Hospitality Design: What I've Learned

In May at HD Expo in Las Vegas, editor in chief Stacy Shoemaker Rauen sat down with keynote speaker Andrew Zobler, CEO and founder of the Sydell Group. The hourlong conversation touched on everything from working with Barry Sternlicht to starting the Sydell Group, named for his grandmother and known for its collection of brands, including the NoMad, the Line, and the Freehand. In this rare appeara...

Jonathan Tisch, CEO and chairman of Loews Hotels, is a lifelong hotelier who jokingly refers to himself as a modern-day Eloise, having lived and worked in hotels all of his life. His properties can be found in immersive destinations that give people many reasons to visit. As he says, the hotel industry is just another arm of the entertainment industry. This episode is brought to you by Global Alli...

Christine Gachot credits much of her success with being in the right place at the right time. She worked on memorable projects like Gucci with Bill Sofield and helped André Balazs launch the Standard in New York before founding Gachot with her husband, John, in 2012. Since then, they've helped shape brands like Glossier, Eaton Workshop, and most recently Shinola, which opened its first upscal...

A profound love of contemporary art as well as a desire to revitalize his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky led Steve Wilson and his wife Laura Lee Brown to create a hotel that showcased art in a museum-like setting. That idea grew into 21c Museum Hotels, which now counts eight properties in the U.S., mostly in rehabbed buildings, with a recent acquisition by Accor set to expand the brand internati...

Inspired by his restaurateur father, Will Guidara always knew he wanted to be in the business and open a New York restaurant. That dream soon became a reality. The Danny Meyer alum, along with chef Daniel Humm, took over and reimagined the Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park and reinvented the hotel restaurant, first with the NoMad New York and since then in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. This episod...

As a trailblazer in the wellness space, the Irish-born designer first got her start in fashion, but is now known for her zen-like designs for the likes of Six Senses and Miraval that immerse the guests in all five senses. This episode is brought to you by Global Allies . For more information, go to globalallies.com. Thank you for listening! For more of our great interviews, find us at hospitalityd...

Paligroup's Avi Brosh started his own residential development company at 30. When a client noted that if he added a restaurant and lobby, he'd have the perfect hotel, he decided to try his hand at hospitality, opening his first property in 2008. Since then, he has launched multiple Pali locations throughout LA and is expanding to Miami, Seattle, and San Francisco. His success lies in the...

When Pesek noticed that restaurants were missing out on lucrative business during the day, he created Spacious, a technology-meets-hospitality company that turns vacant locations into bustling workspaces. As CEO and founder, Pesek is rethinking how we work today, equating his business more to a coffee shop than a traditional coworking space. This episode is brought to you by Global Allies . For mo...

Working alongside such revered chefs as Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, and Charlie Palmer, Tihany solidified his reputation as the father of restaurant design. "For me, restaurants are portraits of my clients," he says. "They always have been." As he embarks on his 40th year as a designer, one thing remains true: his unwavering commitment to his 15-person team.  This episode is...

Bashar Wali left Syria 30 years ago, and got bit by the hospitality bug while in school. Now he's president of Provenance Hotels with over 14 fiercely independent properties that are full of human connections. He's not in the hotel business, he says, but in the theater business—always striving to create memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. This episode is brought to you by Global A...

Dutch designer Marcel Wanders doesn't always play by the design rules, opting for concepts that are lighthearted and surprising but always timeless. Take his Knotted chair, which put him on the map and transformed the design landscape. Whimsy meets playfulness in everything Wanders' touches, including his latest, the Mondrian Doha , which is a feast for the senses. This episode is brough...

Among her many accomplishments, the tennis superstar has found time to launch her own design firm, V Starr Interiors, as well as start her own fashion brand, EleVen. Unsurprisingly, Williams is driven by a competitive spirit that has made her a noteworthy contender on and off the court.    This episode is brought to you by Global Allies . For more information, go to globalallies.com . Thank you fo...

Brad Wilson started his career working with his mom to open a series of bakeries throughout Chicago. It was a natural step, then, to go into hotels, helping to launch brands such as W and the gamechanging Ace Hotels. His pragmatic approach to hospitality has evolved into a deep love and understanding for the industry. "I'm sort of a junkie" for it, he says. "I crave it." T...

Alexandra Champalimaud's owes her storied career to perseverance, gumption, and unwavering self-confidence. She fled Portugal and ended up in Montreal, starting her own design firm with just three people in her apartment. Today, she's responsible for 52 in New York. She credits her success to being tenacious and paying attention to the details. This episode is brought to you by Global Al...

Since the Brooklyn-based Studio Tack came on the scene six years ago, Brian Smith and his team have become a highly sought-after firm known for imbuing each space with an authentic touch. Perhaps nothing has resonated more with the design world than the firm’s reimagination of the motel. From the Sound View Inn in Greenport, New York to the Anvil Hotel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Studio Tack has a f...

Margaret McMahon has had a storied career, though her path was a bit unconventional. After a summer of windsurfing and smoking pot, McMahon's mother encouraged her to find work at a temp agency. As luck, or fate, would have it, that led her to Trisha Wilson of Wilson Associates, who "saw something in me that I didn't see in myself," says McMahon. After three decades with Wilson...

Anda Andrei’s design personality is apparent in each of her properties, including her work for the Asbury Park development in New Jersey. She credits her collaborations with Ian Schrager, Philippe Starck, and Herzog & de Meuron for enriching her design sense, ultimately leading her to go out on her own. “I felt like I owed it to myself to give it a try before it's too late.” It wasn’t an...

Even before he knew what the word meant, Kevin Boehm knew he wanted to be a restaurateur. Though his journey was unconventional—he dropped out of college and took a chance on Panama City, Florida where he opened his first restaurant—Boehm is now a venerated F&B leader, known for his chef-driven, design-led restaurants in Chicago (the Girl and the Goat, Momotaro, and Swift & Sons, to name a...

As CEO of Virgin Hotels, Raul Leal has taken on the immense task of helping bring Virgin's distinct, cheeky vision to life. The first hotel in Chicago was "a labor of love," he says. He's helmed the company since 2012 (joining in 2010 as president), but the Cuban-born veteran hotelier has long been drawn to lifestyle hotels, starting Tecton's boutique division Desires Hote...