COVER STORY Experts at the “New Normal” Members of this year’s Boutique 18 have proven themselves adept at designing cutting-edge spaces in today’s hyper-competitive environment. here are many paths to the 2012 Boutique 18. Robert Veluz, for example, worked in franchise development for Hilton Worldwide and sales/marketing for Gettys before becoming a project designer at Bill Rooney Studio. Wilson Associates’ Jessica Houlemard Rosario, by contrast, started as an intern at that rm and worked her way up to senior interior designer over the course of a decade. But no matter how they arrived at this juncture of their careers, the members of Boutique Design’s seventh annual crop of up-and-coming designers share a passion for creating memorable hospitality spaces—all within the con nes of what honoree Sara Talleux of Simeone Deary Design Group aptly describes as the “new normal” of tight budgets and even tighter deadlines. To get a better sense of what these designers are all about, we asked them a series of questions about the joys and challenges associated with their jobs. What follows are highlights from their responses that re ect the impressive array of skills and insights they bring to any project they tackle. 24 Boutique Design | May+June 2012 T