What if a hotel could change the way you see the world? Dan sits down with Paolo Ferrari, founder of Studio Paolo Ferrari, to talk about design that goes beyond beautiful and into transformational. They get into why luxury lives in the stitch and not the chair, how film shapes the way he designs urban hotels, and why constraints and friction make for better work. Paolo also explains why shared values matter more than any pitch, how to protect a big vision when the budget gets real, and why physical spaces will matter more than ever as life moves online.

Paolo Ferrari is the founder and principal designer of Studio Paolo Ferrari and was named Boutique Design's 2025 Designer of the Year. For over 20 years he has been shaping some of the most ambitious hospitality projects in the world, including the cave-carved Desert Rock resort in Saudi Arabia. He is known for blending timelessness with courageous invention, and for chasing that moment when someone walks into a space and feels something they never expected.

Chapters:
00:00 Ambition And Uncertainty

00:31 Podcast Mission And Sponsor

01:06 Meet Paolo Ferrari

03:03 Optimism And Joyful Energy

03:57 Defining Hospitality As Generosity

04:41 Luxury Lives In Details

09:34 From Experience To Transformation

16:04 Programming And Urban Wonder

22:04 Designing For The Future

33:53 Friction Fuels Excellence

34:58 Sponsor Sustainability Update

35:23 Why Budgets Must Be Shared

36:55 Start With Vision

39:06 Value Engineering Creativity

43:01 Paradigm Shifting Projects

46:16 Design As Optimism

49:26 Choosing Aligned Clients

54:17 Analog Spaces Matter

Quote of the Show:
"Those physical spaces are gonna carry so much more weight. They're not just indulgent. They're how we connect." - Paolo Ferrari

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/studio-paolo-ferrari/?originalSubdomain=ca
• Guests Website: https://www.paoloferrari.com/
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/

What if the best sign of great hospitality is that nothing ever gets in your way? Dan Ryan sits down for a live recording of Defining Hospitality, set in a podcast studio tucked inside a former 1930s sandwich shop at Rockefeller Center. The conversation moves from frictionless guest experiences to the habit of saying “we” instead of “I,” with stops along the way for world building, big stakeholder rooms, and the fears that grow as a business does. It’s candid, funny, and built on a friendship that came before any business did.

Drew Stewart is an architect, interior designer, and occasional developer, and a founding partner and director of construction and development at INC Architecture & Design. He has spent 20 years growing the New York studio into a powerhouse, earning a spot in the Interior Design Hall of Fame along the way. His work includes the TWA Hotel, 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, and the Atlas Hotel at Harvard, and he is celebrating the milestone with a monograph, Us Is More, hitting shelves TODAY October 14th.

Chapters:

00:00 Why Hospitality Matters

00:35 Meet Drew Stewart

01:22 Recording at Rock Center

03:00 A Designer’s Eye for Detail

04:09 Defining Frictionless Hospitality

05:44 Managing Mega Projects

11:19 Tech That Aligns Stakeholders

14:52 Hall of Fame Moment

19:07 Us Is More and The Book

34:38 Spending Your Own Money

35:10 Fine Tuning Design Value

35:54 New Empathy For Developers

37:06 Entrepreneurship And Risk

38:04 Fear Grows With Success

39:08 TWA And World Building

41:06 Rockefeller Concourse Redesign

47:29 Building 1 Hotel With Barry

50:51 Book Future And Farewell

Quote of the Show:

“Having creative, thoughtful people across the table turns out to be the single most important thing about any project.” - Drew Stuart

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-stuart-22bb286/
• Guests Website: https://inc.nyc/
• Us is More Book: https://a.co/d/01ctnv2F
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/

What if the biggest advantage in hospitality design isn't having more options, but fewer, better ones?

On this episode of Defining Hospitality, Ashley Squires walks through how The Stylist Group is rethinking the front end of design sourcing. She breaks down how her team narrows a project down to a tailored "starter kit" pulled from dozens of premier manufacturers, why a fast turnaround can save a firm real time and money, and how she's working to bring a sense of joy back into a process that too often feels like a grind.

Ashley Squires is an interior designer, hospitality design expert, and creative strategist with more than 25 years of experience across hospitality, multifamily, and private aviation spaces. She's led design work for major hotel brands, multifamily developments, and cruise lines, giving her firsthand insight into where the sourcing process breaks down for design teams. Alongside her partner Andrea, she co-founded The Stylist Group to turn that experience into a free resource other designers could lean on.

Chapters:
00:00 Stylist Group Promise

00:24 Show Mission Intro

00:48 Sponsor Message

00:57 Meet Ashley Squires

01:23 Time Is Money Setup

02:57 Defining Hospitality

03:25 What Stylus Group Does

04:50 Library Space Problem

06:24 Curating From 27 Makers

09:26 Designer Testimonials

11:26 Fast Turnarounds

15:33 How Palettes Get Picked

18:25 Christmas Day Unboxing

19:54 Sustainability Break

20:19 Measurable Time Savings

22:06 How To Get Started

25:12 Recent Project Wins

33:27 Wrap Up And Contact

Quote of the Show: "No matter what the needs are, whether you're a big firm or you're just starting out, consider us your design resource library." - Ashley Squires

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyksquires/
• Guests Website: https://www.stylist-group.com/
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/