Champalimaud Design Transforms the Cabanas at the Iconic Beverly Hills Hotel

Table Of Content

• Subscribe to our newsletter and discover why with us, Love Happens
• The rise of colour drenching and how to use the vibrant interior design trend
• How art consultant Judith Tatar defines narratives for the world’s leading hotels
• Beverly Hills Hotel
• How Alexandra Champalimaud Blurs the Line Between Residential and Hospitality Design
• Designer Humberto Campana brings a searing vision of Brazil to Friedman Benda in NYC
• Designer Q&A: Jaya Ibrahim
• Singapore

Champalimaud Design is an interior design studio committed to creating transformative spaces and unparalleled products. Champalimaud’s designers possess a rich understanding of all aspects of a project, from strategic planning through expert craftsmanship and elegant styling, that enable the creation of bespoke luxury environments. Champalimaud’s imaginative and forward-thinking design teams are leading successful award-winning projects around the globe. Alexandra Champalimaud’s career as an interior designer had a dramatic beginning. In 1975, she, her husband and their young son fled Portugal in the wake of the country’s Carnation Revolution. They arrived in Montreal, knowing no one, without jobs or connections.

Subscribe to our newsletter and discover why with us, Love Happens

The Plaza might be one of their most iconic interior design projects. Opened in 1907, The Plaza, a Fairmont Managed Hotel, overlooking Fifth Avenue and Central Park is a National Historic Landmark. True to its legacy, the design group created luxurious spaces by blending timeless furnishings with contemporary flair.

The rise of colour drenching and how to use the vibrant interior design trend

"The interiors in the room are original and date back to 1735," Kastl explains. "There's stunning wood paneling that goes high up the wall and the most beautiful plasterwork all painted the classic Wedgwood blue," he adds. "The importance of that room is key to the property." The Monkey Room, a dining area named for its painted ceiling, is the estate's other standout space. While the story behind the paintings is a bit opaque, it is thought to have been intended to make fun of British politicians in its original day, and has helped give the building its name. One of the studio’s recent residential projects, for example, is 77 Peak Road, a cliff-top mansion set amidst a lush forest in Hong Kong’s prestigious Victoria Peak.

How art consultant Judith Tatar defines narratives for the world’s leading hotels

The furnishings and custom-designed furniture add to the space’s luxurious ambiance. Champalimaud Design is more than just a design group, they are unique-experience providers and unparalleled storytellers. This playful, familiar (and familial) rapport is very much the backbone of Troutbeck, the Champalimauds' latest project, a restoration that was a collaborative effort among the trio. Its rich history and intellectual legacy, coupled with its need for renovation, piqued the aesthetic, entrepreneurial, and preservationist interests of Alexandra, Anthony, and Charlie. Nearly four years ago, they, along with partner Douglas Horne, a preservationist whose real estate company, D.R. Horne & Company, has worked on the Woodstock Inn and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, acquired the storied property and set about returning it to a modern version of its former glory.

Beverly Hills Hotel

The elegant furniture she designed for him was recently auctioned to benefit his foundation. In 1993 she relocated to New York, where her team of specialists has grown to 40 and is still expanding. Two-thirds of their work is in resorts and hotels, the rest in high-end residences. “I’ve lived on four continents, speak four languages, and that makes me comfortable doing design pretty much anywhere in the world,” says the widely traveled tastemaker. And history is certainly something that the Monkey Island Estate has in spades.

Happy at Home - Alexandra Champalimaud Perfect Kitchen Table - ELLE Decor

Happy at Home - Alexandra Champalimaud Perfect Kitchen Table.

Posted: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Since then, the studio has relocated to New York, and today, Champalimaud has been joined at the helm of the studio by partners Ed Bakos and Winston Kong. Champalimaud quickly developed an appreciation for the beauty of tradition and heritage mixed with a touch of the unexpected – and she uses this understanding to create spaces that intrigue and surprise yet remain grounded in their context. “There is a depth of knowledge regarding a space’s history, culture, and sense of place with a worldly perspective,” says the designer of her approach. Our New York-based studio is dedicated to expressing the individual character of each space through extraordinary design. Like all other New York–based design firms, Champalimaud has been working from home for months now. There are difficulties, and both Bakos and Champalimaud expressed enthusiasm for a return to in-person design meetings.

Designer Humberto Campana brings a searing vision of Brazil to Friedman Benda in NYC

With a strong french-inspired design, the group made every space unique and sophisticated, giving one the feeling of being in a fairytale instead of a hotel. Many stylish notables like Coco Chanel, Oscar Wilde, and Tory Burch have made hotels their residences. While living in a hotel is not as popular as it once was, it is now de rigueur that opulent resorts feel less formulaic and more like a high-end home. Their guests, in turn, find inspiration in these masterfully designed interiors, so much so that it’s not uncommon that a souvenir from their stay might be a piece of furniture from their suite. Rising to the occasion are many of the world’s leading interior designers. The New York Palace is another of their greatest interior design projects.

Designer Q&A: Jaya Ibrahim

But the socially distanced era, they say, has changed the dynamic of the firm in positive ways. … There might be others who, in my presence normally in a conference room, they might not want to be quite as involved,” says Champalimaud. “But when their job is to talk about X, Y and Z of this project, they do so. … They have to be more expressive to get their ideas across.” Bakos agrees, adding that there’s a benefit to client meetings where the entire staff is able to sit in on Zoom and pick up on nuances that would normally go unheard behind conference room doors. The island—on which no cars are allowed—is a bridge walk or quick paddle away from Bray, an adjacent town known as a foodie destination, thanks to its smattering of Michelin-starred restaurants. But for many an interiors buff, it is the estate's Wedgwood Room that will likely be the property's knockout.

Singapore

“It’s easy for a young designer to fixate on sticking to a certain concept or vision and this can mean the client’s wants are missed,” she says. “The skill of designing is the ability to incorporate and mix your vision with your clients’ to produce a project you can both be proud of. With a hue of brown inspired by the Cassia cinnamon, this ultra-comfortable sofa contains an upholstered back and seating, with symmetric shapes for a chic look.

New York is the home of some of the greatest design groups on Earth. The fast-paced city has an equally fast-changing design scene, setting trends and defying stereotypes. New York is one of the main interior design capitals, which allows creative minds to evolve.

Effect Magazine is a leading global design publication, reporting on ground-breaking and inspirational work within interiors, furniture, art and architecture. The Troutbeck in Upstate New York is another project that is special to Champalimaud, not only for its understated charm and sophisticated modernity but also because it is run by her son, Anthony, and his wife, Charlotte. The former private estate has been transformed into a 36-room retreat, that blends the bucolic vernacular of Upstate New York with the European charm that the studio is known for. It also features furniture pieces that were originally designed by Champalimaud for the office of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the former Prime Minister of Canada – one of her first major commissions.

Life has been an extraordinary adventure for me,” says Alexandra Champalimaud, “and the experience has enriched my work.” The internationally acclaimed designer grew up in Portugal, with time spent at boarding schools in England and Switzerland. She married into one of Portugal’s leading families, and was launching her interior design career when, on the eve of the nation’s 1974 revolution, she and her family fled the country; they left in the middle of the night and moved to Montreal. Inspired by designers as varied as Eileen Gray and David Hicks, and the rigor of Mies van der Rohe, Champalimaud won prestigious commissions, including the law office of Pierre Trudeau, the charismatic former prime minister of Canada.

Being rooted in a profound respect for nature and its seasons, Community Table offers delicious seasonal dishes that delight your senses. Also, when I’m in the Hamptons during the warmer months, I enjoy dining at the Topping Rose House. Tom Colicchio carefully prepares every dish with produce from their own farm as well as other local farms, ranches and day boat fishermen. I have a great appreciation for classical piano concertos, those performed by Lang Lang and Vladimir Ashkenazy in particular. I also really like fun, uplifting music I can dance to like Happy by Pharrell Williams, because it’s music that truly changes your spirit and mood. I just finished reading two books, the first The Hare with Amber Eye by Edmund de Waal and the second Angkor Wat (Unearthing Ancient Worlds) by Alison Behnke.