Interior designer and architect Campion Platt is widely known for pioneering the boutique hotel concept, serving as co-developer of Los Angeles’s Chateau Marmont Hotel, and spearheading a benchmark project in New York of the Mercer Hotel and Merc Bar.  An equally impressive celebrity client roster includes Al Pacino, Meg Ryan, Roger Waters, Conan O’Brien, Jay McInerney, and socialite Anne Hearst.  He consistently incorporates fine craftsmanship and contemporary styling as well as eco-sensitive design to achieve the clean, cohesive, yet personalized spaces his firm is respected for.

LoftLife: You’re on the forefront of sustainable architecture and green design.  What are the easiest elements to bring in, from both an architectural and design standpoint?

Campion Platt: The easiest elements are switching out commonly used things like plywood for a sustainable version, lighting alternates that use less energy.  From a design standpoint, consider buying second hand and giving something a new life.

LL: With hotel design credits including Chateau Marmont, Mercer Hotel and MercBar, as well as Boston’s Bulfinch Hotel do you find your residential clients like to bring a boutique hotel feeling into their homes and design an upscale atmosphere suited for entertaining?

CP: I think the greatest feature is actually employing the dictum “less is more” hotel environments tend to be paired down, essential and an eye to comfort, luxury and whimsy.

LL: Where are your favorite places to travel and draw inspiration at the moment?

CP: My wife, Tatiana, and I love to travel to Morocco, especially Marrakech.  There is a wealth of design inspiration at every turn and a number of great craftspeople reinventing methods that fit our sense of design.

LL: LoftLife launched in Atlanta last year, and has since expanded nationally.  We saw you recently worked on the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Buckhead, incorporating the historic Southern aesthetic with modern details.  How did you combine the two styles, and what were your favorite elements?

CP: The idea in Atlanta was to create a real sense of place in a modern high-rise.  I studied the city and culture and drew upon the rich and layered history of both design and icons.  Combining the styles was more of an editing process to identify the key features that would blend well together.  My favorite element was the cypress we used in the lobby.  A traditional southern wood, but a used in a modern way.

LL: A 4,000 square-foot Soho duplex loft is the type of home our readers (and we) dream about, though designing a cohesive space can be an enormous challenge.  It looks open, intimate, luxurious and comfortable.  What was your original vision and where did it begin?

CP: It began with my wife saying “I want a white loft in the sky!”  From there, all decisions were based upon modulating the rooms; space and scale to both accentuate the great height and verticality while maintaining a sense of intimacy and casual comfort one finds in small spaces.

LL: Tell us more about your custom furniture line and the types of pieces you have created or hope to include at some point.

CP: I am working on a few new custom lines now.  We are designing a contemporary and more urban collection for McGuire Furniture, an industry leader in luxury exterior furnishings.  In addition, we are also working on capsule collection for George Smith, the English based purveyor of fine upholstered furniture based upon early American examples of popular furniture.

LL: How have you seen your clients taste and/or need change over the twenty years you’ve been a designer?

CP: I believe most of the client needs have remained the same except for the newer notion of a great room and/or incorporating a kitchen/dining room experience into a project.  A wonderful change has also been, in general, the level of sophistication among the clients, both residential and commercial.  The internet has informed us all in a more specialized way based upon our interests.  Clients bring this information to the table and really help the design process.

Posted by Erin Ryder

Photography by Scott Frances

Tags: Erin Ryder, Q & A