hospitalitystyle.com

(December 2008) posted on Mon Nov 03, 2008 EST

Moxie Lady: The design firm Trisha Wilson founded creates memorable hospitality projects by drawing on her allegiance to local influences, feng shui and sustainability—as well as her unflagging can-do attitude.

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By Matthew Hall

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Wilson Associates can trace its ascendancy as one of hospitality's top-tier interior architecture/design firms to a cold call -- albeit in written form -- that company founder Trisha Wilson sent to legendary Dallas developer Trammell Crow.

It was the early 1970s, and Crow had announced plans to build the Loews Anatole Hotel in his home city. Wilson, just a few years removed from the interior design program at the University of Texas with all of two restaurant-design commissions under her belt, mailed Crow a letter stating, "I have a few design ideas for your hotel and restaurants that you can't live without."

Much to her surprise, she got a call back from Crow himself. "When that happened, I started making up ideas for the design on the spot," she recalls. "I also had to fudge on the number of employees because we were so small at the time."

The bluff worked: She got the commission. Thus was born Wilson's personal and corporate motto: "It CAN be done."

She has parlayed that philosophy into a sizable enterprise: Dallas-based Wilson Associates has seven offices around the world, a total of about 370 employees, and revenues of over $50 million during its most recent fiscal year. (See the sidebar for a partial list of the firm's high-profile clients and luxe projects.)

Though the chutzpah Wilson exhibited in landing her firm's first big hotel job continues to help drive her company's growth to this day, it's only part of the story. Just as important, Wilson says, is her design philosophy. "We don't have a specific ‘style' or ‘look,'" she explains. "Instead, we work to create unique places, customized for each client. That includes incorporating a geographical flavor into each project by the use of local craftsmen, artisans and artists, and the custom design of architectural details, furniture, lighting, carpets and fabrics."

Interwoven with that bespoke approach is an adherence to two other design disciplines-feng shui and sustainability-that are integral to many of Wilson Associates' projects, as well as its own offices. 

FIRE AND WATER

Feng shui holds that spaces can be laid out in such a way that they promote good health and fortune for the people inhabiting them. Wilson's belief in the benefits of that discipline is on most prominent display in her own office. Earlier this year, she hired Christine Bushell, SynerCh'i LLC, to reconfigure her work space in accordance with feng shui principles.