Hospitality Design - April 2012 - 128

perspectives

interview: adam d. tihany

were in this business for the money, then it’s certainly the wrong business. I’m here because I like the design, and I like to be involved in every project personally.

HD: You have chosen your projects well—they are all different and international in scope.
AT: My interest in doing projects everywhere in the world is to learn about that place, to discover new countries and what makes them tick. The whole site-speciﬁc issue is very important. So, when you are in Paris, you want to feel like you’re in Paris, and the same when you are in London or China or wherever you are. And for me, it’s truly a fun opportunity to learn—in a very nice and luxurious fashion—about the world.

HD: You are working on renovating a few classics—the Oberoi New Delhi and the Beverly Hills Hotel. What’s the process behind recreating such iconic properties?
AT: We have created a niche in working in problematic

The pool area at the Westin Chosun, Seoul, which Tihany recently designed.

and, let’s say, complicated projects. It will be the hundredth anniversary of the creation of the Beverly Hills Hotel, so it’s a very iconic and special property with an amazing history. We set out to learn everything we can about it. We sifted through all kinds of historical documents to ﬁgure out what happened, how it happened, and when it was built. We read all the books that were written about the hotel and met with some of the people who actually have been there. It’s really full-immersion research, to make sure that we have enough background to respect the past when we move the hotel into the future. It’s a big deal. There are a lot of people who, when it comes to these types of properties, don’t want change. They want to go back to the old days, and a lot of the stuff in the old days just did not work—it doesn’t ﬁt the lifestyle. It’s a very interesting, complex challenge, and you learn very fast that you can’t possibly please everybody. You have to pick and choose your battles. A sure formula to failure is to try to please everybody. You have to get to a point where you have enough courage and an explanation of what you want to do, and go with conviction. And, hopefully, it will appeal to most people. The ones that it doesn’t appeal to, it doesn’t appeal to. What can we do?

how it’s made and where the ingredients come from; and it’s totally local and seasonal. It’s just charming.

HD: Do you think that’s where restaurants are headed? Less formal, more experiential?
AT: I think ﬁne dining has transformed. It’s not on the way out, because Noma is a super ﬁne-dining restaurant, but it’s not formal. There’s no tablecloth, no candles, no three sets of forks and knives. It’s a bit more egalitarian in that sense. But it does not, in any way or fashion, hinder the experience. It’s frightfully expensive, but you’re glad to pay for it because you’re getting value for your money. It’s a different kind of value. Value, to a certain generation, translated into crisp white linen, a beautiful ﬂower arrangement, and people wearing a tuxedo. Here, the value is much more profound and intellectual, and it’s in the product. It’s in the history of the product, the process of how you get it to the customer. And it’s very sophisticated. There are certain parts of the world where formality will always be valued. And those are places where there’s a very big disparity in the social strata of people. But the world is becoming much more homogeneous in that way, and food clearly is an international ambassador. It’s something that could not be more democratic. If you’re trying to make it more and more exclusive, you are putting a wedge between what it’s really meant to be. It’s nourishment. Fine dining, it’s a state of mind. It’s not necessarily in the tablecloth or in the candle. A ﬁne dinner sometimes is more important than ﬁne dining. You can have a great dish in a humble setting, and it doesn’t take away from the food if you are sophisticated enough. And people are more and more sophisticated. The barrier and the mystery of how you make these things is not there anymore—now we have open kitchens, food stations. It’s all designed to create less distance between the consumer and the producer. And with that, the formality also goes away. Hear Tihany live at HD Expo in Las Vegas on May 16th at 10:30 a.m. www.hdexpo.com

HD: For projects like those, or the Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, where you are redoing the Florentine Room and Loggia, where do you even begin?
AT: You start at the door; you always start with circulation. How do you move people through the space? The art of moving a person through the space is the key to success in any hospitality project. It’s positioning them at a point where you can start telling a story. You have to ﬁnd a story.

HD: You have traveled the world. Is there one restaurant or hotel you would love to visit again?
AT: Noma. It’s a 60-seat pre-ﬁxe restaurant on the dock in this warehouse in Copenhagen, where you see the boats passing by. What I found very charming and very different is that everybody serves the food—from the chef to the busboys. You don’t know who’s who, unless the chef comes out with an apron. They all come to the table, and everybody is so knowledgeable about the food and so earnestly enthusiastic about

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