The designs presented in this volume offer a wide and varied vision of the latest trends in bar and restaurant design, selected from the most cutting-edge, wining-and-dining hotspots in the world. With ...
The hospitality design industry’s movers and shakers showed off visionary projects and products at Boutique Design New York.
By Mary Scoviak
If you missed this year’s Boutique Design New York (BDNY) show, you missed a lot. Held in conjunction with the International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show (IHMRS) at the Jacob K. Javits Center in November, BDNY is as innovative as the boutique/lifestyle hotel designers it covers.
It’s not just another trade show anchored by huge pavilions and over-the-top effects. It’s become a gathering space for the hospitality design industry. Small exhibits make conversation—and deal making—more conducive. This year’s more than 200 exhibitors introduced a lot of fresh products ideas, from sexy hammocks and sleek furniture to futuristic materials for walls, ceilings and floors and lighting that could double as sculpture. Hospitality designers from big-name firms such as the Rockwell Group and Marriott International came to browse the international offers, but they also came for ideas. Just for the record, Katie Couric, who launches her own syndicated talk show on Disney/ABC next September, was at the show in Javits North as well.
The fun of BDNY is that attendees can get information on design elements, design trends and design careers without ever leaving the show floor. Panels presenting their future vision in the BDNY theater opened a dialogue about recent projects and concepts still on the drawing board, what owners want from designers and what kind of work they’ll have in 2012 and how to harness the social network to build business.
Everyone who came to the show got a glimpse of what’s ahead right after their badges were scanned. The Trend Walk set up in the connector between IHMRS and BDNY (in Javits North) was filled with exhibits inspired by Stacy Garcia’s annual trend forecast. It’s not every day that you pass by a massive framework that resembles a calcified honeycomb, a dark fairy tale space, an escape to Mid-Century idealism, complete with a Porsche, and a vibrant acid-hip lounge. And, how many events like this invite attendees to chill out on a mini-mezzanine fitted out with colorful furnishings, business technology and big-screen entertainment?
And, that’s the point of BDNY. It’s not about what’s expected; it’s about where expectations can go—whether in terms of building business through networking or educational forums or expanding design horizons. As designers are all too aware, the recession may have done a lot of damage but it also engineered a major change in the process that put designers, vendors, operators and owners on the same side of the table. Trade shows that focus on buying and selling are obsolete. Events like BDNY that serve as forums are the way forward.
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