Discover Local Craftsmanship At This Cabo San Lucas Seaside Resort

Known for its vibrant sunsets, picturesque beaches, and surfable waves, Cabo San Lucas has become one of Mexico’s most popular upscale vacation destinations. Located at the southern tip of Baja California, its shores are, thus, saturated with glamorous hotels and resorts. While it can be hard to stand out in the crowd, a more discreet approach assures the recently opened Four Seasons Resort and Residences Cabo San Lucas at Cabo Del Sol feels different than the rest. 

With architecture by Robert C. Glazier and interiors by EDG and Meyer Davis, the 260,000-square-foot paradise has been created to resemble a low-slung hacienda-style village rather than a towering hotel block, with a series of casitas terraced down its sloping beachfront site. It quells another stereotype of hospitality projects in Mexico, too: Rather than a brash  fiesta of colors and patterns that might pervade less discerning resort designs, this one is rooted in true local flair with artworks, objects, and artisan craftsmanship sourced from across the country.

EDG & Meyer Davis Honor Traditions at Four Seasons Cabo San Lucas

“It was important to Four Seasons that even the whole arrival sequence feel authentic,” begins Jennifer Johanson, president and CEO of EDG, which handled the project’s four Richard Sandoval dining experiences, El Taller art studio, specialty grocery, surf shack–inspired adventure center, and two swimming pools, and ranks 120th among the Interior Design Rising Giants, up from 129 last year, counting such luxury resort brands as Camelback and Mii Amo as clients. “Visitors drive through a little arch and come into a sort of town square. That feeling helped inspire the cast of characters that would surround it.”

Those “characters” include Mediterranean restaurant Palmerio, its interior layering a retro European riviera vibe with Mexican accessories, like the vintage poncheras, or punch bowls, from Michoacán and elsewhere in the region that sit inside niches. Johanson sourced them at auction and worked with Jaliscan studio Laguna Mosaicos to create Majolica-look encaustic floor tiles. On the rooftop is Sora, a bar that overlooks the Sea of Cortez and features a statement driftwood table from Oaxaca that she found at a Mexico City gallery. Open to the elements, its conversation pit–style seating was constructed using sculptural plaster-covered concrete. With few walls, lighting, gentle and flattering, largely originates from the ground. “Even if the architectural profiles are modern and sleek, the textures are reminiscent of the locale,” adds Johanson, who traveled widely in Mexico to engage local artisans and source art for the project. The result, she notes, is “kind of like an encyclopedia of the country’s different regions.” Every eatery on the property embraces its water views and a seamless indoor-outdoor relationship.

Embrace The Indoor-Outdoor Life At Four Seasons Cabo San Lucas

The same spirit extends to Meyer Davis’s scope of the project, which encompassed the lobby and other public spaces, 96 guest rooms, spa, and La Casona Bar. “From the moment guests arrive, we really focused on the materials,” recalls Gray Davis, who, with Will Meyer, is firm cofounder and an Interior Design Hall of Fame member; Meyer Davis, which ranks 60th, up from 71, among the top 100 Giants, has a vibrant portfolio spanning residential, retail, workplace, and hospitality, its La Casa Dragones earning a 2024 Interior Design Best of Year Award. Indigenous ojinaga limestone, Mexican alder wood, and barrel-vaulted clay-tiled roofs complement contemporary steel-framed windows and doors, oak paneling and beams, and plaster walls across these spaces. But the concept also centers on “first impressions,” he continues—informing subtle decisions like depressing the lobby’s La Casona slightly to preserve a view to the sea or ensuring that terrace doors in the standard rooms, suites, and villas open fully to the horizon and entice visitors down meandering paths to the beach. (The property also hosts 46 branded residences designed by Meyer Davis.)

Wanting the resort to feel grounded in its environment, the firm strategically positioned the villas’ private pools and terraces atop natural rock outcroppings to offer vistas over the shore, while others feature lush planters and vibrant flowers. Stone-walled outdoor showers extend this feeling. 

Get An Enchanting View Of The Sea At Four Seasons Cabo San Lucas

The room interiors were inspired by the land, as well. “In Baja, the coast is so rugged and the terrain so dramatic, but it’s arid and dry,” Meyer adds. “That drove a lot of the materiality and color decisions, as reflected in a natural, sandy, soft palette with wood used in reserved but potent moves.” Whimsical touches like terra-cotta pendant fixtures with oversize shades, bold maritime-blue fabrics on armchairs and pillows, and hand-painted Mexican tiles break the scheme. And throughout the property, statement-making hues are often introduced through pieces by local artists. “I think Mexican design is too often lumped into one idea,” Meyer says. Both his studio and EDG used the resort’s thoughtfully edited aesthetic to work actively against this tendency and toward a celebration of the country’s diversity of art, craft, and even climate.

While much of the resort is set atop the natural topography, Tierra Mar Spa, its entrance marked by the calming sounds of a mosaic waterfall, is set into the landscape itself. Past the gable-roofed reception area, for which Meyer Davis chose an asymmetrical wood desk, is a serene garden with rambling streams. Continue toward the fitness areas and pool and the ocean comes back into view, beyond a smattering of the resort’s quaint tiled rooftops.

“With the sun setting over the sea and the waves crashing against large rocks, it’s almost like a movie set,” Davis concludes. “It’s cinematic,” notes Meyer. But despite Hollywood’s best tries, this place is the real deal.

Vacation At This Seaside Resort by EDG and Meyer Davis

Journey Into The New Mexico

This Resort Is Rooted In Artisan Craftsmanship Across Mexico

EDG: BROOKE TUMSAROCH; CINDY MOORE; JANE MCGOLDRICK; DAVE MAYNARD; VICTORIA DENNY; VARRUNA MITRA; KEVIN PEREIRA; BRIANNA SANCHEZ. ZOE PINFOLD; JENNIFER DANIELS; AMANDA DAVIS; TINA HU; LIZELLE FOOSE; PEDRO BARILLAS; SHIFRA BERG: MEYER DAVIS. GENSLER: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. LUX POPULI: LIGHTING DESIGN. VITA PLANNING AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. URIBE KRAYER: ART CONSULTANT. WARISAN: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP. BLACK PALM DEVELOPMENT: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT THROUGH BOMBOTI: DRIFTWOOD TABLE (SORA). SANDALVECI: DINING CHAIRS. TILE FEVER: CUSTOM FLOOR TILE. PALECEK: WOVEN SEATING (SORA, LOBBY), CHAIRS (PALMERIO). KETTAL: STACKABLE CHAIRS (PALMERIO). LAGUNA MOSAICO: CUSTOM FLOOR TILE. THROUGH MERCANTIL: SUNDIAL (PALMERIO), SMALL BLACK PLANTER (SORA). IWORKS: CUSTOM CHANDELIER (LOBBY). ROYAL CUSTOM DESIGNS: CUSTOM SOFA (LOBBY), CUSTOM HEADBOARD (SUITE). NATURAL URBAN: TABLES (LOBBY, VILLA TERRACE, SPA). ARTERIORS: PLANTER (LOBBY), SCONCES (VILLA). VIBIA: CUSTOM SCONCES (SORA). CLAYBROOK: TUB (BATHROOM). REMINGTON: PENDANT FIXTURE. ELECTRIC MIRROR: MIRRORS. BLOOM LIGHTING GROUP: CUSTOM PENDANT FIXTURES (PALMERIO, BOUTIQUE). STUDIO SOFA: PLANTERS (VILLA). DANAO: CHAISE LONGUES (VILLA TERRACE), CHAIRS, SOFA (VILLA). PERENNIALS AND SUTHERLAND: CUSHION FABRIC (SPA TERRACE); STOOLS, CHAIRS (BAR BRISAL). ZENITH: RUGS (VILLA, SPA). TARACEA: ROUND TABLE (VILLA), SIDE TABLES (SUITE). FANIMATION: FANS (VILLA, SUITE). ULA LIGHTING: LAMPS (SUITE). IAN LOVE DESIGN: CUSTOM VITRINES (SPA). GINGER AND JAGGER: RECEPTION DESK. HUDSON VALLEY LIGHTING: LAMPS. CALARGA MÉXICO: WALL HANGING (BOUTIQUE). CLÉ: TILE (ADVENTURE CENTER).

Geometric Forms Enliven A Suite Of Bathrooms In Singapore

2024 Best of Year Winner for Kitchen/Bath

Once dark and inward-facing, this 3,500-square-foot, 27-year-old townhouse by Spacedge Designs now sees the sunlight—and uses nature-borne hues to embrace it. An open-plan layout and a minimalist concept transform the three-story interiors, creating color-coded suites built of microcement and chalky lime plaster. On the ground level, sliding doors provide privacy as desired or otherwise illuminate the interconnected sunken living area, show and prep kitchens, and guest bedroom and bath, all painted a stony gray. Up the original teak staircase, the additional four bedrooms have similarly geometric en suite bathrooms. Each sports a distinct palette and is separated only by strategic built-ins. In the rosy-colored main bath, a vertical partition both defines the bathing suite and acts as a headboard. Other bathrooms feature flowing interior architecture in robin’s-egg blue or moody slate. In all, creative configurations allow natural light from front and back windows to reach every space in the Singapore home.

PROJECT TEAM: WILLIAM CHAN; HSU SHU TING.

Rockwell Group Elevates A Korean Fried Chicken Eatery

2024 Best of Year Winner for Fine Dining

Settled into expansive hunter green leather-and-walnut booths under illuminated cast glass-and-bronze arches, consuming fried chicken becomes an elevated, theatrical experience at Coqodaq, a restaurant designed by the Rockwell Group named after an onomatopoeia for cock-a-doodle-doo in Korean. The cathedral-like space in New York for restauranteur Simon Kim’s high-end twist (caviar and champagne are also on the menu) on the beloved Korean pub food measures 4,300 square feet and offers an almost ritual approach to dining. Upon entry, guests first encounter a moody handwashing station, constructed of green soapstone, with edge-lit, black-tinted oval mirrors—their shape, like the logo, egg-inspired—then move either to a bar area with communal wood-and-concrete and high-top tables or the main space, where the walls are clad in panels of crackle-painted paster and additional tinted mirrors that yield an infinity effect. Amidst a palette of deep colors, lighting becomes a primary design element—from the dining room’s dazzling arches and marquee-lit bar to the theater lights that lead visitors through the circulatory catwalk to custom tables set with turntable trays. 

PROJECT TEAM: DAVID ROCKWELL; BRAD ZUGER; HARAM KIM; LAUREN TUDOR.

Nadel’s L.A. Headquarters Prioritizes Outdoor Space And Community-Building

2024 Best of Year Winner for Small Creative Office

To become a suitable headquarters for Los Angeles brand-merchandising and-experience company Nadel, which counts Google and Mac Cosmetics among its clients, the parking lot-surrounded, 1979 concrete tilt-up needed a total makeover. Once disjointed, aging, and suffering from minimal natural light, the 18,500-square-foot interiors by Standard Architecture | Design are now defined by statement-making, double-height spaces wrapped in warm, engineered-wood slats, flexible furnishings in open and closed office areas, and soft illumination via new skylights and strategic fenestration. The elliptical employee lounge is a standout: With its built-in ash bench, Hlynur Atlason swivel chairs, custom pendant fixtures, and 15-foot-tall slatted walls, it shares sight lines with the mezzanine above. Douglas-fir plywood and laminated veneer paneling, natural fiber carpet, salvaged lumber, and reuse of the existing concrete flooring help with lower carbon emissions. Along the street-facing elevation are four new patios surrounded by perforated, painted metal screens, existing palm trees, and drought-tolerant landscaping, resulting in places for community-building in the sunshine.

PROJECT TEAM: SILVIA KUHL; JEFFREY ALLSBROOK; TRACY BREMER; HELENA MELGAR.

This Brazilian Beach House Seemingly Floats Among The Trees

2024 Best of Year Winner for Beach House

Raised atop piloti on a steeply sloping site in Guarujá, Brazil, the 8,450-square-foot rectilinear home by Studio MK27 is nestled strategically within the Atlantic Forest canopy, high enough to afford Atlantic Ocean vistas, enveloping its residents in nature. Access between the ground-floor sleeping wing—sunlit and ventilated through a perforated cobogó, a type of concrete Brazilian screen, that spans the eastern facade—and upper living spaces is provided only by an exterior spiral staircase that juts out into the surrounding jungle. Seemingly floating among the trees, the upper platform hosts a pavilion containing the kitchen, dining room, and living room with sliding glass doors that can be opened to the furnished pool deck for a seamless indoor-outdoor experience. Contrasting the concrete structure, accessories and furniture by such Brazilian makers as José Bezerra, Israel Piaçava, Pedro Petry, and Sergio Rodrigues rendered in straw, leather, and wood craft warm interiors that celebrate national design and the residence’s immediate context.

Picture Perfect: A Photography Studio Turned Dream Home

It was less than a year into the pandemic when Sophia Vicent toured her future home, a photo­grapher’s studio built in 1991 in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, its unconventional architecture sparking instant appeal. “It was love at first sight,” she recalls of the two-story, pavilionlike building with cinder-block walls, timber-framed glass panels that fill the ground floor with sunlight, a gabled birch ceiling with exposed steel trusses, and front and back gardens, a city rarity. “But,” Vicent continues, “it had a lot of warts,” particularly, the dark, water-damaged subgrade level; it’d been the darkroom, so it had no cross-ventilation and was reached via a ladderlike stair.

But that same owner had an affinity for Japanese aesthetics and crafted the house with an indoor-outdoor relationship, including siting a cherry tree to be visible from inside, a detail that felt fateful to Vicent, who has a cherry branch tattooed across her shoulder. However, to transform the 1,600 square feet into a livable quarters for herself, her college-age daughter, and their dog, she needed a professional who would also appreciate its quirks. Enter Brooke Aitken, director of her namesake, Sydney-based firm, who had previously lived in Japan and Vicent had met years ago while she’d been visiting nearby Palo Alto. For this near gut renovation, Aitken was not only commissioned via Zoom but also concepted everything with Vicent on the virtual platform.

Tour This Unique Home By Brooke Aitken Design

The architect concluded that most elements—from floors to doorframes—had to be replaced. But she preserved the clerestory windows and cinder-block walls, their tones ranging from greige to burnt sienna, adding to the home’s wabi-sabi. Upstairs, they background new public spaces: a custom kitchen with hemlock-veneered cabinetry and a crisp white-tile backsplash color-matched in the sculptural island, a living area with plush seating by Didier Gomez and Yabu Pushelberg, and a dining area, which doubles as a home office, a printer and such hidden inside millwork.

Vicent, who’s vice president of engineering at DoorDash, also has a built-in desk downstairs, where Aitken “borrowed as much light as we could,” from the exterior courtyards and upper level through employing glass doors where possible. The former rickety stair has been replaced by one in oak and marble with a rhythmic gridded guardrail. She also carved out two bedrooms, a bathroom (there’s a renovated powder room upstairs as well), and a laundry room. Otherwise, she embraced this level’s coziness, covering walls in linenlike vinyl and the ceiling in grass cloth.

Although most finishes are natural, pops of red appear in the stairwell, on cabinetry, and in select furnishings. “We played with color atop a really calm base,” Aitken explains. Also calming are the Japanese-inspired gardens, to which the home can open entirely. “I close the gate and the city disappears,” Vicent notes. “It’s such a peaceful thing.”

Take A Look At The Home’s Wabi-Sabi Aesthetic 

FROM FRONT SUN AT SIX: NESTED TABLES (LIVING AREA). CLIC: STOOL. SAMSUNG: TV. LIGNE ROSET: SEATING. DWR: BOOKSHELF (LIVING AREA), BED (BEDROOM). HAY: STOOLS (KITCHEN). CORIAN: ISLAND SOLID SURFACING. PIETRA FINA STONE: MARBLE (STAIR). GAN: OTTO­MAN. ARTICLE: ARMCHAIR (BEDROOM). EGG AND DART: WALL­COVERING. THIBAUT: CEILING COVERING. LULU & GEORGIA: SIDE TABLE. SCHOOL­HOUSE: SCONCES. IN COMMON WITH: PENDANT FIX­TURE. THEBATHOUTLET: SINK (POWDER ROOM). BELMONT HARD­WARE: SINK FITTINGS. HEATH: BACKSPLASH TILE (KITCHEN). STICK­BULB: PENDANT FIXTURE. THROUGHOUT RILL AND STONE: RUGS. CARLISLE: WOOD FLOORING. SPEC CERAMICS: FLOOR TILE. BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.: PAINT. ARTISAN WOODMASTERS: WOOD­WORK. MORFOLOGY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. TIPPING STRUC­TURAL: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. CB CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

OMA Captures The Essence Of Miss Dior In Tokyo Exhibition

Formulating a physical space for an ephemeral subject requires creative conceptual thinking. “We’re visualizing the invisible to some degree,” explains OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu, the architect who recently completed his first exhibition design for a scent, Miss Dior, the iconic perfume by Christian Dior that launched in 1947, nearly simultaneously with the French fashion house, making it integral to the brand’s identity. It’s a relationship that has been celebrated since 2013, with Miss Dior exhibitions over the past decade appearing in Paris, Shanghai, and Beijing, among other locations. Now, timed with a newly updated scent and campaign featuring actress Natalie Portman, Tokyo is part of the tour with “Miss Dior: Stories of a Miss” at the Roppongi Museum this summer, and for it, Shigematsu tapped into the rich history to create a nearly 10,000-square-foot experience that allowed visitors an in-depth look at the perfume’s influence, past and present.

Having previously collaborated with Dior on scenography for three retrospective exhibitions about the house—including “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams,” which opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo last year and focused on the connections between Dior and Japan—Shigematsu, who’s Japanese-born and New York-based, saw this commission as an opportunity to “zoom in” on a very specific, but less tangible, piece of the brand’s oeuvre. After researching the scent-making process, that intangibility became a benefit. “We found the technique of making a perfume, building up layered notes to choreograph people’s senses, similar to the narrative of architectural design,” the architect recalls. However, unlike a building—or couture, for that matter—a fragrance has no relatable human-scale. “That was the hint at a direction to play with,” he says, “the sense of scale, color, smell.”

Thus, “Tokyo’s Miss Dior: Stories of a Miss” encompassed nine galleries, each a unique environment highlighting a facet of Miss Dior, from its bouquet fragrance (called Fields of Flowers) to the commissioned artworks (Dior Illustrated) and fashions (Miss Dior Dream) that launched in tandem with its editions over the house’s 77-year history. Most of the zones were marked by shades of pink, drawn either from OMA’s research into the iterations of the blush-tinted Miss Dior perfume formula and bottle designs or such elements of its ephemera as the ready-to-wear collection’s graphic logo from the 1960’s. “By enveloping or flooding the rooms with pink hues, we sought to convey the vibrant and surreal aura of the Miss Dior identity,” Shigematsu continues.

The spaces varied in size: The first was vast and unforgivably magenta, hosting an oversize, 3D-printed Miss Dior bottle rotating inside a vitrine; the next was quiet and pristine, a domed space with walls upholstered in embroidered tapestries and printed fabrics by French artist Eva Jospin, a Dior collaborator whose limited-edition fragrance trunk was centered on a pedestal. Fields of Flowers brought the museumgoer within the petals of a blossom, a fantasy created by installing layers of gauzy white and pink fabric overhead and along the walls. These curtains parted to unveil five stamenlike atomizers that filled the room with the fragrance’s signature jasmine, rose, tuberose and orange blossom top notes. The fabric could also be projected upon, adding a digital element to the environment.

Leading the visitor in nonlinear movement through nonchronological rooms that expand and contract, and some—like Dior Illustrated’s sinuous, pink-carpeted gallery of fashion prints by historic and current Dior illustrators René Gruau and Mats Gustafson—that literally twist and turn, added to the fantastical feel. As did the gallery-by-gallery shifts in scale of Shigematsu’s visualizations. In the Stories of a Miss gallery, he and his team enlarged the perfume bottle’s signature ribbon into an LED-lit pathway, while elsewhere, life-size displays of limited-edition bottles, couture garments, and contemporary artworks by talents like Haruka Kojin, Sabine Marcelis, and Brigitte Niedermair grounded the show in time.

But not necessarily in place. “The whole exhibition is like a lucid dream,” Shigematsu notes. “We created it to be a bit over the top in terms of color, configuration, and scale. It’s a kind of abstract landscape.”

In addition to capturing the “aura” of Dior and its fragrance, this tendency toward the surreal is purposeful storytelling. Both the experience-based visitor looking for photographable moments and the true aficionado who wants to dive deeply into the content could find a path through the show, its macro focus on a singular product allowing Dior to tell many tangential tales about its history. And with a penchant for craft, and a desire to highlight the quality of their own, fashion houses at large are keen for architects to design such highly detailed, immersive spaces that present new materials or methods, their patronage creating association with the cutting-edge.

It’s a far cry from the white box displays that have dominated exhibit design over the last 10 years, adds Shigematsu, who has also conceived recent exhibitions for Louis Vuitton, Prada, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. “Fashion labels are using this kind of show to imprint their brand but also destabilize it,” the architect says, who goes on to explain the commission’s personal advantages. “For me, there’s something exciting about the sense of expression and liberation in creating a non-ordinary world. I’m training a different muscle in my brain—I’m sure it will have some effect on the future architecture I make.” Call it the smell of success.

Walk Through The Miss Dior Exhibition in Tokyo

PROJECT TEAM

CHRISTY CHENG; JAN CASIMIR; BAIYANG KONG; TIMOTHY HO; FRANCESCA PARMIGGIANI; CHRISTINE DOPPLE: OMA. NPU CORPORATION: PRODUCTION. ANAMORPHÉE: GRAPHIC DESIGN. BRANCO INC.; JIN CRAFT CORPORATION; STUDIO 97: EXHIBIT FABRICATION. TAKENAKA CORPORATION: AUDIOVISUAL. RENO ISAAC: SOUND.

PRODUCT SOURCES

FROM FRONT STUDIO JOSPIN: TAPESTRIES, FABRIC (MISS DIOR BY EVA JOSPIN GALLERY). SANKYO KAMITEN: WASHI PAPER (MISS DIOR DREAM GALLERY).

This Experiential Photography Studio Captures The Imagination

Typically, a photography studio is all about control—of light, sound, foot traffic, and any unwanted visual distractions. However, for Lanwuu Imagine in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, China’s most southwestern province, Xuewan Yang, founder of and chief designer at local firm Aurora Design, created a studio that instead welcomes spontaneity. With a ground-floor café and art installations visible through playfully shaped windows, the facility is conceptualized as both a public living room and a professional-level space for photo shoots, allowing passersby to interact with an architectural typology usually known for its exclusivity.

Yang’s portfolio encompasses private residences along with retail and award-winning teahouse projects, the latter focused on creating a consumer experience defined by heightened aesthetics and engagement. As Lanwuu specializes in wedding and wedding-dress photography—Yang has also completed studios for Chinese wedding photography brands Mushi and W. Dresses—as well as portrait sessions, Yang was the ideal candidate to deliver a “complete transformation from the typical,” she says, an open-arms approach to the public.

The 4,300-square-foot location takes inspiration from its novelty as an industrial space situated in a residential neighborhood. Using construction as a conceit and an allusion to Lanwuu’s innovation, one facade features a branded stainless-steel screen supported by pink scaffolding; another has a large bifold window, referencing a garage door. Inside, Yang left the shell of the two-story building mostly raw, with concrete floors and walls and exposed ceilings. To delineate between the studio’s public and private zones, she employed a rough-luxe material palette of concrete, marble, metal, and velvet, contemporary furnishings, and site-specific architectural interventions—the latter two in more pink or other flattering pastels.

Based on their visit’s purpose, patrons can enter directly under the scaffolding and into the studio or via a circular portal, formulated to appear like a camera lens. The portal leads to the coffee bar featuring cabinetry in marine-grade birch and built-in magazine racks, which warm the adjoining catering kitchen in stainless steel and concrete. Beyond the loose, flexible arrangement here of round café tables and tubular-steel and blush shell chairs for sipping drinks and chatting is the studio’s VIP consultation area. Another nod to photography, it’s contained inside a tall, framelike structure, tilted so it’s asymmetrical and clad in butter-yellow tile, furnished with upholstered lounge seating. A mirrored wall—one of those concealing the photo studio itself—behind this semi-enclosed vignette enhances this commercial area’s cinematic feel. Black-and-white striped area rugs add graphic punch.

“Trompe l’oeil techniques create a sense of depth,” Yang explains of her interventions. “By using reflective materials such as stainless steel and mirror glass, and strategically placing lighting, the boundaries between different areas are blurred, giving the illusion of a larger, more open space.”

These techniques might trick the eye, but they also draw it closer. The studio’s lobby connects to the café by a narrow hall paneled in polished stainless steel with retractable garage door–style shading. In the lobby, a cylindrical light box is the centerpiece. Floored in rose carpet, wrapped in burl-patterned wood veneer, and capped by an eyeball-esque fixture, the space is used to hang and photograph wedding dresses. But, since it’s visible to the public through a streetside window, Yang upped the visual draw with unusual installations of stacked TVs and an equine sculpture with hay. “The dazzling light, the black horse, the small TVs—they achieve a sense of temporal confusion, creating effects that are both virtual and realistic,” says Yang, who sourced the unexpected props from a local flea market.

It may all feel a bit fantastical, but the designer’s concept argues that that is the point: Capturing emotional portraits first requires creating an environment of fantasy with clients on set. This also necessitates that the subjects look and feel their best. Thus, the studio’s makeup and dressing rooms, which feature plush carpeting and Japanese-style partitions, are reminiscent of residential interiors, intended to evoke the same sense of comfort as trying on clothes in one’s own bedroom. The coffee bar’s similar living-room vibe contributes to that cozy atmosphere. And while the photo shoots ultimately take place inside the private, black-boxlike space at the center of the building, Lanwuu’s overall layout creates ideal conditions for informal snapshots, too.

“The studio is open and flowing to facilitate the movement of natural light,” Yang explains. “By avoiding excessive partitioning, we ensure that natural, balanced light can penetrate all corners.” Playing with allusion by geometry, she designed circular windows that not only look like camera lenses but also simulate their aperture ability to diffuse and manipulate sunlight. All other openings are adjustable as well, offering flexibility throughout the day and as needs change. Back-of-house functions, including the administrative offices and image-processing facilities, are located on the second floor, to maintain the accessible feel.

Lanwuu is inherently a work in progress. “We want the project to convey this pursuit of momentary beauty and warmth,” Yang continues. As those definitions change through differing trends, preferences, and needs, so too must the sets where they are captured. Being “unfinished” is an advantage—one Yang has built into the design.

Inside Lanwuu Imagine, a Photography Studio in Southern China

AURORA DESIGN: DA WANG; SIJIE ZHANG.

FROM FRONT DP STUDIO: TUBULAR CHAIRS, TABLES (CAFÉ). SWHY FURNITURE: SEATING (VIP). TAOBAO: LAMPS.
THROUGHOUT QIANGLI JUCAI: LED SIGNAGE.

Behind the Renovation of a Historic Entertainment Hub in Chicago

When the Ramova movie theater was built in 1929 by Myer O. Nathan, it was the South Side of Chicago’s main first-run cinema. Even though it sat empty since 1985, it was in better shape than its continuously occupied commercial building next door, recalls Illinois-born, Chicago-based architect Dan O’Riley. The O’Riley Office founder knows this well, as he’s been studying how to revive the site since 2017. Some seven years later, he has completed what’s now called the Ramova Theatre, a 36,000-square-foot entertainment complex—a $30 million endeavor achieved by a passionate band of locals. 

The cinema portion of the project, its two-story interior boasting a Spanish Revival courtyard-style lobby and theater, did not originally include preservation. But after being listed on the National Register of Historic Places and owners Tyler and Emily Nevius, who live in the neighborhood and purchased the theater for $1, received a cost and tax-credit analysis, it became a combination of adaptive reuse and conservation, renovation and expansion, encompassing the theater, the commercial building, and an adjacent town house. A layperson “should be able to visually differentiate between what was original and what’s new,” O’Riley explains.

Under the theater’s refreshed terra-cotta facade with original rosette window and 1940’s neon signage, both preserved, visitors enter the restored lobby, which now leads to a large live-music auditorium (it debuted in January with a concert by South Side native Chance the Rapper, also a project investor). New LEDs twinkle overhead, the seating replaced by moveable benches that accommodate 1,800. But Nathan’s existing envelope of faux building facades with archways and tiled roofs remains. 

Where contemporary interventions were made, color is an indicator. The three bars are defined by teal or begonia laminate. Red-tiled walls act as wayfinding for restrooms. Installing the technology for a 21st-century concert venue, however, was a covert exercise. “The architecture is of a time where infrastructure was not expressed,” O’Riley continues. “When the plaster went back in, nobody’s the wiser.” The two other structures house the more intimate performance space Ramova Loft, a VIP lounge, brewery, and 1950’s-style diner that nods to the site’s original Ramova Grill. It’s headed by chef Kevin Hickey, who grew up on South Halsted, the same street as the theater.

Catch A Show At The Ramova Theatre

FROM FRONT METROPOLITAN CERAMICS: FLOOR TILE (LOBBY). ARMSTRONG: FLOORING (DINER). TRENDLER: STOOLS. TILEBAR: BAR-FRONT TILE. BASWA: ACOUSTIC CEILING (AUDITORIUM). THROUGHOUT ZAK ROSE: CUSTOM BENCHES. ABET LAMINATI: LAMINATE. DURAT: SOLID SURFACING. SPECTRUM LIGHTING: PENDANT FIXTURES. TECH LIGHTING: SCONCES. JUNO: TRACK FIXTURES. TUBELITE: STOREFRONTS, ENTRY DOORS. SHERWIN-WILLIAMS: PAINT. STUDIO SUMI: LIGHTING DESIGNER. MCHUGH ENGINEERING GROUP: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. AMS INDUSTRIES; JMS ELECTRIC: MEP. SMP PROJECTS: CIVIL ENGINEER. RYAN: HISTORIC ADVISOR. WISS, JANNEY, ELSTNER ASSOCIATES: RESTORATION CONSULTANT. DAPRATO RIGALI STUDIOS; CHICAGO ORNAMENTAL PLASTERING: HISTORIC PLASTERWORK. NAVILLUS WOODWORKS: MILLWORK. MCHUGH CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

Inside a Historic Palace Turned Boutique Hotel in Italy

At times, the research process for Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva’s latest hotel project in Orvieto, Italy, might have felt more like an archaeological expedition. Local hotelier Raffaele Tysserand commissioned the Naples-based founder of his namesake firm to renovate and transform a 15th-century palace in the small Umbrian town into a history-inspired boutique hotel. To get a feel for the place and its past, architect and client took to the surrounding streets. 

“We ventured almost stealthily into old noble buildings, discovering within them elegant gardens,” recalls dell’Uva. “When I saw the hotel building for the first time I was fascinated. It was a challenge that suited my nature.” The location is quite incredible as well: adjacent to the bluff-top city’s 14th-century Duomo di Orvieto, its architecture supporting an intricate facade of narrow, horizontal bands in alternating white travertine and black basalt. These defining stripes served as the inspirational basis for dell’Uva’s playful yet sensitive concept for the newly inaugurated hospitality property, the nine-key Palazzo Petrvs. 

Designers Look to the Past to Create a Timeless Hotel

The former private home, once owned by and named for the wealthy notary Petrvs Facienus, had long been abandoned. However, when dell’Uva began to peel back its prior 19th-century renovations, the three-story, 16,000-square-foot interiors revealed original frescos and Renaissance-era painted wood ceilings. Tysserand requested a place that would “offer guests the feeling of a contemporary grand tour experience”—luxurious, comfortable, well-appointed spaces that “didn’t alter the original context,” dell’Uva notes, so he returned its rooms to their original proportions and called in a team of artisans to restore the historic detailing. Where frescoes were not discovered, the architect plastered the walls in a natural clay finish and laid terra-cotta floors, both allusions to the city’s Etruscan heritage and continued artisan culture. The natural color of these materials provides a soft, warm palette off which the custom and vintage Italian and Nordic furnishings can riff. 

Thus, a studied exercise in contrast drives the environment. At the center of the large lobby, the original, massive stone fireplace is a visual cue for dell’Uva’s blocky, double-sided sofa, upholstered in a forest green fabric and color-matched by a pair of fringed Hans-Agne Jakobsson table lamps from 1950 that perch atop its frame. Dynamically contemporary brass-and-glass sconces flank the hearth. In one corner is a purpose-built dining table with a black-and-white striped base and Hans Wegner seating; in another is a Marco Zanuso armchair and a Carlo Scarpa console, both vintage. 

How Palazzo Petrvs’s Interiors Reference a Local Landmark

Most of the guest rooms also have a striped detail, if not a focal point, that ties the interiors back to the cathedral—so close by that it is visible through some of the hotel windows. In one room, there’s an en-suite bathtub constructed of bands of terra-cotta painted black and white. It sits under a decoratively painted coffered ceiling that dates from 1500. In another, a custom bed features a headboard and skirt made with striped linen. In yet another, as well as in the standout stair that leads to the large suite located in the property’s ancient tower, the entire floor sports the pattern, laid in locally handmade terra-cotta tiles. “The architecture of the duomo goes beyond the stylistic elements imposed by Italian Gothic, with dichromatic horizontal lines that—rather than soaring—convey a sense of balance and unexpected contemporaneity,” dell’Uva explains. “I wanted to bring the same to the project.” 

The only non-striped space is Coro, the hotel restaurant, which is built inside the historic shell of a former church that adjoins the main building. “From my perspective, an old, deconsecrated church needs simple, solemn, and sophisticated furnishings,” continues dell’Uva, who chose to restore the structure with a deep appreciation for its architecture. He left its stacked stone walls largely bare, aside from a selection of works by Milanese artist Michele Guido. Spindly wrought-iron candelabras hang over the recycled-wood tables, upholstered benches, and more Wegner chairs.

Modern Amenities Include Spalike Bathrooms and a Courtyard

“The biggest challenge was ensuring that the changes did not affect the magic of the place,” dell’Uva elaborates. But there were some practical needs to be met. For guest comfort, each room is designed with a generous contemporary bathroom. Meanwhile, adding new waxed-iron partitions with openings for windows and doorways allowed the preservation of original stone portals and charming wooden doors without having to use them. 

Where Palazzo Petrvs does dive headfirst into totally new territory is the courtyard, though the source material is still ancient. Here, dell’Uva took inspiration from the gardens he’d toured in the other local palaces as well as traditional riads, creating a space that is centered around a working fountain. He designed benches, striped again in black-and-natural terra-cotta, with built-in planters and wrought-iron café tables and chairs with earth-red cushions. Vessels and pots overflow with local favorites, like acanthus, a typical Renaissance-era greenery. Something old and something new, it seems, is Italy’s version of an oasis. 

Walk Through the Nine-Key Palazzo Petrvs Hotel

GIULIANO ANDREA DELL’UVA ARCHITETTI: PASQUALE CAPASSO; FIORENZA MAURO.

MARTA FEGIZ: LANDSCAPE DESIGN.

ANDREA PETRANGELI: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER.

MATTEO BRIONI: PLASTERWORK.

FROM FRONT DEDAR: SOFA FABRIC (LOBBY). 

CARL HANSEN & SØN: DINING CHAIRS (LOBBY, RESTAURANT). 

NEMO LIGHTING: DESK LAMP (RECEPTION). 

THROUGH SIMON INTERNATIONAL: CONSOLE TABLE (LOBBY). 

MARINO MORETTI STUDIO: BOWL. 

FOLKFORM THROUGH ÖRSJÖ: LAMPS (SUITE). 

DORNBRACHT: TUB FITTINGS, SINK FITTINGS (BATHROOMS). 

REZINA: WHITE FLOOR (BATHROOM). 

THROUGHOUT SOCIETY LIMONTA: BED LINENS.