Jonathan Browning is the founder and creative director of Jonathan Browning Studios (JBS), a full design studio based in San Francisco, for more than 25 years. Hospitality features widely in his portfolio. Recently, JBS has created an impressive collection of what he describes as auction-quality lighting. John Legg talked to Jonathan about his life in hospitality and his inspirations and references.
Growing up, what did you want to be – and who were your idols and why?
When I was young my idol was my dad’s best friend. I was named after him, and growing up, his life seemed impossibly glamorous. He was a lawyer, and worked for Jay Rockefeller. He travelled all over the world for work and ended up living in Switzerland for a long time. He was tall, lean and handsome and I just wanted to be him. Everything else paled in comparison with John’s brilliant life – his style, his quick wit, he was like a Farley Grainger in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. As a kid I knew that’s what I wanted to be.
How did you get into the trade?
I had a long career in retail design. I was the head of Store Design for many major fashion retailers (Esprit, Gap, Guess?, Mexx, The Limited, Levi’s) over the course of 15 years or so.
Then I was offered the job of EVP of Design for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Barry Sternlicht recruited me. I built a design department there at Starwood and established distinct images for Westin, Sheraton, W Hotels, St Regis, and The Luxury Collection. When I started I think I inherited two employees, and when I left I’d built a department of 30, designing properties all over the world.
I was also responsible for hiring outside firms to design specific projects, like Yabu Pushelberg for W Times Square, and Alain Waisbrod for W Mexico City. When I left Starwood I felt like I’d been designing other people’s images all my adult life. Branding is everything in today’s world. Defining other brand’s images through design was a skill I’d learned how to do inside out, and while it is fun in the general sense, for me it had lost its appeal. It no longer felt genuine. It felt forced and fake. Does everything and everyone today need to be a ‘brand’?
I had always loved lighting design, but had never done it. I’d designed more hotel rooms and store fixtures, and showrooms than I can remember, but never a light fixture.
Also, in designing so many hotels I found that lighting was a particularly cheap category. Where wall coverings and rugs and furniture offered good quality options, lighting seemed cheap.
So I investigated things and realised that even at the highest end, no one was doing really exquisite, auction quality work. It was mostly expendable fixturing intended to have a look, but not lasting quality. I wanted to design and manufacture in bronze. Fixtures whose aesthetic I loved, but in a quality where they would last forever – when someone moved or died the fixtures would end up at an auction house, not a land fill. Once I had designed and prototyped my first line I showed it to Holly Hunt and the rest fell into place.
What ambitions did you harbour when starting out in business?
Honestly, I had a burning desire to be the best. I look back and it bordered on obsessive. I had something to prove. I’m not sure to whom. I wanted to own high end lighting. I wanted my name and products to be synonymous with the best quality in that category.
I also was desperate to explore my favourite two design movements in history: French Beaux Arts classicism and Industrial Design from the 20s – 40s. Now I am exploring mid century modernism but in the beginning it was all about the first two.
Who were inspirational to you early in your career – and why?
My first design job was for Esprit Europe, based in Dusseldorf, Germany. Esprit was the most amazing laboratory for a young designer because they were hiring the world’s leading designers to design their flagship stores.
In my mid 20s I was privileged to work from the client side with Eva Jiricna, Norman Foster, Ettore Sottsass and Antonio Citterio, as well as the whole Memphis group. It was an unbelievable training and influence on the rest of my life.
Name three designers practising today whose work you most admire?
Michael Booth of Bamo – he does many Four Seasons around the world but his Chinoiserie folly for a famous newspaper family in the Bay Area is sublime.
Jacques Garcia – his knowledge of classical interiors and ability to intelligently reinterpret them in a fresh and relevant way is stunning to me.
Douglas Durkin – his love of 20th century furniture has launched an entire movement of greater appreciation for this category in the US, and his interiors are elegant, restrained and cerebral. He is the thinking man’s interior designer.
What designs in the last 100 years do you wish you could have been responsible for and why?
The Della Robbia Room at the Vanderbilt Hotel on Park Avenue (1913). The entire double height space and mezzanine were executed in cast terracotta, glazed in varying hues, in the style of Della Robbia from the Italian Renaissance. The ceilings were shallow structural vaults in tile executed by the famous Guastavino company made famous for this technology – the same ceiling treatment can still be seen at the Oyster Bar at Grand Central. Long considered the most beautiful dining room in New York City, is was largely demolished in the 1970s. A small portion remains today as a bar.
The library at the University Club on 5th Ave in NYC by Charles McKim (1899). Modelled on the Vatican Apartments, the library is both stunningly beautiful and ingeniously clever in layout. The kind of room you don’t want to leave once in it.
The Chateau de Marly – Louis XIV. This gorgeous gem of a pleasure palace was designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart for Louis XIV in 1679. The palace itself was intimate in scale, beautifully detailed, and sited in the most amazing setting. Sitting at the end of a long axis, the chateau looked down the sunken canal-like lake, and on either bank sat six smaller chateaux, creating a beautiful village for the court he travelled with – genius landscape design and site planning. The lake and the foundations still exist.
What are the elements that you feel are critical to effective hospitality design?
Authenticity. If a property is modern, it ought to have a modern design scheme inside.
I remember when I was running Starwood Design I was given the task of remodelling the lobby, restaurant, bar, and retail space of the Sheraton New York on 7th Ave. My marching orders were to design it in a 19th century, men’s club traditional aesthetic. Warm and clubby. Nothing wrong with that except that the building itself was the last hotel property designed by legendary architect Morris Lapidus, famous for his stunningly modern designs in Miami in the 40s-60s.
A better plan would have been to be authentic to Lapidus and to modernism in general and design a chic interior within that vocabulary. Too many times in this business people ignore that context of the property in order to achieve some specific desired goal. It creates visual confusion and a lack of cohesion.
How will the industry evolve over the coming decades?
For one thing service and attitude will become more of a hallmark for successful hotels. The very word ‘hospitality’ defines what a great hotel needs to offer: “The friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers” – Merriam Websters.
A truly successful stay at any hotel includes an outstanding experience with the staff. Any one of us can discern the difference instantly between service which is correct in every way, but not genuinely friendly or heartfelt. Or, as Webster’s says, “generous”.
How much better is a stay when one feels the staff have actually been generous – finding you a better room, going beyond the norm in solving a problem for you, or just anticipating a need? Remembering your name. There are a million ways in which a staff can make the guest feel genuinely special and appreciated. This factor of service will define great hotels – at all star levels – from the rest of the field in the coming decades.
Also, comfort will be key to success. At the end of the day the business is about a bed to sleep in and a bathroom to bathe in. Getting these two elements right may seem elementary, but they are often sub-prime experientially. Advancing these elements to add better comfort will also be key. The perfect bed and bedding, and a killer bath.
What design themes do you envisage becoming more important over the next few decades?
French Provincial and Colonial American . . . just kidding! I see two distinct paths for this area of the business. On the one hand, modernism and truly cutting edge design that forwards that field. Not trendy design, but thoughtful modernism that moves our design culture forward. And conversely, an end to inappropriate ‘updates’ to older properties. Too many times a great old building will get a design makeover in a trendy, boutique direction.
A perfect example is the Hotel Russell in London. I just stayed there for a week recently. The building is from 1898 and faces Russell Square, right across the park from the British Museum. It is a magnificent pile of brick and terra-cotta ornament – the Empire at its height – exuberant in that Victorian British way. Even the interior architecture is palatial and largely intact. But when you get to the front desk it looks like a leftover from some bad 80s mid-market property. And the room furnishings are trying to be vaguely trendy and boutique-like. Completely out of context with the property.
I see designers using more clarity in their design schemes where all aspects of a property and the city are considered in the design scheme. I see an end to trendy, shocking, loud, in-your-face design statements.
What can hospitality owners do to improve their businesses?
As I said earlier, above all else – SERVICE. Nothing else compares with this one element of the business, no matter how high or low end the property may be. A genuine interest in the guest is key.
Also, owners need to invest in comfort. Cheaping out in the guest room does not work. An uncomfortable bed is no different than a bad meal in a restaurant. It is the point of the experience. Also, nickel and diming guests is a turn off. In this age of mobility we live in, to not offer free internet is like charging for toilet paper. It is a necessity, and needs to be included in the price of the room. Remember the definition of hospitality? Generous treatment of guests and strangers.
Also, thinking of ways to enhance the stay without breaking the bank. Creative new small things to personalise the stay and win over the guest.
What is you proudest achievement, as a designer, to date?
I think I’d have to say designing and launching my lighting line, Jonathan Browning Studios. I wanted to create a line of great beauty, and unparalleled quality. I wanted to produce it in the oldest tradition of bronze casting. There was no guarantee that there would be a market for these designs, so succeeding over 10 years now is my proudest achievement.
Your favourite specific places in the world?
My favourite place in the US is Pembroke Estate, in Glen Cove, Long Island. Designed in 1916 by CPH Gilbert, it is my favourite American home ever built in any era.
Overlooking Long Island Sound the estate was a pleasure palace without compare. The house itself was classical Mediterranean revival in style, but the conservatory connected to it was mind blowing: containing a stone grotto with waterfall at one end, it had meandering streams throughout and exotic foliage, with wild birds flying freely, and a massive round swimming pool in the centre where guests could swim in a gold tiled mosaic world beneath a 60ft domed glass ceiling.
Under this level was a movie theatre, shooting range, and squash courts. Most scholars believe that F Scott Fitzgerald based Jay Gatsby’s house on this home. Pembroke was demolished in the 1970s.
My favourite place outside the US is a very small hotel on Capri called La Certosella. It is tucked away at the end of the Punta Tragara, and is magical. The woman who owns it also owns the most sublime restaurant and swimming pool at the Piccola Marina on the quiet side of the island. It is something out of The Talented Mr Ripley.
Where in time would you choose to travel and why?
This is hard . . . firstly, Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV – the apex of style and design ever. Secondly, New York from 1890-1910 to watch Stanford White’s genius in progress. Thirdly, it would be Rome in the 1950s and also Rome during Hadrian’s reign.
What do you like to do with your downtime?
Go to the flea market, give dinner parties at our studio, and read books on residential architecture in my library.
Choose your favourite . . .
… drink – sidecar
“¦ film – All About Eve, The Little Foxes, and The Bad Seed
“¦ sport – badminton
“¦ building – roof top theatre at the original Madison Square Garden, where Stanford White was shot
“¦ time of day – cocktail hour
“¦ client reaction – awe
“¦ design period – secession in Vienna
“¦ way to relax – drinking a sidecar on my terrace with Friday, my Jack Russell
“¦ emotion – giddiness or hysterical laughter
“¦ pearl of wisdom – Katherine Hepburn, “Life is hard, after all, it kills you”
Biography
Jonathan Browning and his business partner, Marco Heithaus, founded San Francisco- based Jonathan Browning Studios in April 2003 to fulfil the need for high-quality, distinctive lighting. The company’s product offering employs materials passionate to Jonathan – cast bronze, hand-blown glass and exotic woods, such as wenge, ebony and palisander.While expanding international sales, Jonathan Browning Studios has worked on a small sampling of installations within the US, including Tiffany & Co. locations on Union Square in San Francisco and 5th Avenue in Manhattan; numerous residences at the Four Seasons and the Time Warner centre; and distinctive homes across the country – from Malibu to Fisher Island, Aspen to the Hamptons.
Jonathan Browning is a graduate of SCI- ARC, one of the most prestigious academies of architecture in the US. Jonathan was awarded the American Institute of Architects (AIA) highest honour for work produced during has graduate programme. Prior to launching Jonathan Browning Studios in 2003, Jonathan was senior vice president of design for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, responsible for the image and branding of Sheraton, Westin, W, St. Regis and the Luxury Collection.
Jonathan Browning Lighting is represented by Holly Hunt (Chicago, Miami), David Sutherland (Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Houston), De Sousa Hughes (San Francisco), Terris Draheim (Seattle), and Webster & Co. (Boston).
