5 questions with Ian Schrager

Ian Schrager continues to turn the hospitality world on its head. It started with Studio 54 and has grown exponentially from there. Most recently, his newest brand, Public, debuted in Chicago, and the designer is now making moves in New York and London with future projects. Here’s what he told Hotel Management.

1 HM: What was the feel you were going for at Public Chicago and was it achieved?

IS: The goal with Public was to get away from all the hotels that look alike. When somebody does a hotel, the first question they are asked is ‘Who is designing it?’ [Design] has become Frankenstein’s monster. Public gets away from that and just deals with old-fashioned good taste: no tricks, very simple, down to earth and personal. It’s a really great style and when you personalize it like that, it is very difficult to copy. The design isn’t a look. It’s a light touch that is very individualistic. The only way to distinguish yourself is to go alternative.

2 HM: What is your intention with the plot of land you recently purchased in New York?

IS: All of the opportunities that we are seeing are in that Public space, for some reason. We have a high-end brand, as well, that we would call Schrager, but we haven’t seen any opportunities [for those hotels] yet. Mostly what we are seeing fall into the Public space, which is a really great space. It is wide open. I think anyone who can come to that space with a newidea can execute it well.

3 HM: You just recently won a bid on a Crowne Plaza in London. What will you use that space for?

IS: This is going to be a Public. The time frame for constructing a hotel usually takes us anywhere from 14 to 24 months. The rooms are in good shape so the scope of work won’t be banging on walls and redoing it. It will be stylizing it and coming up with fresh rooms and being more ambitious.

4 HM: How did your career begin in the hospitality industry?

IS: I began my career as a waiter in the restaurant at the Concorde Hotel [in New York City] when I was in school. Actually, I was a bus boy and I graduated to become a waiter. After school I practiced law for a while. This was during the ’70s during the sexual revolution. There was a wildness in the air. New York became the center of the universe in the same way that maybe Paris was in the early ’70s. The country was tilted on its axis and everyone rolled into New York. That’s when all of these nightclubs began to mushroom up and I thought ‘I want to get into that business.’

5 HM: Of all of your projects, which do you consider to be your crown jewel?

IS: That’s like asking a parent which one of his kids does he like [best]. I don’t take before and after shots of my hotels. Once I have completed a hotel I move on to the next and the one that I’m working on at the moment will be my best. Each one of my projects succeeds the previous. I would hate to think my best work is behind me, but every one I have done I consider my children and I love them equally.