Hospitality Design - November 2023 - 77

budgets New York and Los Angeles used to have. At the end of the
day, what most of us love about San Francisco is that groovy flavor, a
quirky and weird local hippie community where everybody knows
each other. I lived on the Filbert Steps on Napier Lane, where you
knew [everyone's] business. The more people jumped on planes,
which is how it's become in San Francisco, the less you got to know
your neighbors.
The campus for the Modern Elder Academy, Conley's
latest venture, is located in Baja California Sur, Mexico
KF: I remember going to the Phoenix-this old motel that was
fun, chic, and cool-when I first moved to San Francisco. I felt
like a better version of myself just by being there.
CC: That was Joie de Vivre's model: You are where you sleep.
We created 52 boutique hotels around California, 46 in Northern
California, each with its own brand identity and personality that
mirrored your aspirations for how you saw yourself. San Francisco's
hospitality heyday was in the '90s when Kimpton and Joie de Vivre
were starting out. Kimpton was more for conservative business
travelers, but we were weirder-our Hotel Tomo was based on
Japanese manga. There hasn't been a San Francisco hotelier like me
or Bill Kimpton, who created that pioneering approach.
KF: If you had one day in San Francisco, where would you go?
CC: I'd start the day at the Ferry Building. It's right across the street
from what used to be Joie de Vivre's Hotel Vitale. I'd go visit the
Exploratorium, which is perfect for both kids and adults, then walk
up the Filbert Steps and jaunt over to the Greenwich Steps. Next, I'll
check out the view at Coit Tower, then walk to North Beach because
it still has a weird Bohemian flair. I'd see if there's any opera singing
at Caffe Trieste, which sometimes happens on Saturday afternoons,
then sit on a bench in Washington Square Park and maybe read
a book. I'd go by the San Francisco Art Institute-I love its iconic
architecture. It's a private little place where, if I had a date, I'd take
them at night to make out and look at the view. Then I'd probably
walk down Columbus and check out some of the alleys to get the
flavor of Chinatown. That would take me to Union Square-it's
rather sad right now, but hopefully the storefronts will soon reopen.
Conley opened the Phoenix in 1987, transforming it into a 44-room,
pool-centered motor lodge in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood
A gathering at Modern Elder Academy,
the world's first midlife wisdom school
KF: You have a unique perspective having built a
gamechanging hospitality empire out of San Francisco.
What gives the city its enduring appeal?
CC: When I finished school in 1984, I made a conscious choice to
take a job in San Francisco because I'd come out. The city felt like
a comfortable place I could work as a Stanford MBA graduate-
who happens to be gay-in the macho commercial real estate
development business. Forty years ago, business school graduates
making lifestyle choices went to San Francisco, and those on career
paths went to New York or LA. San Francisco is the boom-bust
city of the U.S.-it encourages noble experiments, which is an
alternative way to look at failure. With the gold rush, rebuilding
after earthquakes and fires, the hippie movement, and the AIDS
epidemic, we've had our share of cultural and political movements
before tech started ruling the Bay Area. The city has always been a
pioneer. It's an intellectual and academic hotbed where people go
to rebel and be different-to be quirky and eccentric and try new
things-because it has an ecosystem where failure is okay. Mark
Twain said, 'The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,'
which, given his love for San Francisco, is very appropriate. The city
must remake itself again like the bird on the city flag, the phoenix
rising from the ashes. hd
hospitalitydesign.com November 2023
077
Photos courtesy of CHIP CONLEY
http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
Hospitality Design - November 2023

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