This book features the design details of the largest and most innovative examples from such cutting-edge firms as Archi-Tectonics, ARO, Escher GuneWardena, and Office dA, among others. Its pages offer ...
Avanti! The son of Holocaust survivors, this design legend has been through crucibles a lot tougher than recession. No wonder “forward” is the only direction his work explores.
By Mary Scoviak
C.V.: Born in Transylvania in 1948, Tihany was raised in Israel. He earned his architectural degree from the Politecnico di Milano (School of Architecture & Design) before moving to New York in 1976 to take the post of design director of the design firm Unigram. Just two years later, he used the proceeds from his first commission, a plum assignment to design a 110-room Fifth Avenue apartment for billionaire Turkish-Saudi Arabian munitions merchant and businessman Adnan Khashoggi, as part of the stake to establish his multi-disciplinary Tihany Design studio.
Portfolio: More than 300 restaurants, dozens of hotels, cruise ships, retail, product lines and a private airport (Hangar One aviation club at the Scottsdale, Arizona airport). Among his signature projects: Market for chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten One & Only Palmilla resort in Cabo San Lucas; Per Se for chef Thomas Keller; flagship, Daniel, for chef Daniel Boulud; six restaurants for Le Cirque’s legendary owner Sirio Maccioni and the Maccioni family; Aureole at Mandalay Bay (with its now iconic Wine Tower); Cravings at The Mirage; Rome’s Aleph Hotel; Israel’s King David Hotel and the Dan Eilat; Dallas’s The Joule Hotel; Vikram Chatwal’s Time Hotel; various Mandarin Oriental hotels and One & Only Resorts; interiors for cruise ships for Disney and Celebrity Cruises and a store for jeweler Fred Leighton and fashion designer Moschino.
On the boards: Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas; two restaurants in Aria Hotel at City Center, Las Vegas, including his seventh collaboration with Sirio Maccioni; renovation of the King David Hotel, Jerusalem; redesign of public spaces at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, including a signature restaurant by Heston Blumenthal; specialty restaurant and signature bar / lounge for the new Shangri-la Beijing.
Awards: A sampling of his more than 100 design award includes induction into the Interior Design Hall of fame; an honorary doctorate from the New York School of Interior Design; the 2003 European Hotel Design award for The Aleph and Bon Appétit’s Designer of the Year in 1991. A restaurateur for more than two decades, he’s also among the James Beard Awards’ “Who’s Who,” its list of the most influential people in the restaurant industry.
Personal: Lives in New York’s Greenwich Village with his wife, Marnie, Tihany Design’s business development director. His other life: he was a restaurateur – he owned and operated New York restaurant Remi for more than 20 years. Family secret: His filmmaker/photographer son Bram’s work occasionally shows up in the studio’s projects. Best gift: Cigars. What few people know: He never ate in a restaurant until he was 16.