Sora, the rooftop cocktail venue at the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Cabo San Lucas at Cabo Del Sol, a ground-up, 96-key resort in Mexico overlooking the Sea of Cortez, with architecture by Robert C. Glazier and interiors by Meyer Davis, is one of the property’s four dining experiences conceived by EDG, for which it sourced artisanal pieces from the region, including the sculptural table made of driftwood from Bomboti, a Mexico City gallery.
Known for its vibrant sunsets, picturesque beaches, and surfable waves, Cabo San Lucas has become one of Mexico’s most popular upscale vacation destinations. Located at the southern tip of Baja California, its shores are, thus, saturated with glamorous hotels and resorts. While it can be hard to stand out in the crowd, a more discreet approach assures the recently opened Four Seasons Resort and Residences Cabo San Lucas at Cabo Del Sol feels different than the rest.
With architecture by Robert C. Glazier and interiors by EDG and Meyer Davis, the 260,000-square-foot paradise has been created to resemble a low-slung hacienda-style village rather than a towering hotel block, with a series of casitas terraced down its sloping beachfront site. It quells another stereotype of hospitality projects in Mexico, too: Rather than a brash fiesta of colors and patterns that might pervade less discerning resort designs, this one is rooted in true local flair with artworks, objects, and artisan craftsmanship sourced from across the country.
EDG & Meyer Davis Honor Traditions at Four Seasons Cabo San Lucas
Sora, the rooftop cocktail venue at the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Cabo San Lucas at Cabo Del Sol, a ground-up, 96-key resort in Mexico overlooking the Sea of Cortez, with architecture by Robert C. Glazier and interiors by Meyer Davis, is one of the property’s four dining experiences conceived by EDG, for which it sourced artisanal pieces from the region, including the sculptural table made of driftwood from Bomboti, a Mexico City gallery.
“It was important to Four Seasons that even the whole arrival sequence feel authentic,” begins Jennifer Johanson, president and CEO of EDG, which handled the project’s four Richard Sandoval dining experiences, El Taller art studio, specialty grocery, surf shack–inspired adventure center, and two swimming pools, and ranks 120th among the Interior Design Rising Giants, up from 129 last year, counting such luxury resort brands as Camelback and Mii Amo as clients. “Visitors drive through a little arch and come into a sort of town square. That feeling helped inspire the cast of characters that would surround it.”
Those “characters” include Mediterranean restaurant Palmerio, its interior layering a retro European riviera vibe with Mexican accessories, like the vintage poncheras, or punch bowls, from Michoacán and elsewhere in the region that sit inside niches. Johanson sourced them at auction and worked with Jaliscan studio Laguna Mosaicos to create Majolica-look encaustic floor tiles. On the rooftop is Sora, a bar that overlooks the Sea of Cortez and features a statement driftwood table from Oaxaca that she found at a Mexico City gallery. Open to the elements, its conversation pit–style seating was constructed using sculptural plaster-covered concrete. With few walls, lighting, gentle and flattering, largely originates from the ground. “Even if the architectural profiles are modern and sleek, the textures are reminiscent of the locale,” adds Johanson, who traveled widely in Mexico to engage local artisans and source art for the project. The result, she notes, is “kind of like an encyclopedia of the country’s different regions.” Every eatery on the property embraces its water views and a seamless indoor-outdoor relationship.
Embrace The Indoor-Outdoor Life At Four Seasons Cabo San Lucas
Custom sconces join LEDs embedded into the handmade limestone floor tile at Sora.
The same spirit extends to Meyer Davis’s scope of the project, which encompassed the lobby and other public spaces, 96 guest rooms, spa, and La Casona Bar. “From the moment guests arrive, we really focused on the materials,” recalls Gray Davis, who, with Will Meyer, is firm cofounder and an Interior Design Hall of Fame member; Meyer Davis, which ranks 60th, up from 71, among the top 100 Giants, has a vibrant portfolio spanning residential, retail, workplace, and hospitality, its La Casa Dragones earning a 2024 Interior Design Best of Year Award. Indigenous ojinaga limestone, Mexican alder wood, and barrel-vaulted clay-tiled roofs complement contemporary steel-framed windows and doors, oak paneling and beams, and plaster walls across these spaces. But the concept also centers on “first impressions,” he continues—informing subtle decisions like depressing the lobby’s La Casona slightly to preserve a view to the sea or ensuring that terrace doors in the standard rooms, suites, and villas open fully to the horizon and entice visitors down meandering paths to the beach. (The property also hosts 46 branded residences designed by Meyer Davis.)
Wanting the resort to feel grounded in its environment, the firm strategically positioned the villas’ private pools and terraces atop natural rock outcroppings to offer vistas over the shore, while others feature lush planters and vibrant flowers. Stone-walled outdoor showers extend this feeling.
Get An Enchanting View Of The Sea At Four Seasons Cabo San Lucas
For Bar Brisal, which serves the adults-only pool, EDG paired locally made tilework with breeze-block, shaded by a handwoven latilla ceiling.
The room interiors were inspired by the land, as well. “In Baja, the coast is so rugged and the terrain so dramatic, but it’s arid and dry,” Meyer adds. “That drove a lot of the materiality and color decisions, as reflected in a natural, sandy, soft palette with wood used in reserved but potent moves.” Whimsical touches like terra-cotta pendant fixtures with oversize shades, bold maritime-blue fabrics on armchairs and pillows, and hand-painted Mexican tiles break the scheme. And throughout the property, statement-making hues are often introduced through pieces by local artists. “I think Mexican design is too often lumped into one idea,” Meyer says. Both his studio and EDG used the resort’s thoughtfully edited aesthetic to work actively against this tendency and toward a celebration of the country’s diversity of art, craft, and even climate.
While much of the resort is set atop the natural topography, Tierra Mar Spa, its entrance marked by the calming sounds of a mosaic waterfall, is set into the landscape itself. Past the gable-roofed reception area, for which Meyer Davis chose an asymmetrical wood desk, is a serene garden with rambling streams. Continue toward the fitness areas and pool and the ocean comes back into view, beyond a smattering of the resort’s quaint tiled rooftops.
Teak chaise lounges furnish a terrace at the resort’s Tierra Mar Spa.
“With the sun setting over the sea and the waves crashing against large rocks, it’s almost like a movie set,” Davis concludes. “It’s cinematic,” notes Meyer. But despite Hollywood’s best tries, this place is the real deal.
Vacation At This Seaside Resort by EDG and Meyer Davis
Meyer Davis appointed the teak-ceilinged lobby, furnished to feel like a living room, with a custom 6½-foot-diameter rope chandelier and a ceramic wall piece by Mexico City ceramicists Raquel Charabati and Monica Bizzarri.
Teak forms a custom beach daybed.
For the private dining room at Palmerio, the resort’s all-day Mediterranean restaurant, EDG selected Mexican-made encaustic floor tile to run beneath Vincent Van Duysen’s stackable Giro chairs and the custom table.
A terra-cotta sundial by Steve Jacobi, a Todos Santos–based ceramicist, is a focal point of the room.
In a corridor, the firm paired a console in Rosa Morada wood with a painting by Lorena Camarena Osorno, also based in Mexico City.
EDG filled the largest niches at Palmerio with vintage poncheras, or punch bowls, from Michoacán.
Journey Into The New Mexico
A reflecting pool greets guests in a cobblestone courtyard.
Another ceramic wall piece by Charabati & Bizzarri hangs at Sora adjacent to custom breeze-block.
A collage by Hugo Aguilar, a visiting painter/sculptor at El Taller, the resort’s art workshop, energizes a villa.
Meyer Davis installed steel-framed glass doors opening to an outdoor shower in guest-room baths.
With terrace doors opening fully to a private plunge-pool deck, Meyer Davis ensured that the six villas each have an indoor-outdoor relationship.
Oak millwork with rope detailing provides a suite’s built-in storage.
This Resort Is Rooted In Artisan Craftsmanship Across Mexico
A gabled ceiling with exposed trusses caps reception at Tierra Mar Spa, also by Meyer Davis.
A stained-oak artwork by Arozarena De La Fuente in a guest room.
Stone walls enclosing an outdoor shower.
A suite terrace.
A woven wall hanging and custom brass-and-wool pendants in an on-site boutique.
A textural carved-wood sideboard.
A vintage kayak hung on a glazed-tile wall in the adventure center, by EDG.
A ceramic wind chime.
Sora’s custom reclaimed-teak host stand backed by breeze-block.
Another style of beachside teak daybed. PROJECT TEAM
EDG: BROOKE TUMSAROCH; CINDY MOORE; JANE MCGOLDRICK; DAVE MAYNARD; VICTORIA DENNY; VARRUNA MITRA; KEVIN PEREIRA; BRIANNA SANCHEZ. ZOE PINFOLD; JENNIFER DANIELS; AMANDA DAVIS; TINA HU; LIZELLE FOOSE; PEDRO BARILLAS; SHIFRA BERG: MEYER DAVIS. GENSLER: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. LUX POPULI: LIGHTING DESIGN. VITA PLANNING AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. URIBE KRAYER: ART CONSULTANT. WARISAN: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP. BLACK PALM DEVELOPMENT: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.
PRODUCT SOURCES
FROM FRONT THROUGH BOMBOTI: DRIFTWOOD TABLE (SORA). SANDALVECI: DINING CHAIRS. TILE FEVER: CUSTOM FLOOR TILE. PALECEK: WOVEN SEATING (SORA, LOBBY), CHAIRS (PALMERIO). KETTAL: STACKABLE CHAIRS (PALMERIO). LAGUNA MOSAICO: CUSTOM FLOOR TILE. THROUGH MERCANTIL: SUNDIAL (PALMERIO), SMALL BLACK PLANTER (SORA). IWORKS: CUSTOM CHANDELIER (LOBBY). ROYAL CUSTOM DESIGNS: CUSTOM SOFA (LOBBY), CUSTOM HEADBOARD (SUITE). NATURAL URBAN: TABLES (LOBBY, VILLA TERRACE, SPA). ARTERIORS: PLANTER (LOBBY), SCONCES (VILLA). VIBIA: CUSTOM SCONCES (SORA). CLAYBROOK: TUB (BATHROOM). REMINGTON: PENDANT FIXTURE. ELECTRIC MIRROR: MIRRORS. BLOOM LIGHTING GROUP: CUSTOM PENDANT FIXTURES (PALMERIO, BOUTIQUE). STUDIO SOFA: PLANTERS (VILLA). DANAO: CHAISE LONGUES (VILLA TERRACE), CHAIRS, SOFA (VILLA). PERENNIALS AND SUTHERLAND: CUSHION FABRIC (SPA TERRACE); STOOLS, CHAIRS (BAR BRISAL). ZENITH: RUGS (VILLA, SPA). TARACEA: ROUND TABLE (VILLA), SIDE TABLES (SUITE). FANIMATION: FANS (VILLA, SUITE). ULA LIGHTING: LAMPS (SUITE). IAN LOVE DESIGN: CUSTOM VITRINES (SPA). GINGER AND JAGGER: RECEPTION DESK. HUDSON VALLEY LIGHTING: LAMPS. CALARGA MÉXICO: WALL HANGING (BOUTIQUE). CLÉ: TILE (ADVENTURE CENTER).