{"id":203725,"date":"2022-12-06T10:36:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T15:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_news&p=203725"},"modified":"2022-12-06T10:36:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T15:36:04","slug":"meyer-davis-2022-interior-design-hall-of-fame-inductees","status":"publish","type":"id_news","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/designwire\/meyer-davis-2022-interior-design-hall-of-fame-inductees\/","title":{"rendered":"Meyer Davis: 2022 Interior Design Hall of Fame Inductees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Rosewood Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands, 2020. Photography by Ken Hayden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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December 6, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Jane Margolies<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Meyer Davis: 2022 Interior Design Hall of Fame Inductees <\/h1>\n\n\n\n

In hindsight, it appears practically preordained that Will Meyer and Gray Davis would found a firm together. Both men grew up in Tennessee dreaming of becoming architects, and both earned their degrees at the Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Construction in Alabama. Upon graduating, the two headed to New York where they landed jobs with legends in the design world\u2014Meyer for Charles Gwathmey of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates and Davis for John Saladino, then Thomas O\u2019Brien and Bill Sofield of then Aero Studios. They were both moonlighting while employed\u2014and helping each other out with their side hustles in the evenings and on weekends\u2014when a former professor of theirs, who made a point of meeting Meyer and Davis for dinner on visits to New York, sensed how much the young men were enjoying their off-hours collaborations and stated the obvious: \u201cHave you two ever thought of starting a firm together?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dynamic Duo: Will Meyer and Gray Davis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In 1999, they did just that, founding Meyer Davis<\/a> in New York, each of them a co-principal. Today, rising young designers might well seek them out when looking for employment and mentoring. The designers have brought their warm, luxurious modernism to an impressive range of projects, from single-family homes to hotels, restaurants, and high-rise residential towers accommodating hundreds of people. \u201cOne of the things about being from the South is your hospitality,\u201d Davis begins. \u201cWe love creating environ\u00adments that are welcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That passion has brought him and Meyer work in an ever-evolving range of categories. The firm\u2019s very first projects were a house in Upstate New York and a nightclub in Las Vegas; this was when they had a tiny studio in SoHo and one employee. More homes<\/a> and restaurants followed, as did the Gym, an eye-catching, primary-colored fitness space in New York, the first of more than a dozen Meyer Davis projects published in Interior Design<\/em>. A turning point came in 2005 when Meyer and Davis were commissioned to design a freestanding boutique for Oscar de la Renta, in Los Angeles. Eventually they completed 20 shops for the label around the world, including a London outpost in 2018\u2014and grew accustomed to traveling to distant locales and adapting to different cultural and business environments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The co-principals of Meyer Davis in the lobby of the firm\u2019s New York hotel project, Arlo Midtown. Photography by Christopher Sturman. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

That came in handy when they broke into the hotel business. Meyer Davis got into the sector after auditioning for a project in 2008 that didn\u2019t pan out: A Hong Kong developer asked the firm for ideas for a hotel he was planning, and the team, then numbering 10, threw themselves into conjuring up a soup-to-nuts vision for the place. Ultimately, the developer decided to build offices instead, but the exercise left Meyer and Davis with presentation drawings that they added to their portfolio to show prospective clients what they were capable of. Soon hoteliers began to bite. The hospitality work\u2014the studio has done properties for such brands as Auberge, Four Seasons, W, and Rosewood, all over the world, from Nashville, New York, and Kamuela, Hawaii, to Kuwait City, Rome<\/a>, and Sydney\u2014caught the attention of such developers of apartment buildings and office towers as Related Group founder, chairman, and CEO Jorge P\u00e9rez<\/a> seeking to add hotel-like amenities to their sites. \u201cWe have a residential sensibility about our work,\u201d Meyer explains. \u201cWe bring that to the hospitality and commercial worlds, and it helps set us apart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That may be one reason William Gray<\/a>, Davis and Meyer\u2019s 2-year-old line of furniture, lighting, wall\u00adpaper, and bath products, is finding an enthusiastic reception. When they first thought of doing a collection, they figured they would pluck a handful of custom designs from their archives. But then they shifted gears and came up with a narrative, the way they do with their interiors projects: They envisioned a character named William Gray, who embodies and emits the same relaxed luxury as Meyer Davis homes, hotels, and restaurants do, and conceived a suite of items, manufactured by the likes of Stellar Works and Rich Brilliant Willing, around \u201chis\u201d taste, thus giving the line an internal logic and visual coherence. \u201cIt became less of a greatest hits album and more of a collection,\u201d Meyer notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Closer Look at William Gray, the Duo’s Product Line<\/h3>\n\n\n\n