A brand, a building, and a business answer to different people. Rarely to the same idea.

Where the work goes wrong, and where the advisory comes in
A working session

In session · concept and strategy, 2024

Currently advising
WATG Eight Thirty Partners
The view

The brand promises one thing. The architecture says another. The business model quietly argues with both. Most of what eventually goes wrong is decided in that gap.

The work is to close it, to make the idea, the experience, and the economics agree before they become expensive to change. Increasingly that reaches into how AI reshapes the work itself, a question that is organizational long before it is technological.

Read the stories ↗

A worked example Deciding what the thing is, before the brief exists
The record

Conceived and launched Equinox Hotels. Led design across seventy locations and more. Directed Marriott's luxury portfolio, from Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis to EDITION and W. Earlier, W Hotels and Bliss for Starwood, the EDITION concept with Ian Schrager, and brand environments for Nike and Victorinox.

2021NYCxDesign Award · Equinox Headquarters
2021MUSE Design Award, Gold · Equinox Culver City
2020AHEAD Americas, Best Spa & Wellness · Equinox Hudson Yards
2018Interior Design, Best of Year · Equinox Culver City

If you are early on something and not yet sure what it wants to be, that is the right time to talk.

aaron@likutadesign.com See the work ↗