 mph
- Mileage: 12 city / 18 highway

Base Price
- $104,950