Marram

There’s a feeling that doesn’t leave you and exists in the most quintessential parts of Montauk, a treeless fisherman’s village filled with low lying buildings proudly exposed to the wind and elements. There’s a similar vast open and unexplored territory in luxury. An intersection of quality, experience and ease that most brands don’t dare visit.

There’s a seductive power in experiences that you not only consume but become a part of — that without you might just not have happened. Experiences that open us up. Refresh. Reset. That you’ll tell your friends about. You can find that here. People don’t come here to stay inside. We come here to paddle out. To expose ourselves to the elements and turn our personal time into something more. Something that couldn’t happen anywhere else, opening our minds to a new kind of luxury.

Marram is a 96-room luxury oceanfront hotel set atop Montauk’s dunes overlooking the Atlantic. Both naturally scenic and close to town, Marram enables its guests to be present for life’s simple pleasures — a sunset swim in the ocean, a morning surf, the crunch of the socarrat in paella, or a bonfire on the beach.

In partnership with the developer Bridgeton Holdings, we created Marram’s concept, brand, and product, creative directing the project across all touchpoints from strategy, identity, website, and signage to interiors, uniforms, food and beverage, even landscaping.

Marram (named after the beach grass that grows on the property’s dunes) offers a new standard of essential luxury with relaxed, effortless experiences enabling guests to disconnect, refresh, and engage with life’s simple pleasures.

An early design choice was to bring the natural landscape back through the property. Dunes creep through the property swallowing parts of buildings, lending a rustic, breezy feeling. The natural palette and materials including weathered white cedar and marram grass is dotted with firepits, further celebrating the surrounding Montauk landscape.

Brian Bielman’s ethereal underwater photographs, Sean Spellman’s playful canvas paintings, and Francie Ashforth’s monotype water studies are installed throughout the property. A screen free resort, Marram tries to refocus guests on life’s simple pleasures with experience-first programming.

In our search for photography and art partners, we discovered surf photographer Brian Bielmann. While he is famous for shooting the best surfers in the world in exotic destinations for commercial clients, we were inspired by a much different part of his work. It was the time between rides that captivated us. When surfers are floating underwater in ethereal almost dance-like silhouettes. We knew these gorgeous images were the perfect art to celebrate our guests connection to Montauk’s surf, awakening a wild yet tranquil sense of place amongst the waves.

The perfect place to escape to in the late afternoon for a short nap or a moment to yourself before a night in Montauk, the rooms are pared down, essential, and material driven with slubby frette linens, smooth tadelakt plaster walls, sandy concrete floors, and hand hewn white oak ceiling beams. Ocean breezes are personified as they catch the corner of sheer curtains on the way through an open window. The baths feature custom Waterworks Fixtures and Le Labo Products, while each room features private terraces with teak & canvas deck furniture.

The collateral at Marram, like the rooms, is driven by its materiality. We selected a palette of paper stocks from Mohawk to provide a sensory experience for guests even before they’ve arrived on property. Sandy papers, toothy linens, and pulpy boardstocks, all recycled, allude to the surrounding environment. 

In approaching Marram’s culinary program, we pushed away from the typical offerings found in Montauk, focusing instead on cultivating elevated but breezy summer fare, while still abiding by a standard of local sourcing when relevant. 

Central to the experience at Marram are beach fires. Fernando Trocca & Martin Pittaluga’s asado cooking & communal ‘mostrador’ share a common thread of unwound and unstudied luxury with Montauk. Their restaurants in José Ignacio, Uruguay — La Huella and Mostrador Santa Teresita — are globally recognized for their laid-back excellence in open fire cooking on the Atlantic. This is what sparked the concept for Mostrador Marram, our oceanfront eatery that combines the romance of asado and the abundant counter service of the mostrador featuring savory meats, local seafood, organic vegetables, and freshly baked goods that enable guests to indulge in the here & now.

The digital home for Marram was designed to inspire and educate through thoughtful articles, interviews, compelling images and video and of course convert potential bookings at the hotel. All with the goal of extending the reach of Marram’s focus on life’s simple pleasures.

Maker conceptualized, named and creative directed the Marram Property in partnership with developer and operator Bridgeton Holdings, establishing a new luxury price point in the Montauk market.