Hospitality Design - January/February 2015 - 50

perspectives

interview bashar wali

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kitschy, but people actually sit and write. In
design, we're looking for those moments where
we can make that story come alive.
The art there is simple. We took a lot of
publicly available images of thinkers and doers
and makers and history changers-literally from
Jesus Christ and Steve Jobs to Rosa Parks and
everything in between-and had an artist change
them and create an original piece of art for us.
People always think art must cost millions to
be valuable. It doesn't. It literally could be free.
Because if the competition is dollars, we're going
to lose every time. The last thing we want is Vegas
art. We want what resonates.

How do design and branding intersect?

We've realized lately that if design and branding
work together early on as a team, the story
becomes better and the design becomes more
informed. You have all this creative force sitting
at the table going, 'What if' and 'How could we?'
Our focus, relative to design, is branding.
When handcrafting an authentic story, you
have to do it together because otherwise the
interpretation of the story is now up to the
designer rather than having the person who
wrote the story truly inform the designer of his or
her intent. Easier said than done. We, the owner,
have to believe and allow the creative to flow.

How do you select designers?

For us, the team is preferably from the market,
but a different team for each hotel. We don't want
to drag our team from hotel to hotel. That's why
we don't do anything in-house. We have our own
strong opinions, obviously, but we try to build the
team around the project. Some designers may go
from one to another because they have a broad

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January/February 2015 hospitalitydesign.com

2. The Sentinel, which
opened last year with
a design by Wimberly
Interiors, boasts an art
collection of photos of
visionary figures.
3. A rendering of a
guestroom at the Parts
and Labor-designed Old
No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery
in New Orleans.
4. The elevator landing in
the Sentinel's west wing.

palette, but ideally we want to assemble a team
for each project based on its story and history and
the kind of building it is.

When you're looking for new properties,
do you decide on a location ﬁrst?
We want to be in cities that we know our model
makes sense in. Every city wants cute, boutique
hotels. Every city has lots of history and layers.
It's really a question of abundance. Like New
Orleans-no brainer. Washington, DC-no
brainer. Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York,
Los Angeles, San Francisco. Phoenix? I don't
know what art story I'm going to come up with
in Phoenix. You go to Santa Fe, there's a deep art
community. It's really about a place that has a
great sense of community.

Is there a limit to the number of hotels
you can open and sustain your model?

There's really no magic number; it's all about
the size and the distance and how much you
are reinventing the wheel. We've got eight, nine
today-could I add three or four a year over the

next five years and get to 25? Probably. You can't
do 10 hotels a year and do it. You lose control.
When you look at someone like Ian Schrager,
who's brilliant, but everything is handmade, he's
done very little in terms of quantity. Because he
stayed true to what he does and he does such a
great job at it.

What is your reaction to the recent
announcements of all the lifestyle brands
from major hotel companies?
I hate to tell you, but they're confused. We're
in the business, and I can't keep up. Imagine if
you're a consumer. We could come up with an
idea sitting at this table and by tomorrow, it's
implemented. Try doing that with a major brand.
They'll try, but they will never be able to be as
nimble, as flexible, as open-minded, and as fast
moving as we are and can be. There's room for
everybody, but the ante keeps getting upped with
stuff, and the consumer is finally going to say,
'Enough stuff already.' hd
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