Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 127

Wave of the Future

Gray Shealy
Global Design Director, W Hotels Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide New York
I grew up in Flat Rock, North Carolina, on a cattle farm and in the woods of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

I knew I wanted to be a designer, pretty much from day one. I still have the model I built of the Sydney Opera House from paper and acrylic when I was nine years old. I took Polaroids of it and sent them to the Mayor of Sydney at the time. I also have the letter of appreciation and book he sent me in return. I have always been fascinated by the lure of exotic places ever since I was a kid, dreaming of one day travelling to Australia, or the Seychelles, or Kenya. I remember thinking how amazingly designed resorts are so close to dreams: human manifestations of earthly paradises. I will not lie—my parents took us traveling in high style when we were very young, often to weekends at the Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead and later to the Jamaica Inn in Ocho Rios. I was super fascinated by the entire guest experience at a very early age, reading up on the AAA or Mobil ratings, and, always acting as a critic, would decipher and analyze the experience. My father often told me I should work for the Travel Channel. I don’t think he was joking! Architecture—to me—is really the last renaissance style of education; one in which you learn about all aspects of life through design and through the analysis of place and history. My ﬁrst full-time job after my masters in architecture graduate program at Yale was what I would consider to be one of my big breaks. I landed a consultant job with Starwood to help guide some of the major rebranding and guest experience initiatives for the Sheraton brand. But, I do owe my true big break to Eva Ziegler, the global brand leader for both W and Le Meridien. She gave me the enormous task (or what seemed enormous at the time) of designing and directing the key events relaunching Le Meridien brand around the world. Hotels become a medium between the notion of comfort/security, and the local landscape, allowing the hotel designer to be a translator and ambassador of local culture and global knowledge. The most challenging part of the job is ﬁnding time to actually design ourselves! We spend so much of our lives as design directors directing others, ﬂying on planes, coordinating and hosting meetings, that it ultimately becomes a great difﬁculty, and much welcomed pleasure to put pen to paper. My guilty pleasure is ﬂying. I ﬁnd inspiration from vintage foreign ﬁlms. They often times have great subtleties that are overlooked in their own era.

www.hospitalitydesign.com

September 2011

127

http://www.hospitalitydesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - September 2011

Hospitality Design - September 2011
Contents
Online Contents
From the Editor
From the Show Director
Sketchbook
Places
Trends
Interviews
Interviews
Interviews
Profile
Art
Wallcoverings
Casegoods
Wave of the Future
Wave of the Future
Bella Sky Hotel
Hotel Beaux Arts
Hotel Parq Central
St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel
Hotel Kanra
W St. Petersburg
Hotel ICON
Z New York Hotel
Chambers Eat + Drink
Icenhauer’s
Le Posh
Back Space
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Hospitality Design - September 2011
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Hospitality Design - September 2011
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 1
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 2
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 3
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 4
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 5
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 6
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 7
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 8
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Contents
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 10
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Online Contents
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 12
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 13
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 14
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 15
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 16
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 17
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - From the Editor
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 19
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - From the Show Director
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 21
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 22
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 23
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 24
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 25
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 26
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 27
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 28
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 29
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 30
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Sketchbook
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 32
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 33
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 34
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 35
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 36
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 37
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Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 40
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 41
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 42
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 43
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 44
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Places
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 46
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 47
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 48
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 49
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 50
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 51
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Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 53
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Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 55
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 56
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Trends
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 58
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 59
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 60
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 61
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 62
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 63
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Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 66
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 67
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 68
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 69
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 70
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Interviews
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 72
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 73
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 74
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 75
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 76
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Interviews
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 78
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 79
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Interviews
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 81
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 82
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 83
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 84
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 85
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 86
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Profile
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 88
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 89
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 90
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Art
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 92
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 93
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 94
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 95
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 96
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 97
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 98
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Wallcoverings
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 100
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 101
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 102
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 103
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 104
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 105
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 106
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 107
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 108
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Casegoods
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 110
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 111
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 112
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 113
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 114
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 115
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 116
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Wave of the Future
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 118
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 119
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 120
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 121
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 122
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 123
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Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 126
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 127
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 128
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 129
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 130
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 131
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 132
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Wave of the Future
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 134
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 135
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 136
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 137
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 138
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 139
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Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 147
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 148
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 149
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Bella Sky Hotel
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 151
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 152
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 153
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Hotel Beaux Arts
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 155
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 156
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 157
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Hotel Parq Central
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 159
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 160
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 161
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 163
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 164
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 165
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Hotel Kanra
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 167
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 168
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 169
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - W St. Petersburg
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 171
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 172
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 173
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Hotel ICON
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 175
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 176
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 177
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Z New York Hotel
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 179
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 180
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 181
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Chambers Eat + Drink
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 183
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 184
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 185
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Icenhauer’s
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 187
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 188
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 189
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Le Posh
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 191
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 192
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 193
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 194
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 195
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 196
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 197
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 198
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 199
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Back Space
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Cover3
Hospitality Design - September 2011 - Cover4
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