Born in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, Rashana Zaklit’s family immigrated to Southern California in 1987 to avoid the violence. Though encouraged to pursue medicine, law, or engineering, Zaklit opted for a more creative outlet, studying interior architecture at California State University, Long Beach. Today, she defines success as happiness, both at work and home. “If you asked me 10 years ago, I would have said money and career,” she admits. “Those are important to have, but I realized over time that those things are meaningless without the people parts working and thriving.”
On choosing hospitality
Zaklit’s first role was with global hospitality giant WATG, which allowed her to travel in a way she never had before. “Seeing the world and learning about different cultures and how that influences design decisions was so romantic for me,” she says.
Zaklit joined Gensler in 2011, first in the Los Angeles office and then in San Francisco, where for the past decade, she has helped the firm grow its hospitality arm with projects including the Virgin Hotels San Francisco rooftop and AC Hotels by Marriott properties in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, California. “Hospitality allows me to design for moments in people’s lives,” she says. “It’s built around asking ‘How will this make someone feel?’”
A rendering of an upcoming lifestyle hotel in Sunnyvale, California
Early lessons learned
“At school, it was always about my point of view, but in my career, I quickly learned that it was about the end user and how they will experience what we create as a team,” she says. “I learned to say yes to everything, especially in those early years. Coming out of school, I naively thought putting my stamp on the design world was just showing what I can do. I learned that [teamwork] is key and collaboration is golden. [Luckily], I had smart people around me that were willing to teach me and also challenge me.”
Alternate career choice
If she wasn’t a designer, Zaklit says she’d likely be a chef, taking inspiration from her mom’s “insanely delicious Lebanese food. I learned our creative process is also similar because she cooks with her feelings, which makes it hard to get accurate recipes from her. It’s always from the heart.”
On her tombstone
“Wait! I’m not done yet!”
The dining area at the soon-to-be Hyatt Monterey in California, shown in a rendering
A rendering of the bar area at an in-development lifestyle hotel in Milpitas, California
Photos and renderings by Ryan Gobuty, Jason O’Rear, and courtesy of Gensler
This article originally appeared in HD’s July 2020 issue.
