As a child growing up in France’s picturesque Brittany region, renowned designer Pierre-Yves Rochon gravitated toward sculptures and earthen ceramics. So much so that “I spent more time alone with my designs and in my own world than playing with the other children,” he says. Though he initially was attracted to film’s dramatic lens (he did a brief stint with a French TV show about a fictional ballet), Rochon eventually found his way to interior design, studying at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse and starting his career working for French designer Michel Boyer until opening his eponymous firm in Paris in 1979, part of global design firm Perkins+Will since 2007, with a second office in Chicago.
He has become a master of luxury, designing everything from the new Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills to such icons as Paris’ Four Seasons Hotel George V, which was a passion project for Rochon, who was selected from seven designers competing to refresh the decadent circa-1928 Art Deco hotel. His success comes from connecting with the properties he takes on, as he first looks for “a sense of emotion and a challenge—I never design just for design,” he explains. To him, it’s about achieving a balanced, “just right” aesthetic, meaning “the proportions feel good, the details are thoughtful, it’s chic. You have to know when to stop and have some restraint, which is the hard part.”
That was the case when he partnered with the Edmond de Rothschild Heritage and Baroness Ariane de Rothschild on the Four Seasons Hotel Megève, which opened in December. (It’s a complete 360 for him, as one of his first jobs, a bank, was with the famed Rothschild family.) In honor of Ariane’s grandmother, who developed the premier chalet in the French ski-resort town, Rochon drew from the 1920s, using warm wood and stone inspired by the nearby mountains. “We didn’t design from thin air—everything was tied to the emotion of the place,” he says. Ariane also contributed art pieces from the family’s collection, which add bold color to the serene alpine palette.
Known to celebrate the rich heritages of his projects, Rochon often preserves their spirit through an idiosyncratic design, notably in the ongoing redos of the circa-1920s Hôtel Martinez Cannes and the St. Regis Rome (a former 1894 palace), as well as in the upcoming renovations of New York’s classic Waldorf Astoria and the InterContinental Paris Le Grand. And though the Four Seasons Hotel Firenze in Italy took more than seven years to complete, it remains a favorite of Rochon’s. “One of my business partners used to joke that it was my mistress,” he quips. “I even lived there for some time during the winter, walking [into] each cold room and considering each detail.”
The versatile firm is now expanding its reach with furniture and lighting collections as well as retail offerings. Most recently, Rochon worked alongside Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron on the 57-story Jade Signature residential skyscraper in Miami, which features three floors of hospitality-like amenities. Boasting an exterior clad in extended concrete floor slabs, the lively spirit of Miami comes to life inside with a predominately all-white palette that allows the sweeping ocean views to shine. “We are always looking for projects that are new and different,” says Rochon. “I hate doing anything the same—that’s why we’re still working today.”
