Lauren Rottet

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inspiring interiors
rottet studio
Photos courtesy of Rottet Studio
Photos by TK, TK.com
Inspiring Interiors
inspiring interiors
The Bar Pleiades
at The Surrey hotel
is one of Rottet’s
favorite places
to watch people
interact with her
interior design.
Leading Lady
With a career spanning more than 25 years and projects running
the gamut from hotels and hospitals to showrooms, offices,
and residences, Lauren Rottet has become synonymous with
arresting architecture and interior design, reimagining the way we
interact with our built environments. We revisit one of her most
high-profile projects, The Surrey hotel in New York By Katie Tandy
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L
auren Rottet entered the University of
Texas not knowing exactly what she
wanted “to do.”
Originally an art and pre-med student, she
knew at least that medical illustration was
not her true career path. “It was boring,
boring, boring!” she recalls. Her then-boyfriend (and now husband) suggested she
switch her major to architecture, reminding her that all she loved to draw and paint
were buildings, bridges, highways, and
houses. “I did it,” says Rottet. “I switched,
and I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
After cutting her teeth on the Olympic
Tower in New York City—a sweeping Fifth
Avenue high-rise she designed with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill—Rottet headed
DMJM Rottet for 14 years (an interior architecture and design extension of SOM).
She finally launched her own company,
Rottet Studio, in 2008. And she came in
like a lion, landing luxurious Upper East
Side boutique hotel The Surrey for the new
company’s first hotel project.
Originally built in 1926, the 190-room hotel
underwent a $60 million restoration under
Rottet Studio and reopened in 2009 boasting a celebration of its Beaux Arts history
infused with a contemporary edge. The
Surrey developers reached out to her after
seeing her work on a Parisian restoration
project. They were looking for something
that could rival The Carlyle and The Mark,
something traditional, but “with a twist.”
The overhaul—and the location, a stone’s
throw from Central Park—was cinematic
to say the least. Permeating all of Rottet’s
work is a cross-pollination of disciplines
(especially film, theater, and psychology)
that inform her design and the immersive
environments she creates. With hotels,
Rottet keeps in mind the property’s clientele, market sector, and immediate competitor, but she approaches the space largely as set design.
Rottet says she makes herself a kind of film
director, writing a short script and a movie in her mind’s eye, which serves as the
lynchpin of her design.
“I think of a particular character and then
create a backdrop with a particular mood
and ambience,” she says. “This allows me to
divorce the design from my personal taste
and into whatever bests sup- (continued…)
219
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Photos by TK, TK.com
Inspiring Interiors
inspiring interiors
220
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Rottet used a
monochromatic
palette of black,
white, cream, and
gray to echo the
cinematic circa-1925
building’s past, but
infused the space
with contemporary
art such as the
striking Jenny Holzer
“You Are My Own”
photograph behind
the reception desk.
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inspiring interiors
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rottet studio
port this storyline.” From furniture and lighting to materials and layout,
Rottet parses out each detail to serve her
cinematic vision. The Surrey was one of her
most successful silver-screen design manifestations. Her imagined star? Coco Chanel.
(…continued)
Rottet is the first to admit that The Surrey was a decided departure from much
of her work, offering a new opportunity to
immerse herself in a historic context and
aesthetic. “It was a whole new game for us,”
she says. “If you look at my background, I do
very contemporary architecture, very purist with minimal details.”
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Rottet says that
overseeing every
aspect of her company,
toggling between big
picture aesthetics and
day-to-day operations,
remains an ongoing trial.
“In creative fields, the
trick is always changing
your mindset,” she
says. “You’re trying to
think your head into a
conceptual design and
the next moment you’re
looking at year-end
financials or which
Internet company to use.”
Armed with E.B. White’s book Here Is New
York and visions of “beautiful and absolutely classic” Coco Chanel, Rottet began her
revision of The Surrey. One of the design
mandates, she says, was to stay true to the
building’s history; a monochromatic palette of black, white, cream, and gray echoes
the romance of bygone days, coupled with
lush materials like mohair, high-sheen lacquer, silk, and stone.
“Originally the lobby was going to be bigger,
but in my mind it was too meandering. If
it was actually 1925, the lobby would have
been beautiful, but tiny, a kind of pied-àterre,” says Rottet. “We used tiger beige
limestone and instead of an oriental rug,
we have a stone mosaic, which creates an
instant perception of that fashion. It’s all
brand-new, but is a virtual recreation of
what it might have been like.”
The guest rooms feature sumptuous but
structured elements like silk brocade pillows, hand-painted wardrobes and sleek,
silver-riveted armchairs. More tongue-incheek elements find their way into the lobby,
restaurant, and Bar Pleiades, celebrating
Rottet’s personal penchant for contemporary art. From a huge tapestry of Kate Moss
and a graffiti-strewn cabinet by Jimmie
Martin, to a wool-felt relief piece by Helen
Amy Murray and the striking Jenny Holzer
“You Are My Own” photograph behind the
reception desk, The Surrey offers sophistication with a dash of avant-garde sass.
Contemporary art isn’t the only dialogue
among the projects in Rottet’s deep portfolio. “If you look closely from project to project, you‘ll see a consistency,” says Rottet.
“I’m always working with the manipulation of light, planes, volumes, mirrors, and
reflections. I like things to feel like they
don’t end. I’m very claustrophobic myself
and hate the feeling of being shut in.”
Left: Two hallmarks
of Rottet’s aesthetic:
contemporary art, in
this case a graffitistrewn cabinet by
Jimmie Martin, and
reflective surfaces
designed to make
spaces feel endless
Rottet has returned to The Surrey since her
redesign, exploring the space as a kind of
social spy to gauge the success of her work
there. “I’ve watched everyone interact in
the little Bar Pleiades, for example, when no
one knows I designed it. I had these people
in mind, how they looked and where they
would sit. They’re flirting and dressed up. It
looks the way I thought it would,” she says.
“It’s fascinating.”
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