Hospitality Design - July 2018 - 156

the master of luxury

Pierre-Yves rochon
Founder and Principal
Pierre-Yves rochon
Paris

As a child growing up in France's picturesque
Brittany region, renowned designer PierreYves Rochon gravitated toward sculptures
and earthen ceramics. So much so that "I
spent more time alone with my designs and
in my own world than playing with the other
children," he says. Though he initially was
attracted to film's dramatic lens (he did a
brief stint with a French TV show about a
fictional ballet), Rochon eventually found
his way to interior design, studying at École
Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in
Toulouse and starting his career working for
French designer Michel Boyer until opening
his eponymous firm in Paris in 1979, part of global design firm
Perkins+Will since 2007, with a second office in Chicago.
He has become a master of luxury, designing everything from
the new Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills to such icons as Paris' Four
Seasons Hotel George V, which was a passion project for Rochon,
who was selected from seven designers competing to refresh
the decadent circa-1928 Art Deco hotel. His success comes from
connecting with the properties he takes on, as he first looks for "a
sense of emotion and a challenge-I never design just for design,"
he explains. To him, it's about achieving a balanced, "just right"
aesthetic, meaning "the proportions feel good, the details are
thoughtful, it's chic. You have to know when to stop and have some
restraint, which is the hard part."
That was the case when he partnered with the Edmond de
Rothschild Heritage and Baroness Ariane de Rothschild on the Four
Seasons Hotel Megève, which opened in December. (It's a complete
White and pale blue interiors
complement A-frame ceilings in the
chalet-style Mont D'Arbois suite at
the Four Seasons Megève

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July 2018 hospitalitydesign.com

360 for him, as one of his first jobs, a bank,
was with the famed Rothschild family.)
In honor of Ariane's grandmother, who
developed the premier chalet in the French
ski-resort town, Rochon drew from the 1920s,
using warm wood and stone inspired by the
nearby mountains. "We didn't design from
thin air-everything was tied to the emotion
of the place," he says. Ariane also contributed
art pieces from the family's collection, which
add bold color to the serene alpine palette.
Known to celebrate the rich heritages of
his projects, Rochon often preserves their
spirit through an idiosyncratic design, notably
in the ongoing redos of the circa-1920s Hôtel
Martinez Cannes and the St. Regis Rome
(a former 1894 palace), as well as in the
upcoming renovations of New York's classic
Waldorf Astoria and the InterContinental Paris Le Grand. And
though the Four Seasons Hotel Firenze in Italy took more than
seven years to complete, it remains a favorite of Rochon's. "One
of my business partners used to joke that it was my mistress," he
quips. "I even lived there for some time during the winter, walking
[into] each cold room and considering each detail."
The versatile firm is now expanding its reach with furniture and
lighting collections as well as retail offerings. Most recently, Rochon
worked alongside Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron on the 57-story
Jade Signature residential skyscraper in Miami, which features
three floors of hospitality-like amenities. Boasting an exterior clad
in extended concrete floor slabs, the lively spirit of Miami comes
to life inside with a predominately all-white palette that allows the
sweeping ocean views to shine. "We are always looking for projects
that are new and different," says Rochon. "I hate doing anything the
same-that's why we're still working today."
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Hospitality Design - July 2018

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