Boutique Design - December 2015 - 92

South Africa and Botswana, respectively. We will also be spending a
lot of time on our Indian project at Gir National Park, Gujarat. That
project has a 2018 opening, and promises to be a game-changer in
the Indian luxury adventure travel arena.
WHERE HAVEN'T YOU WORKED YET THAT YOU'D LIKE TO-
AND WHY?
DEBRA: We would like to do more work in the Americas. We

believe that luxury-adventure tourism is underserved in terms of
small luxury hotels and lodges. We have looked at opportunities
in Chile, Peru, Argentina and Brazil. The wilderness areas of the
United States could also do with some safari-style lodging!
HOW SO-AND WHERE?

The U.S. has some of the world's most beautiful wildlife and
wilderness areas, but the lodging there mostly caters to the mass
or middle markets. We feel there is a big opportunity to create
intimate 20- to 30-key lodges offering stylish, interpretive wildlife
experiences in places like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Florida
Everglades.
BACK IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD, FOX BROWNE HAS ALSO
WORKED ON TWO HIGH-PROFILE PROJECTS IN JOHANNESBURG-THE RANDLORDS ROOFTOP BAR AND THE HOTEL
LAMUNU. HOW DID THOSE COMMISSIONS COME ABOUT?
DEBRA: Both of these venues were part of an urban regeneration

project in the lead up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer
championship. The Hotel Lamunu was designed as a budget/
midscale hotel, the first of its kind in that part of downtown
Johannesburg. The Randlords project was specifically designed
for the World Cup. We were invited by two celebrated South
African architects-Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens-to
collaborate on this and develop the guest experience. It was
really fun to work on a nightclub.
FOX BROWNE'S RELATIONSHIP WITH &BEYOND IS CLEARLY VERY
IMPORTANT TO THE FIRM. TELL US MORE ABOUT THAT.
CHRIS: As mentioned earlier, both Debra and I joined &Beyond

WHITE PEARL RESORT, MOZAMBIQUE

(then CCAfrica) in the mid '90s until 2009. Our most notable
project early on was the award-winning Ngorongoro Crater Lodge,
Tanzania, which we built in 1996. At the time the Tanzanian safari
circuit was controlled by the inbound tour operators who dictated
to the hotel operators what they could and couldn't do. We came
in and created this crazy "Masai Versailles" lodge that challenged
conventional hoteling at the time. It's a symphony of hand-carved
wood, raw tussah silks, red roses, crushed velvets, butler service
and vintage everything. It was a groundbreaking project at the
time and changed the safari industry in East Africa.
ANOTHER HIGH-PROFILE CLIENT IS TAJ HOTELS GROUP. WHAT
WORK HAVE YOU DONE FOR TAJ?
CHRIS: One of our most notable and exciting design challenges

was developing four Indian safari lodges in Mahya Pradesh for
Taj Safaris. That was a 10-year project from start to finish, and
involved working with novice crews on all fronts, including
architects and engineers. It was very challenging. It was really
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