Hospitality Design - March/April 2016 - 85

perspectives

mark
harmon

interview

By Stacy Shoemaker Rauen
Photography courtesy of Auberge Resorts Collection

MAN OF LUXURY

Expanding a family business with one-of-a-kind
experiences

It's no surprise that Mark Harmon is the
founder of Auberge Resorts Collection, a small
group of ultra-luxurious hideaways that are at
one with their idyllic surroundings. His father
was a lawyer-turned-real estate developer-and
co-founder of the original Auberge du Soleil
in Napa Valley, which started as a restaurant
in 1981 before adding rooms in 1985-and his
mother is an "ardent environmentalist, Sierra
Clubber," he says.
A Northern California native and selfproclaimed lover of all things outdoors, Harmon
followed his father's footsteps and went to law
school, but only lasted in that profession for six
years before turning to commercial real estate
development. But "something kept drawing me
to restaurants and hotels," he says, and in 1998
he formed management company Auberge to
grow the family business by both developing and
managing new properties, as well as managing
other companies' hotels.
Those nine properties include Esperanza in
Los Cabos, which recently underwent a massive

1
renovation by HKS after being destroyed by
Hurricane Odile; Calistoga Ranch, crafted by
Darrell Schmitt Design Associates and SB
Architects, set on 157 acres in a private canyon
in Napa Valley; and the legendary Malliouhana
resort in Anguilla, which re-emerged last year
under the Auberge umbrella from an $80 million
renovation by TAL Studio.
Next up: the debut of Auberge's lifestyle
brand VieVage, which is set for resort locations-
Los Cabos (with architecture by Glazier Le
Architecture and interiors from BAMO and
Gulla Jónsdóttir Architecture & Design) and
Napa Valley (featuring AvroKO and CCIDdesigned interiors) are first in 2017 and 2018,
respectively-and potentially urban markets
down the line; Auberge Resort Sun Valley in
Idaho; and resort living offering Auberge Beach
Residences in Fort Lauderdale designed by
Meyer Davis Studio.
Here, Harmon discusses finding meaning
in travel, why Auberge is entering the lifestyle
space, and his dislike for long hallways.

On what luxury guests want today

When I started the company, it is something
that we'd already been doing for awhile, which

1. The lobby lounge at
the recently renovated
Esperanza in Los Cabos.

is creating one-of-a-kind properties. That was
the time that brands, which were reliable and
consistent, were king, but we wanted to have
personality, to be different from every one of
those properties. There were people doing that,
but we were a bit of an outlier at the time. Now
everybody's saying, 'We want to be different,
we want to be special, and we don't want to be
homogenous and just another look-alike.'
I'm an aging baby boomer, so I have watched
that demographic change from people working
really hard and having less time to play to getting
to the point where they can take advantage of the
things they'd created-their family and wealth.
They're looking for more meaning in travel-
before they may have been looking for a getaway
to unplug, and today they want to engage much
more. So we provide more adventure and more
learning and experiences that enrich the guests.
Because that's me. I don't sit still when I go on
vacation. I can't sit in the chaise in the sun. Let's
go skiing, let's go mountain climbing, let's go
mountain biking, or let's go learn in the kitchen.

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