After more than three years of construction, Northstar-at-Tahoe’s much anticipated Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe, is rolling out its five-star welcome mat on December 9, 2009. The $300 million project is the area’s first new-build resort development in two decades.

Accessible from the Village at Northstar via newly installed gondola or the proverbial longand- winding Highlands Road off Highway 267, the mid-mountain resort includes a main hotel building with 170 guestrooms plus 25 fractional ownership units; 2 adjacent buildings house 23 whole ownership residences.

Inspired by the great lodges of the West, the ski-in ski-out resort was designed by San

Francisco–based architecture and planning firm Hornberger + Worstell, whose use of modern materials such as recycled steel, cement board and finished copper reflects contemporary Northern California style. “You won’t find any antler chandeliers anywhere,” says Steven Holt, Ritz-Carlton Highlands’ public relations director.

Designed around a tree motif, the multi-tiered lobby encircles a 55-foot weathered granite fireplace column, crowned in heavy timber branch-like trusses that support a canopy of etched glass. Twenty-five-foot-high windows provide wonderful natural daylighting and views in multiple directions of the surrounding mountains and Martis Valley below. “We’ve tried to maximize use of natural space and view lines,” says Holt, who adds that the hotel was built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building rating system) standards.

But Tahoe visitors aren’t the only ones who have cause to celebrate the arrival of the Ritz: locals can look forward to dropping by the lobby bar for a drink, dining at Manzanita, the resort’s signature restaurant by renowned San Francisco chef Traci Des Jardins (see page 82), spending a day at the 17,000 square foot spa or hosting an event in the 6,000 square feet of ballroom space. “Locals are very important to our philosophy,” says Holt. “We want people to look at the Highlands as home away from home.”

Equally important, the hotel brought cash and jobs to the area in a time when budgets have been tight: more than 1,100 individuals worked onsite during construction—a joint effort between Reno’s Q&D and San Francisco–based Swinerton—and nearly 400 employees will staff the property (2,000 people recently applied for 300 open positions). “That’s a significant impact on the area economy,” says Holt. “The tax revenues generated here will be a huge boon for Placer County and all of Tahoe.”