As the world continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and adapt to these unprecedented times, HD is checking in with members of the hospitality industry around the globe to find out how their businesses are being impacted and what they anticipate will change down the line.
Glen Coben, Glen & Co
What are the biggest challenges you’re facing?
We figured out the remote working thing pretty quickly. The biggest challenge is missing any nuance. Shrugs, reactions, high fives, fist bumps, and smiles are the things I miss the most. I miss being in the studio, hearing the chatter of the team and the click-click-click of the keyboards. I miss the pop-in visits by friends and vendors, breakfast meetings at Eisenberg’s, the dozen oysters and a beer I enjoy on my way home, and I miss the community with whom I have had the privilege to work with for so many years.
What is your current work situation?
The great news is we maintained our entire team without a reduction in hours or pay. Yes, we received assistance from the SBA, which was an amazing lifeline for two months. Some projects went on pause, some continue, and we have several new projects that recently came in. We are also submitting a few proposals for new work. We grew after the recession of 2009. I don’t expect the same level of growth, but I am cautiously optimistic that we will not only come out of this downturn, but we will come out of it smarter, more patient, and more empathic.
What are some of the positive effects of working in these new ways?
I will say that personally, I am listening more. We celebrated our 20th anniversary at the beginning of April and the mission of Glen & Co has always been to listen to our clients. Given the time in isolation, I find that my listening IQ has gone up. Maybe it is the fact that I am more efficient with my time or simply the change in scenery, but I want to continue to listen before answering a question.
What is your pulse on the industry?
We have plenty of work to keep us busy and the new projects that are coming in are exciting and look like they will challenge us to be better designers. Designing for COVID-19 will be a challenge, but at the end of the day, I believe we will gather in restaurants and lobbies, we will travel and go to meetings. We will do it because it brings us joy and fulfillment. We will just be more aware and safer about it.
What does this mean for the future of hospitality?
Hospitality will come back. It did after each downturn, and it evolved and got better every single time. What this will look like is another story, and I am truly excited to be a part of the journey.
Lastly, share some good news! Have you done anything to stay busy in these crazy times?
I built a vegetable garden and have started growing veggies and herbs from seeds. We have started composting, reclaimed planting beds that had grown over, power washed everything that doesn’t have a heartbeat, cooked and modified recipes, baked lots of bread, fixed things, sketched, lowered my handicap in golf, ridden hundreds and hundreds of miles on our Peloton, started—and then stopped—running, gone on evening walks with my family, fostered a rescue dog from Alabama, and started writing a draft manuscript for a second book. I complain to my family that I have had to cook three meals a day for the last 70-plus days, but I absolutely love it and am blessed to be able to have us all together.
Molly Swyers, 21c Museum Hotels
What are the biggest challenges you’re facing?
As with any sort of crisis, the most challenging part can be the rapid rate at which new information is becoming available. We are developing plans based on information that continually changes or evolves. In this environment, any plans are just a starting point, and we are constantly iterating and pivoting as new information comes along. It feels like building a plane as you are flying it. During these times of uncertainly, there is also a lot of stress and anxiety to manage in order to keep teams motivated and feeling productive, rather than lost and frustrated.
What is your current work situation?
The 21c corporate team continues to work from home. We are staying connected through many calls—lots of Zoom and Teams chats. All of us have taken reductions in pay and schedule as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What are some of the positive effects of working in these new ways?
It has been an opportunity to develop greater empathy. We are all working from home and many of us are juggling childcare and homeschool. You get to know your teammates on a more personal level, and it serves as a reminder that each of us has a life outside of work that may present personal challenges on top of the professional challenges that we are all facing today.
What is your pulse on the industry?
We are certainly facing unprecedented challenges. The recovery will be long. Fortunately, 21c has development partners that take the long view, and our projects are moving forward. We are also still receiving development inquiries as well. With 21c’s unique concept and strong brand loyalty, I am confident we are in a good position to weather this storm.
What does this mean for the future of hospitality?
Like so many other industry experts, I think leisure will return first with drive markets being key. There’s certainly pent up demand, and people are eager to get out of their houses.
Lastly, share some good news! Have you done anything to stay busy in these crazy times?
We moved into a new home about a year and a half ago and have been renovating it slowly since. This break from travel has allowed me to focus on knocking out some of the design projects at home that kept getting pushed to the back burner. And I’ve been playing around with making candles at home—mixing essential oils in an effort to concoct my most favorite. So far, I’m loving hyacinth.
David Shove-Brown + David Tracz, //3877
What are the biggest challenges you’re facing?
David Tracz: One of the most challenging parts of dealing with the pandemic is the speed at which it all happened, and now having to adapt to the slow pace of this new lifestyle, where we’re waiting for next steps. Making adjustments in real time was also challenging, with the ups and downs of a rollercoaster. The dust has settled now, but we’re staying proactive and eagerly awaiting the next steps, but not having our expectations for quickly getting back to normal set too high. The lack of predictability has been hard for most businesses—only being able to plan for three or four weeks out is tricky.
David Shove-Brown: The combination of looking at the big picture for our firm, while keeping an eye on the day-to-day aspects of keeping a business running has been a challenge. As business owners, we’ve had to balance focusing on the micro level of reassuring individual employees that everything’s going to be okay, and managing the logistical aspects of employees working from home, as well as create longterm, macro plans for a future that is still quite unknown. As the co-owners of the business, we have relied on each other a lot during these challenging times.
What is your current work situation?
DSB: When the pandemic hit, we spent a good deal of time setting our employees up with work-from-home stations that would provide a level of productivity and success they were accustomed to. More than ever, effective team leadership—creating and maintaining a two-way street of open communication—is paramount. It’s about being truthful via vulnerability, and being transparent. A few weeks back, we sent out a company-wide email that reminded our team that we’re a community and part of something bigger . Wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve in this type of written communication can be an effective reminder that, at the end of the day, we’re all human.
DT: Unfortunately, we did have to make difficult decisions, including letting some employees go and adjusting salaries for some period of time. We’ll have to make other hard decisions as time goes on since there’s still so many unknowns about the future. We’re prepared to make the best decisions we can, and we understand that it’s not always going to be easy.
What are some of the positive effects of working in these new ways?
DSB: We have been so impressed by our team’s adaptability and the manner in which they rose to the challenge of working remotely. Right now, we’re focused on taking that flexibility and figuring out how to roll it into the future of //3877. We learned how to design and work together remotely, so this situation has made us realize we can ‘do cool shit’ (//3877’s motto) no matter what happens.
What is your pulse on the industry?
DT: Many developers and hospitality owners are realizing that now is a great time to get the permit process going for upcoming projects. Now that the dust of the panic has settled a little, they’re realizing they can use this downtime to their advantage and get ahead. Permit reviewers aren’t taking walk-ins, getting stuck in meetings, and enduring the bureaucracy that usually holds up the process. Once the permit has been passed and people start heading back to construction sites, construction teams can hit the ground running.
On the other hand, the process of our business development cycle has become much longer—decisions are taking weeks and months instead of days. After we begin planning out a new project, we’re going through several rounds of changes, instead of just a few revisions.
DSB: Every single internal company meeting we have, we’re reminding our team to pick up the phone and check in with both previous and current clients. It’s important to be available, and to remind each other that we’re human, and understand that everyone is under more pressure. This factor is definitely adding more time to the business development process.
What does this mean for the future of hospitality?
DT: We’re still learning what the new rules of the game are. Once people feel comfortable going out and congregating, reassuring patrons about an establishment’s post-pandemic hygiene protocol is going to be important. Hotels are setting the tone, and this will ripple into restaurants, depending on what works and what does not. At the end of the day, people will need to be able to see that they’re being taken care of, whether they’re dining or traveling—seeing is believing. This will be important for our collective perception of the brand’s resiliency and efficiency, too.
DSB: People need to remember that this will pass. As designers and architects, we must look to temporarily fix the industry, not redesign it. Business owners are going to want to make their guests feel comfortable—just seeing plastic dividers, UV lights, and touchless fixtures in restrooms will ease guest discomfort. It comes down to training staff to be clean and diligent to ensure guests feel safe.
Lastly, share some good news! Have you done anything to stay busy in these crazy times?
DT: We’ve been supporting local businesses by ordering food and wine, as well as ordering takeout from our restaurant clients and other local spots. It’s also been a nice challenge trying to cook with what we have in the house..
DSB: I’ve been trying to stay active by biking and running. It has certainly been an interesting circumstance to adapt to with a child—children are going through a different emotional state than adults. There are good days, and there are days when I just need to take a few hours and help my daughter build a LEGO Millennium Falcon.
Related stories:
3 Designers on Adjusting to Unpredictable Circumstances
4 Creative Forces on Hard Decisions and What’s Next
4 Designers and Architects on the Future of Hospitality
For more COVID-19-related news and stories from HD, click here.
