In celebration of Women’s History Month, HD is taking the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the many inspiring women who elevate the hospitality world and beyond with their talent, drive, and ability to defy convention. Here, we check in with three industry leaders about where they find inspiration, their dream projects, and their proudest recent accomplishment.
Aliya Khan
VP of design, lifestyle brands, Marriott International
What is your earliest design memory?
Standing on the balcony of our apartment in Hong Kong, trying to draw the view of Central with my dad’s office (then called Connought House, now Jardine House). I remember laboring over those circular windows wanting it to be perfect. I was about 4 years old.
What was the moment you knew you wanted to be a designer?
After I decided I didn’t have the stomach to be a plastic surgeon. Either way—some idea of dissection creation was a part of the thread. A scalpel became an X-Acto knife.
What keeps you passionate about the job?
I love hotels. I love travel. I love people-watching. My job allows me to take all three things and organize them with purpose.
What is your dream project?
I am not sure I have just one. The tighter the parameters, the more satisfying the outcome. That is why I especially like the challenge of design-led select-service brands. More with less should never mean more without meaning—or being like everyone else.
What inspires you?
Everything. This sounds so trite, but inspiration exists everywhere. With limited travel during this time, even things like daily walks, reading, and cooking new foods have kept me engaged and stimulated. Exploration, even in your own neighborhood, never gets old.
Marriott’s AC Hotel Washington DC Downtown, crafted by Rodrigo Vargas Design
What woman do you want to elevate in the industry that we should know?
I grew up with two amazing grandmothers. Inspiring, strong women who always made something out of nothing. They were problem-solvers who were always trying to improve their lives and the lives of those around them. Today, those influences continue differently. My days are filled and supported by a team of hardworking, dedicated women. Plus, my chosen family. All of them are in this industry—and you know them all—Audra [Tuskes], Bridget [Higgins], Christine [McGinnis], Lisa [McClung], Margaret [McMahon], Joan [Cardy], and Josie [Driscoll]. They are my sounding boards, who always make me better.
What advice would you give to your younger self as you embarked on your career?
Do the work. All of it. Do it with heart. Be patient. Listen. Passion and commitment will always lead to something more.
What’s your proudest recent accomplishment?
Survival? Just kidding. More than any one thing, it is being able to work at this weird disjointed time with so many different people all over the world in so many novel ways—and be so excited about some of the work coming ahead for my brands: AC, Moxy, Westin, and so much more.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be doing?
Something that tactically continues around the spirit of being hospitable, but also ties to my passions of travel, people, conversations, food, botanicals, elaborate stage sets, and dining in unexpected places.
Angie Lee
Partner + design director, FXCollaborative
What is your earliest design memory?
Watching my mom take classic 1970s wood paneling and flocked velvet wallpaper off the walls of our house in Kansas and hang modern, textured white wallcoverings, which transformed the whole place. I remember her brushing the glue onto the back of the curly paper and hanging the wet rolls from the top of a ladder while swearing in Korean if she made a mistake.
What was the moment you knew you wanted to be a designer?
This may sound strange, but it was when I was already an architect working in New York City. The interior designers in my office seemed to be making a more emotionally meaningful impact on the design experience than I was, and I wanted to escape the somewhat rigid church of modernist, midcentury, Bauhaus-centric design worship that molds most architects. Plus, it just looked more fun.
What keeps you passionate about the job?
The simple and pure thrill of an idea transforming into the built environment used to be enough to keep me up late at night and then back at it the next day through hell or high water. Staying passionate now involves the people I work with. Without a shared desire for design excellence driven by omni-directional respect, the most electrifying enthusiasm can lose its potency.
What is your dream project?
Any commission that would bring together a dream team on the client, consultant, and design sides. I used to want to work with big budgets and impressive brand names, but what they say is true—the devil’s in the details, and I’m very much over that guy. I’m dreaming about different details nowadays.
A rendering of 1 River Park, a residential building in Brooklyn by FXCollaborative
What inspires you?
Beauty, especially in the form of courage that you will find in risk takers and honest storytellers, can inspire the best and biggest ideas for me.
What woman do you want to elevate in the industry that we should know?
I work with a woman named Kimberley Petredis. She is an intrepid manager and enduringly passionate about design. The residential interiors that we design at FXCollaborative have her DNA embedded in them, and you should know about her.
What advice would you give to your younger self as you embarked on your career?
Learn the rules less so to break [them] but to understand how to change the game.
What’s your proudest recent accomplishment?
By way of some panels and press, I unwittingly provided representation for designers who never expected to see someone who looked like them in a leadership position. Pride may not perfectly capture the emotion for this, but I count those moments as accomplishments over finishing projects that I may be proud of but are me doing my job.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be doing?
Probably not succeeding as a photographer or a writer, and wishing I was a designer, because it looks so fun!
Joyce Wang
Principal, Joyce Wang Studio
Earliest design memory?
Draping blankets off our bunk bed with my brother to create our bedouin tent. We even brought lamps inside to light the interior, which gave it a magical dimension.
What was the moment you knew you wanted to be a designer?
When I stepped into the HSBC bank building with my mum—seeing the spectacle of busy bodies moving through a space and remembering how powerful that felt.
What keeps you passionate about the job?
My team. The thing that gets me up in the morning is working alongside them and knowing that the best ideas always come from all of us working together.
What’s your dream project?
An outdoor luxury spa cinema that features a foraged menu from its surroundings.
What inspires you?
The people I work with. We are “all-in” people, who pour our hearts over design. It would be impossible to convince us to behave otherwise.
The penthouse suite at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, designed by Joyce Wang Studio
What woman do you want to elevate in the industry that we should know?
Working mums, women who work with their hands, and the women who work in hospitality and operations, who make our designs come alive.
What advice would you give to your younger self as you embarked on your career?
Believe in yourself, or else no one will.
What’s your proudest recent accomplishment?
Joining the Young Presidents’ Organization and being part of a forum of incredible individuals.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be doing?
Most likely working in film and cinematography. I see many parallels between interior design and filmmaking. Building anticipation, developing character, and mastering storytelling are some of the most important themes we explore in every project that we become involved in.
Click here for more Women’s History Month coverage from HD.
