Hotel Design Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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Hotel Design Podcast

Porcelanosa

Arts

Frequency: 1 episode/16d. Total Eps: 23

They say good design is obvious, but great design is transparent. We’re pursuing perfect hotel design – wherever we can find it. That means speaking to the brightest minds in the hospitality industry. This is the HOTEL DESIGN PODCAST.

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🇬🇧 Great Britain - design
14/07/2026
#90
🇬🇧 Great Britain - design
13/07/2026
#72
🇬🇧 Great Britain - design
12/07/2026
#58
🇬🇧 Great Britain - design
11/07/2026
#37

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http://www.hoteldesignpodcast.com/
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https://www.nelsonworldwide.com/
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Score global : 48%

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Series 2, Episode 1, Cheryl Lauren Spigler, NCIDQ, IIDA, RID, Senior Design Leader at NELSON Worldwide

Season 2 · Episode 1

Tuesday, July 16, 2024 • Duration 49:42

"She's actually going to be 100 years old. My father's parents are both Holocaust survivors. She survived. And it was a journey to survive, but her outlook on life has always been one of hope. And that has resonated with me throughout my life." –Cheryl Lauren Spigler on The Healthcare Interior Design 2.0 podcast

Today, we're diving into the world of compassionate design with Cheryl Lauren Spigler, a visionary Senior Design Leader at NELSON Worldwide. Get ready for an inspiring journey as host Cheryl Janis and her special guest, Cheryl Lauren Spigler, explore the art of creating healing spaces that touch the heart and soul.

Cheryl Lauren Spigler shares the power of empathy in healthcare design, innovative approaches to creating spaces that resonate with the human experience, and bridging hospitality and healthcare design principles for transformative environments.

This is a deeply meaningful conversation you won’t want to miss on the life altering power of thoughtful healthcare design!

Learn more about Cheryl Lauren Spigler and NELSON Worldwide by visiting: https://www.nelsonworldwide.com/.

Find Cheryl on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-lauren-spigler-rid-ncidq-iida-27391310/.

In Cheryl’s conversation with Cheryl Lauren Spigler, they discuss:

Cheryl Lauren Spigler's background as a healthcare and hospitality interior designer with over 19 years of experience.
Her approach to creating spaces that resonate with the human experience and evoke emotion
The importance of asking clients how they want a space to feel and using exercises to extract design concepts.
Examples of projects where Cheryl achieved a higher level of design, including a hospitality project balancing luxury and nature, and a healthcare project designed to welcome diverse populations.
How Cheryl's experiences in hospitality design have influenced her approach to healthcare environments.
The use of empathy in the design process, especially for healthcare spaces.
Cheryl's journey into interior design, starting in communications and eventually discovering her passion for the field.
The influence of her Holocaust survivor grandmother as a source of inspiration.
Key qualities for design leaders to inspire creativity, including giving everyone a voice and asking guiding questions.
Cheryl's work on a cancer hospital project, particularly the pediatric wing, as a project she's most proud of.
Her excitement about exploring new frontiers in civic and justice design.
Advice for interior design students interested in healthcare, including networking and seeking informational interviews.
The importance of passion and community in the design industry.

Shout Outs

Laura Ashley 33:27
New England School of Art and Design 33:36
Robert Wood Johnson and Rutgers 26:53
Sheryl and Jack Morris Cancer Center 26:58
HKS Architects 27:58
IIDA International Interior Design Association 47:32
ASID American Society of Interior Designers 47:32

AIA American Institute of Architects 47:32
Women in Construction 47:39
Center for Health Design 48:50
American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers 49:14

Industry Partners

The world is changing quickly. The Center for Health Design is committed to providing the healthcare design and senior living design industries with the latest research, best practices and innovations. The Center can help you solve today’s biggest healthcare challenges and make a difference in care, safety, medical outcomes, and the bottom line. Find out more at healthdesign.org.

Additional support for this podcast comes from our industry partners:

The American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers
The Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design

Learn more about how to become a Certified Healthcare Interior Designer® by visiting the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers at: https://aahid.org/.

Connect to a community interested in supporting clinician involvement in design and construction of the built environment by visiting The Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design at https://www.nursingihd.com/

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Siobhan Barry, Design Director At Gensler

Episode 16

Sunday, January 14, 2024 • Duration 39:30

In this episode of the Hotel Design Podcast we welcome Siobhan Barry, Design Director at Gensler. Like everything we see with hospitality design lately, projects are grounded in ‘experience’ – something that Barry says is essential to satisfying today’s customer.

Good thing that she has had plenty of experience doing just this sort of thing since the 1990s. That’s when she spent a considerable amount of time working on nightclub related projects, where experience is essential. Glenn and Siobhan discuss the rise of bottle service, which transformed the nightclub scene, and how they’re developed. They also discuss how selling real estate changes the economics of this side of the hospitality business, and how music, décor, and customers’ desires have changed since that era.

They talk about how design must appeal to both women and men while creating a scene in both restaurants and nightclubs that facilitates mingling and more. Siobhan shares how to create an interplay between the different elements of design to create the perfect foundation for people to make those connections against the pageantry of it all.

Then they move onto hotels from the nightclub world by chatting about the Ian Schrager effect on hotels and hospitality. Glenn and Siobhan layer on how culture is pushing the hotel experience to change, especially when it comes to satisfying that screen need and how business and leisure trips are melding.

Siobhan shares some detailed tactics for designs including table heights, depth of seating and more. It is an essential lesson that many designers do not seem to get right. Afterall, it’s more critical than ever, especially as folks tend to want to hang out more in public spaces. Designers must create a great, comfortable environment which prompts people to spend more money. Siobhan and Glenn use the Citizen M in New York as an example for this and talk about the balance between the science and heart of design.

Then Glenn and Siobhan discuss the dichotomy of the hotel experience vs. shared economy type stays. Siobhan shares a story about her experience with Airbnb and how it underscores to her the importance of knowing what your brand is, how it should be communicated to a target audience, and how everything should be geared with that specific point of view.

Ron Swidler, Chief Innovation Officer of the Gettys Group companies

Sunday, October 15, 2023 • Duration 46:03

In this episode of the Hotel Design Podcast, we welcome Ron Swidler, who is the Chief Innovation Officer of the Gettys Group companies.

Host Glenn Haussman and Ron start by discussing how we’re at an interesting intersection in history and how it’s created the rare opportunity to reinvent everything we do in hospitality design from scratch. It's the Great Reset; a chance to try new things with less scrutiny than the pre covid era. It’s a chance to fail without judgment, an opportunity to push traditional design boundaries of what could be when it comes to the future of hospitality.

They talk about the varied facets of the company’s Hotel of Tomorrow project, which brings together industry leaders working together to rethink conventional thinking when it comes to hotel design. First, the discuss biophilic design, the notion of bringing in natural elements into a building. Plus, they discuss how this intersects with the notion of activating spaces that appeal to different day parts.

For example, Swidler and Glenn discuss how programmable lighting, as well as large format LED displays, are becoming more affordable and available. Another strategy, take parking spots in front of the restaurant to create outdoor dining space. Also, how LEDs are used to shift lighting within a space throughout the course of the day to better match circadian cycles. This allows hoteliers to create different moods during different day parts that’s designed to lead to higher customer engagement, hopefully translating to higher F&B sales.

The downtown Minneapolis Rand Tower Hotel is another project design by Gettys. Here, Ron explains how the property has sensors and display screens in the meeting spaces showing the air quality. They quickly move onto a project featured at hotel-of-tomorrow.com, the Robot Alliance. Here they address how to expand F&B offerings beyond the constraints of a restaurant or a bar that might be tucked away in a hotel. One solution: robots that could have video screens that also serve as televisions as drones accept food order; and delivered by additional rolling robots.

Another cool technology discussed is Bed X, Y, Z, a sleep platform that monitors sleep quality whole allowing the gamification of multiple sleep environment elements. Try to achieve a higher sleep score on your next night!

Malcolm Berg, Founder, President and Design Director of EoA Group

Sunday, October 15, 2023 • Duration 38:50

In this episode of the Hotel Design Podcast, we welcome Malcolm Berg, who is the founder, President and Design Director of EoA Group. He also was named the Designer of the Year during the 2020 Gold Key Awards.

Host Glenn Haussman and Malcolm start by discussing his background, and Malcolm shares what motivated him to be a hospitality focused designer. He attended graduate school for architecture and studied a variety of architecture design focuses - a path which ultimately led him to hospitality design as a focus for his emerging expertise.

Malcolm and Glenn discuss EoA’s work at the JW Marriott in Marco Island where he talks about engaging stakeholders to help projects run smoothly. For Malcolm, creating extraordinary design is about finding those “little golden nuggets” in imperfections, and beauty found in those uncommon places. Then it’s a process of extracting those factors and then distilling them into something essential. That’s where the project’s DNA reveals itself.

The hardest aspect of the design phase, Malcolm says, is creating the overall concept. To solve this issue, the EoA team works to understand what the “property wants to be when it grows up, and what is its personality.” Everything else flows from there. It's not a subjective exercise, it literally is sequential, he says, adding that everything else follows naturally from that point.

He addresses how the property must be something authentic and organic; not contrived. Malcom’s goal for any project is to make that property fiscally successful and emotionally satisfying, which has myriad components to it from creating spaces people want to be in and how its run operationally. Plus, Berg says its critical to hue close to trends, as pushing boundaries too far could result in designs that feel outdated in a relatively short period of time. He also explains his notion of empathetic design, sharing what that means to him and how it relates to satisfying all project stakeholders beyond owners, such as how it relates to daily operations.

The next project Glenn and Malcom discuss is the Barcardi Ocho Lounge, a VIP lounge sponsored by the spirits company and located at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. According to Berg, finding success in all projects is about deeply understanding a brand, and how that brand is represented in a physical space. In this instance, they asked many questions to drill down to the brand’s essential elements, then built a strong design around those brand tenets. This is the secret sauce essential to design success!

Glen Coben, President and Owner of Glen & Company

Friday, October 13, 2023 • Duration 48:26

In this episode of the Hotel Design Podcast, we welcome Glen Coben, President and Owner of Glen & Company. Coben is a huge driving force within the hotel design community, and brings a unique point of view from the retail environment where he previously worked with Nike.

They start by discussing his background, and how stories are told in various sporting cultures globally. Coben reveals how he keeps things fresh by continuing to add to his project’s design dialogue. Take an example regarding how he designed two different Italian restaurants and how his firm focused on aensuring that each one was distinctly unique. The goal: Be unrecognizable in the work from one project to another, since each is a wholly different experience!

Coben and Glenn also discuss the Adelphi Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY, where Coben shares the story of revitalizing the last remaining grand hotel in Saratoga Springs. The five-year hotel renovation project took on a life of its own, finding inspiration from existing classic interiors, without reinventing them. For example, original crystal serving dishes were turned into a beautiful backdrop behind the front desk to create a sense of place and time. The firm also reinvented the floor plan, expanding small out of date bathrooms into much larger spaces, and cutting the room count almost in half during the process to create a more luxurious property. Coben, it turns out, loves complicated and intricate types of design projects like that one.

Glen and Company also created the Pestana – a modern property inspired by Portuguese roots – which is located in New York City. The unique part of this design was their approach to heightening the feel of space in a footprint limited in size. We learn how Coben and his team were able to create the illusion of space, along with some of their great design tips.

He also focuses on how to be disciplined when it comes to creating a coherent and streamlined story from which the hotel’s design is built upon, specifically by sharing examples from the Archer. They discuss reinventing space to accentuate the dining experience by bringing it into the hotel, rather than hiding a restaurant where people do not actively see it. He also shares the story of how this hotel was based on a made-up character named Archer who loved art, music, and travel. They used this narrative to create a space that connected back to their envisioned Archer.

Paul Steelman Of Steelman Partners

Season 1 · Episode 10

Friday, August 11, 2023 • Duration 53:19

In this episode of the Hotel Design Podcast we welcome design industry icon Paul Steelman. He’s been involved in some of the most influential casino resort and hotel projects around the globe. His company Steelman Partners, has been closely tied to the leaders of the casino resort business such as Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson and Kirk Kerkorian.

Glenn and Paul touch on it all, from his start in a pre-gaming Atlantic City to a chance design the Golden Nugget and how that led to a seminal shift in what casinos would become. Paul talks about Steve Wynn being a visionary and how he got The Mirage launched with 1980s junk bonds with the help of the infamous Michael Milken and how the launch of this property changed everything about the Las Vegas casino resort scene. Plus, they talk about the pressure of creating what would become the model for the modern casino resort, what the Mirage design process was like and how much money the resort needed to make every day to survive. They even talk Siegfried and Roy the former Kokomo’s restaurant, which was a staple at Mirage.

Steelman shares examples of why great design is essential and how it creates sense of place.

Paul also reflects on the state of The Mirage today, and other stories from the early modern era in Las Vegas.

Also, Steelman and Glenn discuss how Frank Sinatra and Steve Wynn’s relationship transformed the Golden Nugget both in Vegas and Atlantic City, how the Nugget the property reinvented east coast casino gaming. We even get an update on the current state of the city by the sea.

The discussion moves onto the notion of creating an experience at “personal scale,” says Steelman and how that relates to properties and how that notion created design challenges at the original MGM Grand (now Bally’s), and how the casino forms the basis for a property’s energy and how other elements emanate from that energetical center.

This conversation even examines the cruise ship like form of Showboat Atlantic City, Sol Kerzner and the creating of African casino resorts such as the famed Sun City.

Also on tap, discussing designing casinos and resorts around the world from Dubai and Macau to Vietnam, South Africa and more. Here creating cultural relevance is critical and we learn about the process of how different cultures gamble differently and how that is reflected in design. After all, the American casino goer is very different than the prototypical player in Macau.

Valeriano Antonioli - CEO Of The Lugarno Collection

Season 1 · Episode 9

Friday, August 11, 2023 • Duration 35:51

In this episode of the Hotel Design Podcast we welcome Valeriano Antonioli, CEO of the Lugarno Collection, an ultra-luxury hotel company reinventing the luxury hospitality experience. The company operates properties in Florence and Rome.

The company’s newest brand Portrait is designed to be an extension of the community in which its located and Antonioli shares the critical nature of this strategy as travel trends change. Oh yeah, it happens to be owned by luxury fashion brand Salvatore Ferragamo.

Valeriano and Glenn discuss the importance of creating designs that aren’t quite timeless but will stand the test of time. They discuss the importance of working with a great architect and using only the finest materials to create a feeling of elegance, both in the hotel and on its grounds through use of Feng Shui.

They also discuss creating an amazing first impression through design and service, keeping the property up to five-star standards, why the company uses a name other than Ferragamo for its hotels, how fashion informs their hotel’s designs and the importance of giving guests time.

Also, Valeriano shares about the community nature of The Portrait brand, which he says empowers the hotel to be a destination management company and how their job is to enable guest experiences in the community. To create successes, they speak to guests ahead of their stay to create a personal relationship from which they can help set the stage for memory creating experiences.

We also learn about Valeriano’s personal journey.

Also, get your chance to receive a free book from Porcelanosa, which was launched in conjunction with the AIA (that’s the American Institute of Architects) who’s New York chapter run a program of architectural dialogues called Cocktails and Conversations. At these events, design world thought leaders present interviews on architecture’s place in the built environment, culture, master planning. They’re included in this book along with 50 great cocktail recipes, one in honor of each honor of the guest speaker. Interviews include titans such as Steven Holl, Charles Renfro, Daniel Libeskind, Deborah Berke, Todd Schliemann, Morris Adjmi, Michael Sorkin, the skyscrapers of William Pederen’s KPF that have changed forever the skylines of the world’s major cities and more.

Mike Suomi, Principal And Vice President Of Interior Design With Stonehill & Taylor

Season 1 · Episode 8

Friday, August 11, 2023 • Duration 39:14

In this episode of the Hotel Design podcast, we speak to Mike Suomi from Stonehill & Taylor, who discusses his and his team’s work on the iconic Eero Saarinen’s TWA building at JFK along. For Suomi, it’s a matter of getting into what Saarinen wanted to originally create when designing this incredible space. They talk materials and expected experience, how the original terminal was designed without straight lines and how that informed the design approach to arrive on a 1960’s aesthetic that works in the 21st century.

Mike and Glenn also discuss how HGTV changed design culture in the same way the Food Network helped morph restaurant culture. They discuss how the firm also balances guests’ needs and hotel owner requests.

They also go through the process of designing the Eliza Jane hotel in New Orleans’ French quarter, its in-depth design process, and how he and his team created a modern hotel from a series of abandoned warehouses while honoring the city’s history.

Finally, they discuss bringing in a feminine design approach that doesn’t turn off more masculine personalities while also approaching residential style design in the hotel sphere, color trends and how the major hotel companies are embracing a more design forward approach.

Also, send us an email for your chance to receive a free book from Porcelanosa, which was launched in conjunction with the AIA (the American Institute of Architects) whose New York chapter ran a program of architectural dialogues called Cocktails and Conversations. At these events, design world thought leaders present interviews on architecture’s place in the built environment, culture, master planning.

They’re included in this book along with 50 great cocktail recipes, one in honor of each honor of the guest speaker. Interviews include titans such as Steven Holl, Charles Renfro, Daniel Libeskind, Deborah Berke, Todd Schliemann, Morris Adjmi, Michael Sorkin, the skyscrapers created by William Pedersen of KPF that forever changed the skylines of the world’s major cities, and more.

Send an email now for your chance to receive a complimentary copy: info@hoteldesignpodcast.com. Offer valid while supplies last.

Mark Weaver & Melanie Newport of HBD Design

Season 1 · Episode 7

Friday, August 11, 2023 • Duration 35:54

HBG Design is a Top 10 National Hospitality Design Leader with offices in Memphis, Tennessee and San Diego, California. The company has designed over 21 million square feet of hospitality and entertainment space in the last 20 years. In this edition of the Hotel Design Podcast we are joined by Principal, Mark Weaver, FAIA and Melanie Newport, Interior Designer – both of whom worked on The Guest House at Graceland, a new 450 room luxury hotel adjacent to the Elvis Presley mansion. The hotel is operated by DreamCatcher Hotels.

The project which has taken 15 years of study is built on the grounds of the former Heartbreak Hotel. Graceland welcomes over 600,000 visitors per year and the design of the property takes cues from the rich catalog of Elvis’s life as a performer, entertainer, his music, stage & film while not forgetting his time as a soldier and family man. Melanie emphasizes the notion that visitors to Graceland are aware of Presley the entertainer but the design facets have given equal attention to the appreciation of smaller details. The overall architectural design is founded upon Southern Hospitality but listeners and visitors to the property alike find a contemporary, modern and tasteful aesthetic which has taken a deliberately non themed approach. Instead, subtle references are incorporated into the designs which were guided by Priscilla Presley with whom Melanie worked to an intricate level of detailing. There are classic points of inspiration that will not be lost on any admirer of Elvis, Americana and pop culture – such as the bank of TV’s, The Jungle Room, color palette accents of hot pink and the mid-century modern décor of Elvis’s Palm Springs home. Even shag carpet makes a small but deliberate appearance!

Glenn digs deep into the scale of the task of designing a property with the legacy of one of the most iconic figures of the 20th century. Manufacturer and supplier participation were key with the added complexity of around 80% of all furniture and finishes being custom made. Melanie adds the point that the review for scale and proportion of each piece added new layers of approvals and the engagement of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Priscilla, and CEO Joel Weinshanker. It might be surprising to learn that there is not a single image of Elvis on the property. The artwork is cleverly inspired with “sneak peeks” – the firm having been given complete access to the catalog of curated archives.

Amy Hulbert - Vice President of Boutique and Upscale Brands at Best Western® Hotels & Resorts

Season 1 · Episode 6

Friday, August 11, 2023 • Duration 41:00

On this episode of the Hotel Design Podcast we’re featuring Amy Hulbert, Vice President, Boutique and Upscale Brands at Best Western® Hotels & Resorts.

Though Amy no longer has the word design in her title, she’s been responsible for creating the look and feel of the company’s brands such as Glo and Vib, and actively helped create its newest brand entrants.

In this episode Amy reveals her design approach to the changing nature of hotel rooms sizes, and what it takes to reinvent a guestroom layout in a clever way when creating efficient rooms that are typically smaller but feel the same size as traditional hotel rooms. Plus, Hulbert shares great information on materials and smart strategies for creating a terrific bathroom experience.

She also shares what the process is like when designing a new hotel concept, and the critical nature to creating a product featuring a strong value proposition that differentiates the brand concept from competitors, while also appealing to the hotel franchising and development community.

And, of course, she discusses the importance of focusing on the overall experience when it comes to brand elements such as food, music, signature scents and creating compelling features that both hotel guests and locals will enjoy. Plus, she shares insights on seating, lighting and programming the lobby to appeal to people during multiple day parts.

The conversation then shifts to the extended stay market and how Best Western is capitalizing on this popular trend with its Executive Residency brand.

Finally, Amy shares about how she finds inspiration for new brands to create, and her methodology to discovering new ideas to incorporate into the company’s established brands. Plus, she shares her secrets to finding great product ideas for hotel inclusion.

Visit us at www.hoteldesignpodcast.com or email us at info@hoteldesignpodcast.com.

Hotel Design Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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Hotel Design Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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