Nestled among the artists and makers in SoHo is collaborative design firm Gachot. Led by Christine Gachot and her husband, John, the firm has been on something of a whirlwind journey since it launched in 2014. For Gachot, who credits much of her success to being in the right place at the right time, it’s more than she ever imagined.
Like any truly great story, Gachot’s starts in New York. Though she grew up not far from the city in Saratoga Springs, she frequently came to Manhattan to see art exhibits or go to the theater. “I always knew it was where I would land,” she says. After graduating from Mount Saint Mary’s College in Newburgh, New York, she took an event and public relations job with artist Peter Max during the heyday of the ’90s art scene.
After four years there, she found herself at burgeoning firm Aero Studios. At the time, founders Bill Sofield and Thomas O’Brien were breathing new life into the design world and were fêted for their spirited and unconventional approach. “You went into [the office] and knew something amazing was happening there,” she recalls. “Interior design was becoming the cool place to be.” Though she wasn’t a trained designer, Sofield encouraged Gachot to go to Parsons School of Design, where she started to take night classes while working on the redesign of the firm’s SoHo Grand Hotel project. “It was one of the most glorious periods of interior design,” she says. “You had so much talent at Bill’s shop. The access to knowledge from these people who were so incredibly talented was a real blessing.”
Ready to learn the business side of hospitality, she sought out a new opportunity with André Balazs, who was also redefining the hospitality industry with the Standard, High Line, the gamechanging hotel that served as a training ground for Gachot. It was here that she learned how to design in a democratic way—to build more of a community than a hotel. But after 11 years there, she was ready to join John (whom she met at Aero Studios) at Gachot, which had been building a clientele that included fashion designer Marc Jacobs. “I knew that if I didn’t leave, it would be another cycle. There would always be another hotel. Hotels are like bad boyfriends: There’s always another one,” she quips.
Today, the boutique firm has made a name for itself by marrying streamlined interiors with unforgettable moments in places like the oft-Instgrammed Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club in Brooklyn and the New York flagship of makeup brand Glossier, which she turned into a frothy sanctuary dipped in pink. But it’s her work on two hotel brands—one new, one reimagined—that proves Gachot’s far-reaching vision.
For the guestrooms and public spaces at the inaugural Washington, DC location for activist brand Eaton, Gachot’s concept let the programming take centerstage with restrained and sophisticated interiors. Meanwhile, to reshape luxury retail brand Shinola into an elegant hotel in Detroit, Gachot worked tirelessly to ingratiate the property into the city’s landscape. “When you’re dealing with other people’s brands, it’s about them, not you. Our team approaches it like a film. We’re there to produce your film. We’re there to guide, to design. You have to help people get there, but you also need to know when to stay in your lane,” she says.
In addition to projects in Costa Rica, Hawaii, and Barbuda, Gachot, once again, will take on another emerging brand when the 164-room Pendry Hotel opens in New York in 2021. “We’re fortunate,” she says, pointing to the diverse projects and people she gets to work with. It’s something that sticks with her when she looks back on those days helping develop the Standard. Often, she would stay at the office overnight or miss holidays. “But when you’re with your close friends, somehow it all works out,” she says. “And it’s pretty great when your kids go by the building and they say, ‘Oh, Mom built that.’ It’s kind of badass.”
Hear more on HD’s “What I’ve Learned” podcast.
A rendering of the west lobby at the planned Pendry Hotel in Manhattan
A minimalistic guestroom at the Eaton in Washington, DC
A bold mural backs a sitting area at the Eaton in Washington, DC
The wood-clad bar at the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club in Brooklyn, New York
Soft pink walls and lipstick red stairs define the Glossier flagship in New York
A vibrant mix of art lines the staircase in the Shinola Hotel in Detroit
The steamroom in the Shephard, a 42-unit luxury condominium building in New York’s West Village
The Shinola Hotel’s San Morello restaurant reveals an Old World Italian style
The front desk at the Shinola Hotel is backed by an avant-garde wallcovering
Photography by Julien Campbell, James C. Jackson, and courtesy of Eaton; renderings by Hayesdavidson; Nicole Franzen, Evan Joseph, and courtesy of Gachot
