This is a space for us to share some stories about some of the talented people we’ve met, and the rich experiences we’ve had with them. A record of many early mornings and late nights with architects, designers, craftsmen, farmers, engineers, laborers, investors, hotel and resort staff and management, developers, colleagues, friends, and other people who need not be mentioned here. Decades of notebooks are filled with direct quotes and design direction from our peers (and clients). Photos clog our hard drives. This is part of our design process.
This ‘project’ has been off-and-on for almost 20 years. Before Google, Twitter, the internet, and 40NORTH. Before email. Telling these stories in this manner is an extension of that process. In 2006 at 40NORTH we started to further document these people with Polaroids and questions like, “What does hospitality mean to you?“, “Define luxury.” and questions about where they were from, what their father and grandfather did, etc. We called it PEOPLE WE KNOW, and it was mostly bullshit. Before that it was simply writing down the direct quotes from people who were speaking in design meetings and consultant dinners, or written / drawn on blurry cocktail napkins later that evening. These off-hand remarks are as important as the detail sketches, redlines, and project notes, and getting to know the consultants you’re going to go to battle with (and against) are important key components of design collaboration. These experiences often happen off-campus or while exploring the local nightlife.
We’ll post more stories and refine these as time permits. Ambitious long-term projects like this that start-and-stop are important because when you have a few minutes to pick them up again you can see A) what you would have done differently and better, and B) how much you’ve changed. As humans become more integrated with technology it becomes very apparent that real people having conversations in person, speaking and drawing together, matter more than ever. We can’t do everything over the fucking internet.
