Creativity and distinction in the hotel business is essential to success. Hotel designers around the world have discovered the growing need for individuality in hotel spaces. Every day, hotel owners are ...
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By Mary Scoviak
With the promise of steady renovation work from Rosewood Hotels & Resorts as her only security, Cheryl Rowley left the safety of James Northcutt Associates in 1986 and started her eponymous firm with one employee-herself-in her basement. Twenty-three years later, Cheryl Rowley Design (CRD) is one of the largest hospitality design studios in the country.
Her client list includes a cadre of loyal fans: Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Rosewood, Marriott International and, most notably, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, for which she designed nearly one-third of its hotels and created the aesthetic wireframes of its Monaco and Palomar brands. Her Beverly Hills, Calif., office is crammed with Gold Keys, lifetime achievement awards and assorted other plaques and paeans.
With all of this on the "done" list, what's still to prove? Rowley talks about her coping strategies for tough times and how 2009 will change the process and business of design.
How hard did the 2008 downturn hit you and your firm?
For several years, I'd been thinking about the fact that I was in my 50s and wanted to start stepping away. The economy was good, and business was great. We were fielding 13 requests for proposals (RFPs) at the close of 2007. I was planning to make our second home on Vancouver Island our first home and come back to the office in Beverly Hills as needed. Then came the day last October when the Dow fell 508 points. And, wham! Those plans went on hold.
Projects stalled out right and left, not just in the U.S. but everywhere-China, Europe, Central and South America, even Dubai and the Middle East. The RFPs were fewer and farther between. I waited as long as I could to cut staff. But, the reality is that salaries are 80 to 90 percent of the cost in the design business. A 40-member staff is the largest I've had, but that's still a small business. I know every employee intimately. I know their families. Laying off 10 people was a very, very hard decision for me. Those employees were just victims of what was happening in the world. The decision had nothing to do with their individual talent or performance. That was a terrible chapter to live through. (For more on Rowley's strategies, see From the Editors, page 6.)
How does 2009 look?
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