Hospitality Design - September 2014 - 130

special feature education
Adam Rolston
Parsons the New School for Design
Adam Rolston, partner at New
York-based architecture and design
studio Incorporated, spends his days
tackling projects such as Starwood
Capital Group's forthcoming 1 Hotel
in Brooklyn Bridge Park and a new
Washington, DC outpost of Sydell
Group's the Line hotel. After hours,
his passion for hospitality continues
in the classroom, teaching in the
interior design master's of fine arts
(MFA) program at Parsons the New
School for Design. "Something I
believe in wholeheartedly is that
good design is a form of portraiture:
a portrait of our clients, their
aspirations, and what they love,"
Rolston says.
He conveys this cerebral
philosophy to his intimate MFA
class-collaborative teams
comprising students from lighting

Christoph Korner
Woodbury University
A low-income housing project
in Montana, a residence in the
Hollywood Hills, and exhibition
design work in Las Vegas are among
the different projects Christoph
Korner-who runs the Los Angeles
office of Graft (the design studio also
has offices in Berlin and Beijing)-
juggles every day. Still, he has the
time to serve as the chair of interior
architecture at Woodbury University
in Burbank. "I didn't realize it was
in my DNA, but I was destined to
teach because my family has been
doing it for generations," he says.
When he was asked to teach a studio
class, Korner thought it could be
interesting, and it was perfect timing
work-wise as he wasn't busy. "Then
I got hooked right away, like a bad
drug," he laughs.
No two Graft projects are alike-
"We take the location seriously and
get involved with the concept as early
on as possible to create a tailored

130

design, interiors, and architecture
disciplines-particularly through
the idea of extensive research. For
Rolston, the most successful projects
are holistic, in which branding,
marketing, and design all align and
echo one profound idea.
To reinforce this, last semester
Rolston asked the class to
deconstruct objects by delving into
their cultural pasts, unearthing their
fetishistic components, and applying
them to a project's design. One
student, for example, dreamed up the
FreeMan Hotel (a 2014 Hospitality
Design Awards finalist in the
Student category) by looking at New
York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood
through the lens of one object: the
motorcycle-in particular, the circa
1960s lightweight and urban café
racer. A thorough investigation
of this inexpensive, reassembled
bike brought to life Hell's Kitchen's
rebellious shipyard origins and
spawned a new hotel concept

experience," Korner says-and that
same approach trickles down to his
students. What is distinctive about
Woodbury's program, Korner points
out, is that it explores hospitality
projects holistically, a narrative
exercise that starts with branding.
"What kind of story do we want to
get? What experience do we want,
and how can we create it?" he
explains. "It's abstract, emotional
storytelling that leads to diverse
projects-not Disneyland. You
always want something fresh."
One of the most important
contemporary tools in delineating
these visions is 3D designing.
While Korner says it has proved a
boon for strengthening students'
spatial development skills, the
downside is that it can challenge
their perceptions of working with
unconventional materials. "There's
a tendency to not think about how
models react to light or how seams
should run," he says.
Still, these limitations haven't
been much of a barrier to original
thinking. For instance, one of

September 2014 hospitalitydesign.com

with a pared down aesthetic that
incorporates materials such as
perforated sheets of chrome and
polished concrete floors.
"I think the nice thing with
this exercise is that it creates an
emotional connection for students,"
Rolston points out. "The marketplace
in this generation has really shifted.
There is an expectation that
interiors today will be reflective of
personalities. It's not shocking
or interesting, it's just the way it
should be."

Korner's students designed a
cemetery inside a glamorous old
LA movie theater. "A theater
is all about life, and to put in
something considered so quiet
and contemplative," he says, "is an
example of living with the dead."

Vannie Nguyen, one
of Korner's interior
architecture students,
created a marine
research center.

New School MFA
student Pedro Barilla's
FreeMan Hotel (top), a
2014 HD Awards finalist.
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Hospitality Design - September 2014

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