Intercontinental MSP Airport Hotel

Executing a luxury hospitality project at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport (MSP) requires more than sourcing beautiful tile. It takes sustained coordination across designers, contractors, purchasing agents, and manufacturers, with a sales partner who can hold it all together across a long and complex timeline.

Tile X Design Commercial Sales Representative, Jennifer Christopher, served that role for the Intercontinental MSP Airport Hotel, a high-end Omni property where every material decision was deliberate, and every space had its own distinct requirements.

Read how Tile X Design Commercial Sales Representative Jennifer Christopher helped the design team navigate the full scope of this project, from initial samples to a complex multi-vendor lobby installation, and what made this property stand out.

Sourcing for a Property Where Every Space Has Different Needs

Unlike a single-room renovation or a straightforward commercial build, a full hotel encompasses a wide range of environments such as lobbies, guestrooms, pool areas, restaurants, and more. Each of these spaces came with its own set of specifications: different aesthetics, different budgets, and different performance requirements like slip resistance around wet areas.

RSP Architects wanted this hotel to have a distinctly Minnesota feel, but also an urbane modern design that would appeal to international travelers. They selected multiple sizes and finishes in a TXD porcelain to create a sophisticated stone aesthetic for the lobby. A variety of elegant stone looks were selected for the guest rooms. The Luxury Spa and Health Club utilized wood and stone visuals. Metallic subway tiles lit up the lobby bar.

Jennifer’s role was to help the design team find materials that met each space’s unique demands while maintaining a cohesive, elevated look throughout the property. She provided samples to support the selection process, while the design team developed mockups to visualize the results. The final products were chosen because they aligned precisely with the designers’ high-end vision, were appropriate for each context, and were fitting for a property of this caliber.

Coordinating a Complex Lobby Pattern Across Multiple Vendors

The most technically demanding element of the project was the lobby floor. The design called for a tile pattern that combined multiple sizes, multiple finishes, and products from different manufacturers. This combination looks effortless when it’s done right, but requires significant behind-the-scenes planning to execute without error.

Jennifer worked closely with the design team, the installation contractor, and the manufacturers to make sure every component of the pattern would work together. That meant verifying dimensions across products from different sources, confirming material compatibility, and coordinating delivery timelines so that all the pieces arrived when the installer needed them.

“The complex lobby tile pattern is particularly stunning,” says Jennifer. “There is a lot of extra detailing and planning when it comes to specifying a pattern like this. Much coordination had to happen between me, the design team, the contractor, and the manufacturers to make sure it would all work together.”

Staying in Sync Across a Long Project Timeline

A hospitality project of this scale doesn’t happen over a few weeks. Jennifer was involved with the Intercontinental MSP across many phases, including providing contractor recommendations over the course of the project. That kind of long-term involvement requires consistent communication, and Jennifer describes the process as a true team effort.

With something as complex as this, the work is always a collaboration between the sales rep, the purchasing agent, the factory, and the contractor. Regular contact between all parties was essential to keeping the project on track and ensuring that each decision was made with full visibility into what others on the team were doing.

A Caliber of Work That Shows in Every Detail

What sets the Intercontinental MSP apart isn’t any single material or moment; it’s the cumulative effect of every carefully considered decision across the entire property.

“Each detail was very carefully and deliberately selected by the design team,” says Jennifer. “The refinement can be seen across the entire property. The guestroom tile is so beautiful – those selections really elevated the property.”

Most guests will never know how much coordination went into the floors beneath their feet or the walls surrounding them. But that’s exactly the point. When Tile X Design’s work is done well, it disappears into the experience, and what remains is a space that feels exactly the way it was meant to.

By managing complex multi-vendor logistics and staying closely connected to the design team throughout, Tile X Design’s work on the Intercontinental MSP shows what a knowledgeable local partner can bring to a large-scale hospitality project.