Sonya Sotinsky and Miguel Fuentevilla established FORSarchitecture+interiors—a Tucson-based hospitality and residential design firm—in 1997. A vital part of the city’s recent downtown evolution, the husband-and-wife duo is responsible for such eateries as Pizzeria Bianco, Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails, Hub Restaurant & Ice Creamery, and many more. Here, Sotinsky and Fuentevilla discuss their paths to opening their own firm, their accomplishments in Tucson, and taking on hotel projects.
Did you always know you wanted to be designers?
Sonya Sotinsky: Yes, I actually have a ‘what you want to be when you grow up’ paper I wrote at age 8 about being an architect!
Miguel Fuentevilla: Fairly young, but not cognizant of it as a career until 12. I still had aspirations of playing pro sports or sculpting—but that was apparently never going to happen.
What are some of your first memories of design?
SS: LEGOs, drawing, inventing, carving houses out of willow trees’ draping branches at Donaldson Park [in New Jersey].
MF: Visiting churches and civic squares and buildings throughout the U.S., Mexico, and South America. They left such a large impression, especially the Mexican historic churches. Drawing and using popsicle sticks to build things (they were all over the playground). Finally, books that let your imagination soar.
Did where you grew up influence your career path?
SS: Yes. I grew up in New Jersey spending many weekends in New York City where my grandparents lived. We spent quite a bit of time walking the city. Also, I grew up in apartments, which caused me to dream of the perfect house.
MF: Yes, both my parents are professors so we traveled extensively. It opened me up to such an awareness. I grew up in Arizona, and the purposefulness of the desert left such lasting impressions that I didn’t pick up on until years later.
Playground Bar & Lounge
Give us a bit of your background: college, first jobs, early lessons learned?
SS: I lined up my first job to start ON my 16th birthday. I was so excited to start earning my own money as a waitress at Friendly’s [restaurant]. I worked several food service jobs and it is an experience every human being should have. It teaches you the core basics of customer service and dealing with clients. Miguel and I met at the University of Arizona College of Architecture (my No. 1 piece of advice to young architects: date pre-law and pre-med students). I did my master’s at Berkeley.
MF: University of Arizona but that was just a base. I worked at many firms as a young man but my time in Spain at a design firm and in San Francisco is where things slowed down before my very eyes and I could really take in all the lessons I was learning. I learned to make decisive decisions based on programmatic issues. It was fun problem solving.
Why and how did you start your own firm?
SS: Well, ask my 8-year-old self—that was one of the goals I outlined in my paper. So I had no choice but to fulfill that goal. I was 30. In one month we moved states, had a baby, and opened my own business. Because I’m insane, driven, and a control freak—same as every other entrepreneur! How? Chutzpa!
MF: I dabbled on small projects when I had time but Metropolitan Home magazine was having a competition and that was really the beginning. Entering a project that we had designed and getting an award—the seed may have already been planted but it sprouted from there.
Can you discuss some of your recent projects in downtown Tucson?
MF: It started with some lofts but exploded into 11 restaurants and more, coworking, hotels, and retail. It’s a small scale compared to other urban cities but such an accomplishment for this city.
Is there a challenging project that you are especially proud of?
SS: Our overall contribution to the revitalization of downtown. It was a crazy goal I put forth as part of the ‘move back to Tucson’ plan. I look at the street (outside my window right now) teaming with people and I hear people talking about how excited they are about the new downtown—it never ceases to amaze me that I helped make it happen! Tucson has been attempting to ‘revitalize’ its downtown for 30-plus years, and to actually have affected it is thrilling. Other challenges—every project we work on has budgets that you would be surprised by (small!) so creating a rich experience on a tight budget is a challenge every day.
MF: A couple. I would say Hub Restaurant & Ice Creamery [in downtown Tucson] because it was a C-minus location begging to be front and center as an A location. The Rialto Building and its historic nature. These are old buildings that are rehabilitations as much as forward-looking designs. We are preserving these buildings for the next century.
HUB Restaurant and Ice Creamery
What are you looking forward to at your office?
SS: We are currently working on a ground-up AC Hotel here in downtown—it is a fantastic new brand released by Marriott and I’m excited to be part of that! However, one of MY goals right now is working on the business of our business. So I’m looking forward to strengthening our business systems. As boring as that sounds, I’m engaged by the challenge.
MF: Hotel work is back and we are excited to be working on an eight story one in downtown Tucson in our own backyard. We love applying our extensive work in restaurant design to hotels. There are many parallels. Much of our work has been outside of Tucson so its nice to be building in our own downtown and affecting the marketplace. Who knew downtown Tucson could compete with all the great spa hotels in this region?
What do you find are the most challenging and exciting aspects of your job?
SS: Our budgets are small and clients’ expectations are high. Exciting is the rush of seeing the finished project with people enjoying it!
MF: Budgets and our expectations. It’s a constant demand on our expertise. We try and squeeze every ounce of design out of projects.
What is the most important thing to remember when designing a restaurant—both in terms of branding and interiors?
SS: A restaurant is an experience. You are designing an event that is the brand realized in the 3rd dimension. And people are more abusive to restaurants than you can possibly imagine (yes, even nice restaurants) so durability is so important.
MF: We are building a story and want to make the patron part of the story. People go out to have fun. Restaurants are very program oriented but on the other hand they have to have some romance. That’s where the fun lies. The brand is what sets that restaurant apart and making sure that transfers to the vision.
Is there an architect or designer you most admire? Why?
SS: There are plenty of them whose designs I admire. But in terms of an architect that I admire: Miguel, because I have seen close up what it has taken for him to build this business with me.
MF: There are so many. Kahn, Nouvel, the Norwegians, Tihany, the South American designers, and Sonya for her aesthetic, persistence, and precision.
What would be your dream project and why?
SS: I still want to design and build my own ground-up home. (I guess most of my goals were established by age 8!)
MF: Hotels in Bora Bora. Absolutely that’s a slam dunk.
Proper Tucson
If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?
SS: My uncle Michael, whose small balsa model of a house in the shape of his initials inspired me. He died in a motorcycle accident when he was 18 and I was 9—he was my hero growing up.
MF: My brother, Abraham Lincoln, and Abraham Neutra because I bet his stories are fantastic.
Where would you eat and what would you be having?
SS: Go big or go home—eggs Benedict, home fries, bacon, French toast, and Lady M cake on a beach in Bora Bora.
MF: Cheese—lots of it. Beer with my brother and wine with Lincoln and Neutra.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be?
SS: A designer? I joke with people that if my business went away I would probably just be a manager at Target. I can’t envision myself doing anything other than what I am. If I could have, I would have!
MF: That’s tough because design is my passion, but it would have to involve the ocean. Probably marine biology.