Elevated Waterfront Experience, Hilton Yas Bay

As Senior Design Manager for Faithful+Gould, Roger Barefoot supported Miral in delivering the Hilton Yas Bay hotel, operated by Hilton, from design development through construction, handover, and the defects liability stage. His role focused on protecting the quality of the design while coordinating the needs of the client, operator, design team, contractor, and site delivery teams. The project comprised an approximately 81,000 sqm luxury resort hotel with 550 guestrooms, including suites and a Presidential Suite. Guest facilities included an executive lounge, conference and business facilities, all-day dining and specialty restaurants, a kids' club, beach club, spa, fitness centre, and extensive leisure and recreational amenities. During the design stages, Roger led design quality reviews and supported Miral in identifying value engineering opportunities with the design team before tender. He continued this work through procurement, helping the client assess proposals and value opportunities with bidders while protecting the approved design intent and Hilton's operational requirements. During construction, Roger worked with the engineering site delivery team and contractor to refine construction detailing, with particular focus on ensuring the interior design aligned with the approved CGI imagery. He also supported the handover process to the client's facilities management team, ensuring the completed hotel met both the client's operational needs and Hilton's requirements. A key challenge was balancing the requirements of multiple stakeholders across design, procurement, construction, operations, and handover. The major achievement was seeing the project through its full design and construction journey while helping deliver the client's budget and approved vision. The project was delivered between 2020 and 2021 and is now completed and operating, with Roger also leading the rectification of works during the defects liability stage.