Both Tennessee born and graduates of Auburn University’s College of Architecture, Design, and Construction in Alabama, Will Meyer and Gray Davis are so compatible, that it’s no surprise they run one of the most prestigious design firms in the country. Post college, Davis’ path led him to work with John Saladino and Thomas O’Brien, while Meyer honed his craft with Peter Eisenman and Charles Gwathmey. “[After moving to New York], we started working together on a few side projects,” says Meyer. “One of our professors urged us to form our own office.” They finally did in 1999.
“It took off almost immediately,” says Davis. A private residence and a restaurant project “started us off and established what our practice is all about: beautifully defined residential and hospitality work,” adds Meyer. “Those worlds, while seemingly different, actually inform each other.”
That beautifully designed (and award-winning) hospitality work is evidenced by a string of luxury and boutique hotels—a number of Four Seasons properties, W Chicago Lakeshore, and 1 Hotel South Beach, to name a few—as well as collaborations with a slew of superstar chefs, including Andrew Carmellini, Daniel Boulud, Michael White, and Tom Colicchio.
The gamechanging 1 Hotel South Beach was the duo’s entrant into sustainability-minded design. “Working with Barry Sternlicht and Kemper Hyers on a new brand in its infancy, we came up with something unique,” says Davis. “And seeing it at its opening during Art Basel, with people celebrating and having a good time, was very exciting.”
As to their partnership and its success, they cite a mutual energy and dynamism—and an ability to know what’s in the other’s head. “I can start a sketch,” says Davis, “and Will can come in and complete it. There’s something comforting in that. I like to think that, coming from the South, there’s a respect for each other and a graciousness about [the process].”
Those Southern manners emerge when describing the other’s virtues, too. Says Davis of Meyer: “He’s a true friend and a gentleman. I’m inspired by him every day.” And Meyer on Davis: “It’s inspiring to see him draw and work out a plan. No one does that better than Gray.”
