A DESIGN FOR LIFE: Architecture Aces
FEATURE ARCHITECTURE
Blue Zoo
When it comes to hospitality design in the USA, the interior landscapes of destination hotels, restaurants and bars are being sculpted by a handful of New York-based design visionaries. Four to be exact. Their award-winning eponymous firms are designing projects not only in America, but across the globe. Bethan Ryder salutes Jeffrey Beers, Tony Chi, David Rockwell and Adam D Tihany.
JEFFREY BEERS
Jeffrey Beers International
New York-based architect-designer Jeffrey Beers, established his multi-disciplinary team (now 25-strong) twenty years ago and since then has completed over 100 projects, including heavyweights such as the Dylan Hotel, Tuscan and Fiamma in NYC, China Grill in Miami and RumJungle in Las Vegas. He cites the great architect IM Pei, with whom he worked for eight years prior to establishing Jeffrey Beers International, as his mentor. “I designed the public spaces of four hotels for him in Asia and that really exposed me to the world of hospitality,” he explains. “There’s an understated elegance about his design sensibilities; he taught me restrained but bold thinking.”
Although his multiple award-winning firm (holders of the Gold Key Award for Design Excellence) have created shops, offices, hotels and nightclubs, designing restaurants is Beer’s forte. He loves the restaurant game so much that he’s designer-patron of several, including the top Japanese restaurant in Chicago, Japonais. It’s so successful that two more will open next year: Japonais in the Mirage, Las Vegas and another on New York’s Union Square. Like an entertainer, but one who conjures up spaces, Beers says his ultimate goal is to deliver magic: “Something the guest has never seen before, something stimulating and memorable, those are the things I strive for, not just my particular stamp of design.”
China Grill
There are, however, key elements that characterize a Beers production. As he says himself, “They’ve always got quite a lot going on in them.” His interiors have a materiality, and are often full of vibrant, intense color—minimalism doesn’t get a look in. “I really try to get a level of saturation of color that’s deep and rich.” Beers “paints” his spaces like the artists who inspire him. In particular, glass artist Dale Chihuly, who he met while studying at Rhodes Island Design School. “I blew a number of Dale’s pieces back then [Beers is a glass blower and founding member of Urban Glass in Brooklyn]. He has the most exuberant color sense of any artist I’ve ever known. This bold emotional kind of creative stamina and phenomenal color, he’s been a friend and influence ever since.”
ONOMajor works on the drawing board are as far flung as Dubai and Tokyo and he also recently completed an exclusive casino (called Fifty) in London. Meanwhile, on home soil, Beers is busy in Las Vegas (where he’s already created over a dozen venues) designing a Daniel Boulud restaurant, “with different rooms like a chateau,” for Steve Wynn’s new billion dollar casino in Las Vegas (opened in May) and a mega-nightclub in the Mirage Hotel for entrepreneur
Andrew Sassoon of the Light Group, not forgetting several New York restaurants in the pipeline—possibly one for Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
As for the future, Beers has his sights set on resort hotels, “My work is about entertainment. I try to take people on a ride they haven’t experienced before. There is a limitless appetite for clever properties that offer real, exotic escape, and I would love to develop them.”
His wish is already coming true in Dubai, where he’s involved with Steve Wynn’s Atlantis resort. That’s Jeffrey Beers, International by name and international by nature.
TONY CHI
Tony Chi and Associates
Last year, 2004, certainly was a vintage year for Tony Chi. His design studio Tony Chi & Associates (est 1984), scooped two prestigious Gold Key awards: Best Casual Restaurant for Spoon in Hong Kong and Best Fine Dining for Asiate at the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York, where he also created MObar. In the same year, his team completed Umu restaurant in London’s Mayfair, top chef Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and the Namu and Kitchen restaurants in Seoul. No wonder Chi feels like he lives on an aeroplane.
He’s currently zipping between Park Hyatt hotels in Shanghai and Washington, DC, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the Borgato Resort in Atlantic City and a restaurant-bar in Maui. Home is where the heart is though, and for Chi that’s New York City: “It’s the City that shaped me as a young immigrant from Taiwan; that nurtured me and allowed me to pursue my passion for design; the city that continues to inspire me. There are so many cities I love and admire greatly, but it’s hard to think what the world would be like without New York.”
Chi, who studied Urban Design and worked with restaurant designer Charles Morris Mount, names his big break as the Hyatt Regency in Osaka. “Largely because of the scale and diversity,” he says. “It was a truly demanding challenge creating the lobby, public areas and nine new food and beverage outlets.” Such a commission is more typical nowadays though; so what’s his dream project? “The next one,” he answers enigmatically. “If there is one thing that terrifies a designer it’s that the dream may end, and the dream is always of new work and challenges.”
Although he has equity in two restaurants, Indochine in Hong Kong and Ye Shanghai in Shanghai, he prefers to focus only on design, fearing too much ownership may “stifle the creative spirit.” As for his design philosophy, many Chi projects prominently feature natural materials. Describing the Asiate and MObar he says, “I try to emphasize the inner beauty, which is very much an Asian approach. The inner beauty means the material can go through a process of time, so the interior of the hotel has ageing capabilities.” To ensure this, he utilizes materials such as timber, stone or marble, that patinate and age beautifully.
Keen to remain dynamic and ever-evolving, he says, “Sometimes I reach back to my Chinese heritage, sometimes to my American present and sometimes to classical Europe. When I’m an old man, somebody else can pin a label on me, but right now I’m still trying to take ‘my style’ in new directions.”
MObar |
Asiate |
Bruno Jamais |
Wolfgang Puck |
ADAM D TIHANY
Tihany Design
Aveteran of hospitality design, Adam D Tihany has won so many awards for his sophisticated deluxe hotel and restaurant interiors that he’s lost count. Recent accolades include Best Hotel Interior for the boutique Aleph Hotel, in Rome, for the luxury Boscolo Hotels group, and an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the New York School of Interior Design. Recent triumphs include much-lauded restaurants for top American chef Thomas Keller, namely at Per Se at the Time Warner Center in New York and Bouchon at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, plus the swanky futuristic bar Teatro at Las Vegas’s MGM Grand.
He’s come a long way. Born in Transylvania and raised in Israel, he studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano in Italy and worked at several European design firms before being lured to the Big Apple in 1976. Tihany Design was formed just two years later. “I had always dreamed about the United States,” he told Cigar Aficionado. “As a child in Israel, my two favorite magazines were Mad and Playboy. To me America was a dream. This was the place where I always knew one day I was going to go to and conquer.”
TeatroHis swift rise to become one of America’s leading designers was ignited by the La Coupole restaurant commission, which he designed in 1981. Pretty soon, Tihany was creating some of the country’s most highly regarded restaurants: Le Cirque 2000, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Jean Georges, Wolfgang Puck’s Spago (in Las Vegas and Chicago) and Bice in NYC, Washington and Beverly Hills. Tihany believes the key to his success lies in his chameleon-like design talents. “The starting point of each project is the person behind it. I design portraits of my clients, and the portraits are as diverse as the personalities.”
He eschews any sense of a signature style: “In my book, Tihany Style, I invite a group of colleagues, critics and experts to help answer this question. It’s a collection of my work with comments and observations, assembled to examine the stylistic aspect of my work (or lack of it). Very early in my career I decided that I didn’t want to tie myself to a particular style. What I wanted to create was a sense of permanence, to make an impact with something that will last a long time—a very long time.”
AureoleIf Remi, the New York restaurant Tihany co-owns with chef Francesco Antonucci (with whom he also wrote the cookbook Venetian Taste) is anything to go by, then his clients should prosper from his classic design approach. In an industry where many restaurants barely survive five years, Remi has thrived an astonishing 18 years. Not that he’s one to rest on his laurels. Tihany dreams of designing “a great significant public space in every world capital.” Judging by his progress so far—he can tick off Jerusalem, Rome, London, Budapest and Prague—it’s surely only a matter of time.
DAVID ROCKWELL
David Rockwell Group
If hospitality design in the 21st century is all about creating a sense of theater, then David Rockwell is one of the most flamboyant showmen of his generation. A lover of “playful fantasies” whose aim is to “make the world a stage set where magic things can happen,” the architect/designer has not only created hit restaurants such as Tribeca’s Nobu and the 1960s space-age pop modernist Pod in Pennsylvania, New York’s Chambers hotel and the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, but also actual stage sets for Broadway musicals such as The Rocky Horror Show and Hairspray.
Sushi Samba Rio
With such a diverse portfolio it’s no surprise that his architectural heroes are non-conformist trailblazers such as Gaudí, art deco Miami hotel creator Morris Lapidus and architect/set-designer Joseph Urban. Perhaps his fascination with design was also inspired by his late mother who worked in community theaters when he was a child.
Today he finds inspiration for his outlandish creations everywhere; “Theater, fashion, the landscape, my family, travel, magazines and books, all of which is reflected in our work.”
KittichaiPrior to forming the Rockwell Group, in 1984, he worked with lighting design wizard Roger Morgan, having studied architecture at both the Architectural Association in London and at Syracuse University.
Exciting current projects range from vast entertainment complexes, such as Canyon Ranch in Miami and Meadowlands Xanadu in New Jersey to hotels for Robert de Niro, a second Chambers boutique property in Minneapolis, restaurants in London and, in New York, Bar American and a second Nobu on 57th Street. No wonder the Rockwell Group has mushroomed to 160 members, it’s a big office with big ideas: “I’m really interested in museums, exhibition design, doing more film work, and I would love to work on an airport.” Watch this space.
Chambers
FIVE CONTENDERS
DUPOUX DESIGN
French-born New York-based Stephane Dupoux made his name creating hip nocturnal SoBe hotspots Nikki Beach and Pearl. Recent NYC triumphs include the award-winning boutique clubs Cielo and Quo. www.dupouxdesign.com
JORDAN MOZER & ASSOCIATES Jordan Mozer’s studio has been creating major league projects for the past 14 years. The idiosyncratic design style of this former sculptor can be seen in Las Vegas at the Bellagio’s Nectar restaurant and at the Hudson Club in Chicago. www.mozer.com
TSAO MCKOWN
Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown teamed up 20 years ago and created high profile hotels and restaurants in Asia and America. See their simple but luxurious designs at Chicago’s Hard Rock Hotel and the Tribeca Grand Hotel. www.tsao-mckown.com
JACQUES GARCIA
Jacques Garcia’s legendary hotel creations include Paris’s Hotel Costes. He’s also won plaudits for Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s exotic Spice Market and the Hotel Victor in Miami. He’s also involved with Steve Wynn’s new mega $2.7 billion Vegas resort.
YABU PUSHELBERG
So, they’re Canadian, but the 25-year-old Toronto firm, led by George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, do also have a New York office. Their projects include the east-meets-west Blue Fin restaurant at the W Hotel Times Square. design@yabupushelberg.com
©Eric Laignel
©Eric Laignel and Doug Snower
©Eric Laignel and Mark Ballogg
©Eric Laignel, David Joseph and Mark Ballogg