Boutique Design - June 2014 - 10

THE BUZZ

IN MEMORIUM: CLIFF TUTTLE
Cliff Tuttle, senior vice president at ForrestPerkins,
passed away May 20 from cancer. He managed
the interior design practice at the firm's San Francisco office.
"Cliff Tuttle's impact on the hospitality
industry and the design profession cannot be
exaggerated. He touched countless lives and
gave his enthusiastic support to each person
with whom he came in contact," the firm said
in a statement. "We at ForrestPerkins, present
and past members included, have lost a dear
colleague, mentor and friend. We are so fortunate
to have known and loved Cliff and to have been
blessed with his kindness and generosity of spirit.
We will miss him more than we can express."
The award-winning interior designer joined
the firm at its founding in 1998, serving briefly in
the firm's Dallas office before becoming senior

vice president of design for eight years in its
Washington, D.C., office. Tuttle then launched
the San Francisco office in 2007. Before joining
ForrestPerkins, Tuttle was president of Concept
Design Group in Honolulu and Concept International Design Group.
A LEED-Accredited Professional, Tuttle
recently served as director of NEWH Sustainable
Hospitality and on the Sustainable Design Council
for ASID. He also received the NEWH Person of
Excellence Award in 2009 for his significant contribution to the design industry and to NEWH, on
whose board of directors he served for many years.
A yearly scholarship has been established in
his name and will be administered by NEWH.
Those wishing to commemorate his life can
contribute to the scholarship fund at http://
newh.org/the-clifford-r-tuttle-scholarship/.

The next part of the cycle is going to be all about
millennials, money and the mid-tier, according
to the hotel industry leaders participating in
The Hotel Investment Networking Conference
(THINC) May 15-16 in Chicago. Hospitality executives from all sectors of the business used this
think-tank forum cosponsored by Lodging Unlimited and DePaul University Driehaus College of
Business School of Hospitality Leadership to
assess factors shaping opportunities for hoteliers
and investors, and how best to profit from them.
Here's the takeaway for the design side:
* Take a long, hard look at the project funding.
Lenders aren't giving money away, but more than
a few deals have financing packages pushing
toward the 90 percent mark. Investors who are
getting creative will need deep pockets to cover
debt service if there's an unexpected bump.
* Learn to design without a program. Participants in the May 15 opening general session panel,
which included G. Michael Conway, Winegardner
& Hammons; Murray Dow, The Dow Hotel Co.; Dan
Kwon, Starwood Capital Corp.; Vanessa Sinders,
American Hotel & Lodging Assn. Government
Affairs; and Sam Toia, Illinois Restaurant Assn,
pointed out that, while strong hotel brands are still
appealing, investors are focused increasingly on
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boutiquedesign.com JUNE 2014

micro-matching operations and opportunity. So,
the design may have to move ahead while the
money men weigh options from franchising to
management, and from a soft brand that can work
with a strong asset manager to having no flag at all.
* Don't count out the competition from new
players. Brands aren't just fighting each other;
they're fighting concepts such as airbnb and a
worldwide network of similar offers, noted May 16
general session panelists W. Michael Murphy, First
Fidelity Cos.; Jim Abrahamson, Interstate Hotels
& Resorts; Bob Alter, Seaview Investors; Liam
Brown, Marriott International; Greg Marcus, The
Marcus Corp., and Pratik Patel, Asian American
Hotel Owners Assn. Consider: Hilton Worldwide
has more than 680,000 rooms; airbnb has nearly
350,000-a number that's only going to grow with
former Joie de Vivre visionary Chip Conley at the
helm and the specter of an IPO. That's going to
mean a whole new approach to guest room design
if chains want part of youthquake travel market.

* Play well with millennials. Chains are scrambling
to court the U.S.'s 80-million-plus 20-somethings
and designers will have to give them the visual
tools to do that. That includes: more integrated
technology; more social/interactive/multi-tasking
public spaces and more high-end select service
properties with a casual yet customized feel.
* Think H&M, not haute couture. The message
from investors: "Full-service hotels in the
suburbs are dinosaurs." Designers who can afford
to specialize in luxury can still look at key urban
markets, but anyone who makes a mid-tier or
select service hotel stand out is going to have
access to a broad pipeline.
For more on how to build the right team
and grow your business base, get tips from
the THINC panel moderated by Boutique
Design's executive editor, Mary Scoviak,
at http://boutiquedesign.com/content/
six-must-know-teambuilding-tips-thinc.

H O L LY S T E WA R T P H O T O G R A P H Y ( T U T T L E ) ; C O U R T E S Y O F T H I N C ( C O N F E R E N C E L O G O )

EVENT REVIEW: THINC

http://www.newh.org/the-clifford-r-tuttle-scholarship/ http://www.newh.org/the-clifford-r-tuttle-scholarship/ http://www.boutiquedesign.com/content/six-must-know-teambuilding-tips-thinc http://www.boutiquedesign.com/content/six-must-know-teambuilding-tips-thinc http://www.boutiquedesign.com/content/six-must-know-teambuilding-tips-thinc http://www.boutiquedesign.com

Boutique Design - June 2014

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