Pantai Inn
Overview
Originally built as a Sears Catalog apartment home before becoming the Shell Beach Motel — a longtime destination for guests attending the Del Mar horse races — this historic, family-run property sits on a 1-acre coastal parcel overlooking the Pacific. The renovation reimagined 30 guest suites and cottages spread across two legal parcels on a sloped grade into the Pantai Inn: a Balinese-themed sanctuary organized around a centralized coral-stone courtyard, sited to maximize panoramic ocean views while restoring the character of the original buildings and achieving full ADA accessibility. I came to the project from the contractor side and ultimately led it through to completion.
At a Glance
1 Acre — Coastal Site
30 — Guest Suites & Cottages
2 — Legal Parcels
Coral-Stone Courtyard — Centralized Design Feature
Sloped Grade — Site Condition
Process
I joined the Pantai Inn renovation on the contractor side, a year into a project that had begun from architect David Lee Soanes’ original design intent and was then being led by Greg Castle of Castle Architects. When Mr. Castle resigned, I stepped in and drove the project through to completion — partnering closely with contractors and structural engineers to preserve design integrity across a sloped, two-parcel site, guiding the client through key material and design decisions, developing space plans that honored the Balinese theme within the constraints of a historic footprint, and ensuring every design element met full ADA compliance.
Outcome
Pantai Inn opened over Thanksgiving weekend in 2011, transforming the century-old property into a Balinese-inspired boutique hotel. It went on to be ranked the top hotel in La Jolla by TripAdvisor’s readers, and continues to operate today with guest reviews consistently citing the coral-stone courtyard, ocean views, and Balinese-inspired décor — the exact design intent the renovation set out to deliver.