A Spa with Soul
Photography: Timothy Thimmes
Harriet McEntire isn’t your typical businesswoman. The owner of Align Spa was only 24 and fresh out of massage school when she opened her full-service spa in Park City’s Shadow Ridge Hotel. Five years later, the business is so successful it’s moving to a new, updated location in Prospector, where McEntire says, “Everything is fresh. I was able to design [the spa] from scratch, fix mistakes and revamp systems.”
Sitting down with McEntire, you are immediately struck by maturity and insight not common in such a young woman. A longtime local, McEntire graduated from Park City High School and went on to receive dual degrees in sociology and business from the University of Colorado. Upon graduation, she attended massage school and immediately started her own business. “I knew I was not good at working for other people. I needed to make my own rules, my own schedule, be my own boss, and then I would work so much better,” McEntire observes.
McEntire credits her success to fresh ideas and hard work. “I’m running the business 24 hours a day in my head — reading articles, waking up in the middle of the night and jotting ideas down on paper,” she says. To stay centered, she takes daily morning hikes with her two dogs, Thor and Zona. This gives her a chance to think and regroup. Travel is also a priority, and during this interview, McEntire was preparing for a month-long trip to Fiji and New Zealand.
When Align opened in 2002, it was only the fourth spa in Park City. McEntire set it apart from others by creating a wellness spa to restore harmony in clients’ lives. “I wanted to be involved in people’s healing and getting past their pain,” she recalls. The spa was designed around the Chinese practice of feng shui to achieve harmony with the environment. McEntire hired feng shui consultants to map out her business space in terms of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water — and determine how to stabilize the energy of the spa.
Running her own business is a challenge McEntire has accomplished without financial support. She recalls, “In the beginning I was so scared, but my parents taught me a good work ethic and the types of people who gravitated to work for me are extraordinary.” She intuitively understands the value of empowering employees. When she started designing the new spa, for example, she asked her staff to write down three things they’d each like to see in the new space.
McEntire admits that being manager of a staff her own age has been a learning experience. “If I have struggles with employees, I’ve learned to come at things from a compassionate standpoint instead of being reactive. People are not employees; they are the heart of your business,” she says. The result? The spa staff has enjoyed minimal turnover — one of the reasons Align has built such a loyal client base of both tourists and locals. McEntire herself works with just a handful of clients each week, many of whom she has known for years. Her style of massage therapy is intuitive and therapeutic, something she hopes comes across in every service the spa provides.
With the move to the new location, McEntire is taking the spa in the medical direction. She has attended conferences to learn about the concept which includes having a plastic surgeon onsite to perform medical procedures such as laser hair removal, skin resurfacing, Botox® and surgery consultations. Since people visiting medical spas value their privacy, McEntire chose the Prospector location because it was local enough to be accessible yet discreet.
McEntire employed local vendors in the construction of the new spa, many of whom also helped design and construct the original location. She stayed true to her Feng Shui roots including the coins in the pathway leading to the spa which symbolize wealth coming in the door. The front windows display a Kanji symbol overwritten in delicate script which declares its meaning: “Never forget the pleasure of the journey.” McEntire integrated this unique symbol into the spa’s new logo to create consistency and inspire curiosity.
Upon entering the spa, clients are greeted with a bamboo infinity wall that gives the illusion of a bamboo forest. Walls are painted in soothing purple and blue hues and are complemented with all natural bamboo floors. The medical rooms are specifically zoned with high grade air conditioning and the option for varying amounts of light based upon the type of treatment being done. Each room in the spa includes different shapes and colors tailored to the energy in that particular area.
“Everything is versatile because we had to use every square inch to maximize the space,” says McEntire, who hired an architect to design
the new spa. She smiles when she remembers that the original spa was designed using a single piece of graph paper. As McEntire herself says,
“It’s been a challenge, but I have a history now.”
Liz Yokubison is a former marketing professional turned freelance writer. She envies the fact that Harriet McEntire found her passion so early in her career. Still, Liz is grateful to have discovered her own zest for writing.
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