Ojai Valley Inn, Ranked as a Top Resort, Planning to Add Spa

In its October issue, Conde Nast’s Traveler magazine listed the Ojai Valley Inn & Country Club among its top 50 resorts nationwide for 1996. Officials at the nearly 75-year-old Ojai resort are thrilled, but they are intent on garnering even greater recognition in the very near future.

Within the next three weeks, a construction team is expected to break ground on the Ojai Valley Spa, a three-story, 31,000-square-foot structure next to the hotel. It will be equipped with a swimming pool, cafe, fitness and aerobics center, treatment rooms with fireplaces and sunbathing areas for men and women.

Plans also call for an art studio and a top-floor suite with its own elevator, spa, kitchen, Jacuzzi, massage rooms and meditation loft overlooking the Topatopa Mountains.

The approximately $6-million project is scheduled for completion by the fall of 1997.

At the same time, the inn’s existing 207 rooms are being renovated with hand-stenciled walls and hand-carved furniture, a Spanish-style awning is being added to the front lobby and five dozen trees are being planted in the parking area.

This separate project is due to be wrapped up by May.

“The staff is working to make the Ojai Valley Inn one of the foremost resorts in the country, not just a localized resort,” said Thad Hyland, general manager of the inn, which is owned by Henry Crown & Co. of Chicago. “We feel we have what it takes to become a national resort.”

The spa project has been in development for about two years, led by a team of architects and spa consultants from San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Sedona, Ariz., and Ojai.

“We will have hand-painted Portuguese tiles and a town-square-style courtyard. The spa is built around a village concept,” said Hyland, who oversaw the design and construction of two other spas, The Peaks in Telluride, Colo., and the Ihilani Spa & Resort in Hawaii.

“Everything we’ve done is to try to emphasize that this is going to be a special spa in this country,” he said. “We’ve really studied this and are trying to create something gorgeous and functional.”

Lead project architect David Bury of David Bury Architects of Ojai described the design as authentic Spanish colonial revival.

“It’s a style that evolved in the 1920s and we’re harking back to that level of detail, quality and design,” Bury said. “We’re going in a more romantic direction, back to a bygone era.”

Combining a nostalgic look with a state-of-the-art spa, Hyland said, is a concept that should maintain the inn’s present clientele and attract an entirely new segment of customers as well. The inn’s current client base ranges in age from 35 to 55, Hyland said, and he expects that to become a 25 to 65 range when the spa is up and running.

“Older folks are trying to stay limber and diet, the baby boomers want to stay young as long as they can and the Generation Xers are into health,” he said. “It’s a broad base.”

Building of the spa will be handled by R.D. Olson Construction company of Anaheim. The firm specializes in hotels, restaurants and other structures related to the hospitality industry.

The company’s past projects include renovation of the Disneyland Hotel and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston. The company is building a 150,000-square-foot private resort in Las Vegas for the Sultan of Brunei, and is part of a design team working on an Orlando, Fla., amusement park.

Olson said he will use a crew of about 150 workers to build the Ojai Valley Spa, with about 100 from Ventura County.

“The Ojai Valley resort definitely has a reputation as being one of the top resorts, at least on the West Coast,” said Bob Olson, president of the construction firm. “The spa adds services and enhances the resort. I think it’s great for the customers, great for Ventura County, great for tourism and great for the Ojai community.”