Things at BraytonHughes have changed a lot in the last 30 years. When Richard Brayton and Stanford Hughes established their namesake design firm in San Francisco in 1989 their focus was on high-end corporate work and for many years it was a bit of a boys’ club. Today, two-thirds of their work is in hospitality and the principals are mostly minorities and women.
BraytonHughes is best known for storytelling through design. They’ll figure out what sets the location and property apart, then come up with a concept and theme that’s carried out to the smallest details, like the cowboy boot stitching on the leather at the Four Seasons Jackson Hole bar. The firm’s meticulous attention to detail and laid-back office environment reflect the kind of relaxed, comfortable luxury that hotel owners want to create. Living rooms are replacing lobbies and the formal flower table entry has become passé. Similarly, at BraytonHughes’ new office in San Francisco’s Financial District, the vibe is focused but fun. The young associates snipping fabrics are all smiles and there are chocolate covered alfajores that some magnanimous person brought in for colleagues laying out under the world map pinned with everyone’s travels.
“We’re very family-oriented and we all get along,” Rachel Fischbach tells me. She’s been with BraytonHughes for 18 years and became a principal in 2016. “It’s very collaborative as an office. A lot of us really like to travel and we encourage our younger associates to travel as well.” This passion for travel and her colleagues’ multicultural and multilingual backgrounds allow BraytonHughes to put together impressive teams tailored to each new project.
“We only did corporate work when I first joined in 1992,” Principal Joel Villalon says. “We did corporate work for almost 10 years, then got a commission from Disney to do the Grand Californian down in Southern California. Somebody at the Four Seasons saw that project and we’ve now designed and/or renovated more than 10 Four Seasons hotels.” Along with their close relationship with Four Seasons, BraytonHughes has worked with Fairmont, The Ritz-Carlton, Hyatt and boutique luxury projects like Cavallo Point in Sausalito, Ventana Big Sur and The Clement Hotel in Palo Alto.
Three BraytonHughes principals – Fischbach, Villalon and Kiko Singh – share their thoughts on trends and hot topics in luxury hotel design.
Diversity
Singh: We all have very different points of view and that makes us better as a team. The best idea can come from the intern, from anyone in the room. Diversity in leadership allows us to be role models for the rest of the office and show that camaraderie. There are times Rachel or I might be the only women in the room with developers, architects, contractors and finance guys, but we speak up. We’re never quiet.
Fischbach: We were allowed the opportunity to buy into this company, which isn’t something I ever initially realized was possible. We were instrumental in its growth and now we’re able to take it in the direction we want to. If you’re young and motivated there’s no reason you can’t be a partner.
Sustainability
Villalon: Inn at the Presidio was one of our first LEED projects, certified LEED Gold when it opened in 2012. It’s the architectural elements, the lighting and mechanical side, where the big points come into play. It is all very technical when it comes to rehabbing an old building. [Inn at the Presidio uses ground up denim for insulation, for example.] Some clients are very interested in LEED but it’s much more expensive and for some owners it’s not so important. The LEED standards have become even costlier in recent years, so you’re paying to be a part of the club.
Singh: Sustainability is something that I’ve always been super passionate about. I’m putting together a panel on the lifecycle of a guest room for the NEWH sustainability summit in April. In California, water conservation is the number one concern but we have to make sure the guest shower experience isn’t negatively impacted when we can only use 1.5 gallons of water per minute.
The Perfect Hotel Room
Fischbach: Is it dark at night? Do I have space to put my bag? Is the bed comfortable? The bathroom is key. Is it bright and do I have space to lay my stuff out? I want to feel comfortable in a space like it’s my own bedroom. Everything I design I always think about if I was using it and staying in it. I walk into any space and I’m constantly redesigning it in my mind.
Singh: We originally designed the Intercontinental San Francisco from the ground up in 2008 and now we’re in the midst of a soft goods renovation. The commonality between the two visions is timeless design but now we’re giving it the feel of a sophisticated downtown apartment. There’s a tailored chic menswear approach with subtle design elements like buttons in the bedskirts and pinstriped carpets. Typical rooms felt more masculine so the 14 suites are a little more feminine in fabric and tones for balance.
Hotel Room Pet Peeves
Villalon: When the bathroom door opens up into the bedroom and you turn on the lights in the bathroom and wake everyone else up. Plus, poor acoustics. I don’t want to hear what’s happening next door.
Fischbach: Not enough closet space. Art that’s hung too high and light fixtures that aren’t scaled correctly. It’s all about functionality.
Singh: When the wall covering doesn’t match up correctly it drives me crazy. I’ll stare at it all night. Also, a lack of warmth in hotel rooms. If the floor is cold, I want a mat or rug by my bed.
Technology
Singh: With the Intercontinental San Francisco redesign we added motorized drapes in guest rooms and whiteboard walls in the meeting rooms. We need outlets everywhere because everyone is charging multiple devices. Technology should always be intuitive and make life easier. At Intercontinental, there’s Ketra lighting in ballrooms and meeting spaces that mimics natural light, with customized colors. This allows the space to be more easily transformed and be a canvas for social as well as corporate events.
Fischbach: I want to get a virtual reality room for our office. The team on the Montage La Quinta project used it and it was so helpful. It’s really surreal when you have the googles on.
Villalon: We do sketches and drawings at a smaller scale, but oftentimes rooms end up being much bigger or smaller than you expect so spatially it really helps to experience the room through virtual reality. You really feel like you’re right there in the space. I actually walked into a wall!
The First Impression
Fischbach: The entrance experience is one of the key moments in a hotel. And it starts before you even open the door. What is the signage like? Is there nature outside? Montage La Quinta is Mid-century modern, an Eichler house nestled up against the mountain. The lobby will be a huge room with three walls of glass and this super shallow lake that you can walk across. The light creates this glowing lake at night but you can see the mountains during the day. Because the room is so large and open, it will be divided by screens that are also works of art, with the opportunity for art to hang from the ceilings and create a glowing mobile. I’m picturing a social space – silhouettes hanging out with martini glasses.
Residential Vs. Commercial Design
Villalon: You’re seeing a lot of blurring of the lines between hospitality and residential and now we’re seeing it in corporate too. For example, with the Stanford Hospital, we were specifically brought in to help them bring a feeling of hospitality into an institutional setting. Similarly, we can take the spa-like experience to the hotel bathroom. You’re seeing a lot of cross-pollination in that sense.
Fischbach: There are a lot of nuances to doing hospitality design, beginning with functional layout. There are all these residential design stars who are hired to do hotels. They’re not using commercial products and things cost more when you do residential, so they aren’t taking advantage of hospitality custom manufacturers that we know. Imagine designing a ballroom for the first time as a residential designer, with carpet, AV, lighting, acoustics, structure. We work with purchasing agents because there are liability issues but a residential designer is buying things themselves.
Singh: With The Clement Hotel, the owner, Mr Chen, really wanted to create a feeling of home for guests, so the design is subtle and simple. We used plush but bullet-proof fabrics and the design is a backdrop for the boutique hotel’s unparalleled service.
What’s Next?
Fischbach: We’re starting to work with Montage designing two new properties and they have given us a lot of design flexibility and freedom. It’s kind of fun…we’re putting a bowling alley into the Montage Spanish Peaks at Big Sky and we’ve never done a bowling alley before. We always try to understand the story behind the project before we get started.
Villalon: The Grand Hyatt at SFO will be our first airport hotel and SFO’s first hotel connected by the AirTrain. The building curves to follow the freeway. We’re working with the airport and city here so it’s a tight budget with union labor and construction costs in San Francisco are skyrocketing. We’re using value engineering, lighting the ballroom like an art museum gallery and simplifying the finishes, leaving exposed concrete columns instead of covering them with wood. A lot of the artwork will come from airport archives.
Singh: My mom flew for PanAm and United for 35 years as a first class purser, and I pretty much felt like I grew up in Terminal 3, so this project is really a passion project for me.
