Amy Humble, senior interior design manager at Omni Hotels & Resorts, is planning to attend Hotec Design, an annual conference presented by Questex Hospitality, the parent company of Hotel Management. At the conference, buyers like Humble will meet one-on-one with hospitality-focused suppliers to learn about new products and services and to keep up to date on emerging trends.
Humble grew up in a house surrounded by art, and went to Texas Tech University to study vocal performance with plans to become a music teacher. By her second semester, she switched her major to interior design and transferred schools, graduating from The Art Institutes with a Bachelor in Fine Arts in the field.
As she learned more about different types of interior design, Humble found herself intrigued by hospitality. “Residential design is a little too personal and corporate design is not personal enough,” she said. “Hospitality is this middle ground where you're designing for people in a more comfortable environment. It's like a temporary house.” Designing hotels, she said, was like “marrying two genres.”
While at The Art Institutes, she secured internships with two Dallas-based design firms—first with Looney & Associates and then with Wilson Associates. After graduation, she joined the latter firm as an interior designer, but returned to Looney in 2007. She left the company in 2009 to design some residential projects on her own before returning to Wilson in 2014. “I boomeranged some,” she quipped of those years.
After a year at Wilson, she joined the Joyce Design Group in the middle of 2015, staying for two and a half years before leaving to take on a role with a hospitality brand she already knew well.
Joining Omni
“Whenever I was at Looney, I worked for Omni,” Humble said. At that firm, she helped work on the new-build Omni Fort Worth in Texas, which opened in early 2009, and then oversaw some smaller renovation projects with the company. She also met Laura McKoy, Omni’s creative director and VP of interior design in that capacity. “She and I have maintained a relationship over the years, and there were a couple times in the past that she and I talked about [my] coming over here.” When Humble was ready to move on from Wilson, a position opened up at Omni. “I thought I would really enjoy working for a brand—and as it turns out, I really do.”
As senior interior design manager, Humble manages large-scale renovations and new-build projects for Omni. She is responsible for hiring outside design firms and overseeing the in-house design work for an estimated nine active projects and a further five coming up. “Depending on the phase of the job, I might be on conference calls discussing the purchasing status of a project," she said. "We might be troubleshooting construction, figuring out how to problem-solve.”
The Omni Oklahoma City opened in January 2021, the culmination of one of Humble’s first start-to-finish projects since she started at the company. “I'm super proud of that one,” she said. “When you get to see something from start to finish, you see how it really grows and evolves and comes out of the ground—and then to see people interact with it is really great.” Humble also oversaw the $30 million renovation of the Omni Houston Hotel, which was closed in 2017 after Hurricane Harvey caused extensive damage to the lower floors. “When you're involved in a renovation, to see the excitement of [the staff] wanting to be involved in the space and give a space a new life is really rewarding,” she said.
Humble attended Hotec North America in 2021, where she met several vendors Omni now is using on projects. “I definitely would not have either known about or considered [them] had I not met with them at Hotec,” she said. Some vendors have helped ease the company’s manufacturing and shipping challenges, she added.“With all of the volatility that's out there right now with manufacturing and shipping, to have something domestic that’s affordable was amazing for us.”
The 2022 Hotec Design conference will take place June 20-23 at the Breakers Palm Beach in Florida. Registration is open for both buyers and suppliers.