Hospitality Design - July 2018 - 130

daniel pierce and
nina grondin
Partners and Cofounders, Curioso
Chicago

130

July 2018 hospitalitydesign.com

Raised between southern California and Chicago, the San Juan
Capistrano Library by renowned architect Michael Graves first
inspired Daniel Pierce to pursue a career in architecture. It's a
space he has returned to time and again in his adult life with his
sisters, nieces, and daughter. "Watching them interact with the
building showed me that its design is still very much relevant in
how we live our lives," he says. It's an idea that drives his own
work today.
He started his career in Mexico City alongside architect
Francisco Hanhausen, where being immersed in a foreign
culture and learning a second language helped him "understand
how design decisions are made," he says, as well as "how much
psychology is involved in what we do." Grondin, meanwhile, grew
up in China, upstate New York, and Boston before graduating
from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, majoring
in both business administration and economics. She spent the
first few years after college at a financial marketing startup until,
inspired by her architect and artist friends, she took a risk and
pursued an interior design degree at the Illinois Institute of Art.
For her, the allure of the field is its ability to permeate "absolutely
everything, especially everything having to do with humans."
That natural curiosity led Pierce and Grondin, who first
met during their tenure at the Chicago-based Gettys Group, to
launch Curioso nearly five years ago (the whole process happened
in a week after meeting for coffee to discuss partnering on a
project), centered on their shared passion "to make life better
through design," says Pierce. Indeed, their experience-driven
projects do just that. Hotel Indigo El Paso Downtown in Texas
blends Mexican and American culture through a midcenturymeets-contemporary aesthetic, while the charming Marina
Grand Resort in New Buffalo, Michigan is a lesson in residential
influence. Along with the boutique Wheelhouse Hotel in Chicago
and the second outpost of the social club-hostel-hotel hybrid
FieldHouse Jones in Nashville-both from owner Bedderman
Lodging-three Mexican hotels are on the boards, which will
reflect "the diversity, depth of culture, and genuine hospitality of
the country," says Pierce. As a result, they opened a second office
in Merida, Mexico, with the firm now boasting 25 people between
its two locations.
To create transformative environments, Curioso is paving
the way with "spaces that are meaningful to the people who
experience them," says Grondin. Take their foray into cannabis
dispensaries with Seven Point in Oak Park, Illinois, stemming
from a "strong belief that hospitality extends beyond hotels,
restaurants, and bars," she adds. "We thrive on taking on new
design challenges, especially those presented by a new industry,
delivered through the lens of human-centered hospitality."
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Hospitality Design - July 2018

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