Boutique Design - April 2018 - 76

ARCHITECTS
OF

ASPIRATION

BRIAN DE LOWE
PROPER HOSPITALITY

ROBERT DE NIRO
NOBU HOSPITALITY

MICHAEL FUERSTMAN
PENDRY HOTELS

BRAD KORZEN
PROPER HOSPITALITY

NOBU MATSUHISA
NOBU HOSPITALITY

ALEX SAMEK
PROPER HOSPITALITY

The visionaries behind Nobu Hospitality, Pendry Hotels and Proper
Hospitality are carving out a growing niche by demonstrating that
luxury hotels can be as much about life as style. That's why they're
being honored as Boutique Design's 2018 Up-and-Coming Hoteliers.

FROM CHEFS TO SCIONS, investors to
film stars, Boutique Design's (BD's) 2018
Up-and-Coming Hoteliers share an instinct
for building brands that bridge the
comfortable, real-world fundamentals of
their guests' everyday lifestyles with the
wish-list, wanna-have touches that make
every traveler feel like an influencer.
This year's honorees-Robert De Niro,
Nobu Matsuhisa (chef ) and Meir Teper,
cofounders of Nobu Hospitality; Michael
Fuerstman, cofounder and creative director
of Pendry Hotels, and Brian De Lowe (president), Brad Korzen and Alex Samek,
cofounders of Proper Hospitality- have
drawn on their dramatically different career
paths, life experiences and social connections to craft start-ups with strong enough
voices to rise over the competitive din and
speak to a narrowly defined and carefully
curated target market (the same one every
cool-hunting hotel company is tracking).
What's making their message get a
hearing (and justifying their status as bellwethers for luxury lifestyle hotels) is that
they've created destinations where they
and their friends would choose to stay, eat,
work and party-places where it's okay to
kick off your designer shoes after a long day
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AND

ORIANA LERNER

or throw on your bespoke jacket for a
Michelin-starred dinner. And this hands-on
group has test-driven every piece of the
hotel machinery. De Lowe moved into the
building that would house the San Francisco Proper Hotel and made his home
there for a year before the property's 2017
opening. Fuerstman, his wife and new baby
spent "a few months" at a small Airbnb near
the Pendry San Diego to get every detail
right and tells BD he did the same for the
Sagamore Pendry Baltimore. Chef
Matsuhisa says he's on the road 75% of the
year to maintain a personal connection
with what's happening at the hotels and
restaurants that bear his name.
This kind of personal stamp defines why
these young brands are both innovative
and relevant. The leadership for all three
flags has found distinctive design and
service solutions that make guests feel "at
home" as they would at a friend's house.
There's a lot that's familiar, but there are
also some glamourous, witty and justbeyond-reach elements that make for an
escapist experience. Read on to find out
how these innovators broke the hotel mold
and how they plan to keep their brands'
names in lights.

MEIR TEPER
NOBU HOSPITALITY

B R I G I T T E L AC O M B E ( D E N I R O, M AT S U H I S A ) ; C O U R T E S Y O F N O B U H O S P I TA L I T Y ( T E P E R ) ; C O U R T E S Y O F
P R O P E R H O S P I TA L I T Y ( D E L O W E , KO R Z E N A N D S A M E K ) ; A R T S T R E I B E R ( F U E R S T M A N )

BY MARY SCOVIAK
http://www.boutiquedesign.com
Boutique Design - April 2018

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