
Lauren Rottet sits for an interview at a Float Dining Table of her design in a white-walled space backstage of the Rottet Collection showroom on the third floor of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. A NeoCon attendee steps in for a closer look at Troy Stanley’s artwork. “Do you like our concrete on the wall?” Ms. Rottet asks.

She left unsaid that she had designed the products, the showroom, dozens of offices and hotels across the globe and earned nearly every accolade possible for an architect or interior designer. Minutes later, the unexpected visitor departs with Ms. Rottet’s email address and a promise of information about Mr. Stanley and his work.
Observing this scene between art devotees explains much about Lauren Rottet. Hers is a world of attention, generosity and perspective where she guides her audiences to havens of comfort and calm.
Over sixty minutes of lively discussion, Ms. Rottet, founder of Rottet Studio, set down markers for those starting design careers, elaborated on designing spaces that feel good, described how visionary design comes to be and that building a long-tenured team contributes to a string of award-winning projects. Before all of that, there was Chicago and art.
Following her internship with San Francisco’s Fisher-Friedman Associates, she came to Chicago intent on a position with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
“It was the only firm where I wanted to work,” said Ms. Rottet.
She interviewed, accepted the position and established herself in one of the world’s great cities for architecture, where she says the taxi drivers know the buildings and their architects.
Were Chicago’s architecture and design scene early design influences? Only if shadows, darkened avenues and street lamps count.
“We regularly worked all night, so my view of Chicago was from 33 West Monroe to my apartment on North Dearborn in the Gold Coast.”
The exception was a few stolen hours on weekends for making rounds of Chicago’s art galleries. Ms. Rottet said it was here her love of art flourished, a fondness from her upbringing that saw many gallery and museum visits.
That, and it was relaxing. The tension of deadline pressure siphons energy better used for creative thinking. Ms. Rottet soon discovered the restorative powers of slipping away for a gallery stroll on Michigan Avenue.
“Even for a few minutes, it was relaxing,” she said.
The Richard Gray Gallery was a favorite.
“Mr. Gray knew I didn’t have a spare penny back then, but he took the time to share his love of drawings, opening drawers filled with Claes Oldenburg drawings,” noted Ms. Rottet.
In a 2007 oral history for the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, Mr. Gray says he was as much an art collector as an art dealer. Maybe this encouraged him to take extra time with an architect in whom he saw a future collector.
“I think that’s where a love of art blossomed, and I believe looking at art is a tremendous education for the design mind.”
The design mind understands how people react to design by understanding how they respond to art.
“I can spot those with an open mind who love design from the looks on their faces as they see art – they don’t have to say a word,” said Ms. Rottet.
Artist and designer Olafur Eliasson wrote a relatable article for the World Economic Forum website, saying artists have a responsibility “to help people not only get to know and understand something with their minds but also to feel it emotionally and physically.” Mr. Eliasson received a Crystal Award during Davos 2016 recognizing artists who have shown exemplary commitment to improving the state of the world.
Using a design mind to understand, then transferring that feeling to others in emotional and physical settings: one answer to the question of what distinguishes a Rottet project.

“There’s lots of learning behind the understanding of how an interior is going to ‘feel’ and affect those who enter it, walk through it and be surrounded by it,” said Ms. Rottet.
Like the NeoCon attendee whose attraction to Stanley’s artwork drew him into the showroom’s backstage.
“He was looking at the art and experiencing how the visual made him feel,” she said.
Duplication of the effect in interiors makes doing them harder in some ways than buildings.
“It’s harder to do good interiors than it is to set a structure against the sky.” Ms. Rottet ticked off the number of ways — rendering, modeling, photography, site visits – for visualizing the building once built.
For imagining how an interior will feel, it’s the design mind alone.
“You can’t draw that or make a model of it – being in it is the only way,” she said. “Maybe you’re pursuing a direction that should make sense, except your experience and intuition tell you it’s going to be wrong and not feel right.”
Ms. Rottet said the expression they use for these instances in her firm is “conceptually correct but wrong in reality.”
The design mind intercedes.
“These are the critical insights you rely on at this point to add a twist or something different to the design that will feel better in the space.”
That this addition sustains the project narrative introduces another uniquely Rottet Studio element.
The narrative sets the story and the boundaries, plus it serves as an explanation of Ms. Rottet’s decision for architecture over art.
“I like the parameters and solving the puzzles using our client’s input.”
Budget is part of the client’s information. She says that hotels have tighter budgets than most realize, and that workplace projects typically have less constrained budgets. “But hoteliers are open minded and very smart about how to buy and how to bring their products into the marketplace.”
Often these market smarts create room in the budget for art and more to differentiate the project.
“Our hotelier clients want everything we design connected to a narrative, a document that envelops architecture and interiors; that master planning follows in creating guest experiences,” said Ms. Rottet. “For example, we just started a project in Anguilla where we are researching the island, its history, who visits, differences between Anguilla and St. Bart’s, and how do we make all that’s great about Anguilla come alive.”

New York City’s Surrey Hotel received the benefits of a narrative inspired by the life and work of Coco Chanel. Bar Pleiades in the hotel’s lobby is a masterwork of not just design but of knowing a neighborhood and its wants. In gesturing to the exterior’s traditions, a marble-tile mosaic echoes an oriental pattern sketched by Ms. Rottet. Her palette of black, white and gray appears in concert with luxurious materials whose staying power have kept the Surrey a number one NYC hotel since its doors reopened in 2010.
“Every single thing we vision and design fits into that narrative,” said Ms. Rottet. “We call it the bumpers on the bowling alley – I’m a terrible bowler, and without those bumpers, I could put that ball in the next lane.”

Bumpers yes, walls no. Ms. Rottet’s well-cultivated design mind may see something in progress worthy of a little changeup.
“I might say, ‘try this’ to something off the wall, but to me, it is something that freshens our concept and goes with what we are doing. There’s always the bumpers, but I throw in something that is completely unexpected.”
That unexpected element can be the difference, the design difference, that propels a hotel or resort to the top tier.
“Design is what they have,” said Ms. Rottet. “The look and the ambiance of their property are what they’re selling – it’s what allows them to increase room rates, earn customer loyalty, keep the hotel full.”
“The hotelier can justify hiring a more expensive designer who will spend a little more time on design and bring in higher grades of product.”
Broadening the scope of the project follows when hotel owners hire Rottet Studio.
“We write a tight contract with a well-defined scope of services because sometimes you’re not the architect of record,” said Ms. Rottet. “Others are doing the building, the back of house, all the documents, so you write a tight differentiation between yourself and those folks.”
Among the reasons are the numerous ancillary or specialized spaces in a hotel that offices do not have. “You have to be careful about that.”
Clarity on those points leaves the time for work that realizes the nuances of the narrative. That means choosing artwork, designing uniforms, creating scent, all add-on services unless written into the initial agreement.

“You want to balance your time, know what services you want under your wing and for which hotels, which brands,” said Ms. Rottet. “Having done it enough, you know the amount of work you’re getting into and the number of hours involved. Either your client asks for these services up front, or you add them later. To do a great hotel, you want to be involved in all of those services.”
Greatness has its degrees and gauges among different clients and their marketplaces. On one aspect of greatness, they willingly agree: hotel clients want design from a strong point of view. Especially clients who choose Rottet Studio.
What elevates both design and designer, says Ms. Rottet, is a point of view settled on the client’s specifics, not what everyone else in the industry does. She says honing this skill is essential in building a design career.
“A strong point of view, but not a mean one, that is based on plenty of research, isn’t something that clients will debate,” said Ms. Rottet.
It relies on feeding the design mind with careful thought, analysis, review of the project’s context, its market and the client’s mission for the project.
Not everyone gets to a point where design plans are never questioned, although many designers might aspire to it.
“It takes a lot of mentorship from someone who has done it a long time and knows how to do it,” encouraged Ms. Rottet.
That includes recognizing who is and isn’t going to be a great client.
“Sometimes a client isn’t right for you – the ones who believe they can do it better than you but they are shopping for someone to put it on paper is not a client for me and probably not one for any strong designer.”
Why? Because what purpose does having ideas serve if they cannot get into production?
Sifting through those ideas and plucking out the very best ones is another matter. Discernment is an acquired skill.
“A young designer has a lot of ideas, but what they need to do is figure out the best idea – the best look and concept for that particular client and that particular project,” said Ms. Rottet.
“If you have done enough research, you know the client and their building, you know that city, you know the materials, your budget and schedule. Then you can lay that out to your client, saying, ‘this is what we think’ and give your reasons.
“If you have really thought it out, you’ve really listened to your clients, you’ll get their buy-in,” she added. “A good client understands your time and won’t make significant changes late in the process.”
But it is a process where Ms. Rottet involves them early on.

“When we show materials, we sometimes show clients three alternative palettes by saying, ‘we like any one of these, but you tell us what you are comfortable with.’ It’s giving them input into the overall look.”
That is the realm of the design mind: assembling the intel on the client’s likes and dislikes, what they are thinking for the project but leaving unsaid.
“The client’s mindset is what we need to know, understand what’s really in their minds as we’re not trying to dictate to them what they should have,” said Ms. Rottet.
What sometimes results from the firm sifting through their research and choosing the strongest concepts is two alternative plans, both worthy of the client’s consideration. The firm’s interest again lies with involving their clients at the moments when the design team has convictions toward a direction but allows for client’s desire to share ownership.
“I’ll tell them that I’ve thought about this a lot, and you know how much research we’ve done, but I haven’t talked to you and you may have some other ideas,” said Ms. Rottet. “Then you start the dialogue, because this isn’t about arbitrary decisions but instead about a great design coming from research and caring.”
Stay tuned for Part II next week.
Is there a missing word?