Modernist design in Mexico

San Francisco’s BAMO designed Los Cabos resort

A solid week of rain could have some Bay Area denizens longing for someplace warm and sunny. On a related note, San Francisco-based BAMO helped design a luxurious resort south of the border, where the Pacific Ocean roils and crashes beneath an azure sky.

Built with resources sourced from the region and the expertise of local artisans, the Auberge Chileno Bay Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, opened in early 2017. Its modernist design, represented by clean lines and contemporary fixtures, is an architectural departure from the area’s typical hacienda-style resorts.

Yet BAMO’s designers understand the appeal of intimacy and comfort, so they looked to infuse hacienda ambience into the aesthetic.

Integral to that was hiring local artisans to apply their trade, said Janet Mercier, associate for BAMO.

“One of the key things was using the local artisans providing expert craftsmanship,” she said.

Plaster walls in the foyers complement the exterior’s stucco work. Massive slabs of Mexican Travertine serve dual purposes — lending a rustic aesthetic to the exterior facade while forming interior accent walls in the living rooms. Oversize encaustic tiles lend patterned elegance to spa bathrooms.

BAMO’s services were requested by the project’s architect, Burlingame-based Glazier Le, with whom the firm has collaborated in the past.

Designers opted for a neutral color palette, mindful not to draw attention away from the natural beauty framed by floorto-ceiling sliding glass doors in the great rooms.

“The palette of the site itself is golden sand with colorful accents like the cerulean blue of the ocean and sky,” Mercier said. “Our palette was neutral, but complements the colors going on outside the doors.”

Examples of this are found with wood-paneled ceilings and cream-colored stone floors in the rooms and residences.

Los Cabos has afternoons where it’s warm and sticky outside, so BAMO paid special attention to ventilation and flow of the rooms and residences. “You open up the windows and get a nice natural breeze between the front and back of unit,” Mercier said.

In some cases, outdoor kitchens even wait beneath the verandas.

Learn more at www. chilenobayresidences.com/los -cabos-villas.

Aaron Leitz Photography San Francisco-based BAMO designed the luxurious villas at the Auberge Chileno Bay Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico.

Left: This residence at the Auberge Chileno Bay Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, was designed by San Francisco-based BAMO and boasts a chef ’s kitchen anchored by a stone island with waterfall edges. Right: Oversize encaustic tiles line the floor of this luxurious spa bathroom that BAMO designed.

A covered terrace at one of the villas at the Auberge Chileno Bay Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, enjoys ocean views and easy access to the pool.

Photos by Aaron Leitz Photography