The gift of perspective: if you can imagine it, you can build it

I’ll never forget the day, twenty-seven years ago, when I first interviewed with this firm in the old Newport Beach office. As I entered the lobby, I immediately noticed a collection of beautiful ceramic pots that Jerry Allison (the “A” in WATG) had made in his own home kiln. Each pot represented a special memory and told its own story. Once I joined the firm and had an opportunity to work with Jerry, I recognized quickly that his enthusiasm and thirst for creativity was infectious – the type of design leader who sought out inspiration in all aspects of daily life. He often invited his team to see a recently released film or take a few staff to Disneyland to sketch and study proportions and detailing. Of course it was fun, but in reality his goal was to encourage us to see the world through different, creative lenses. Sketchbooks were required for every field trip!

Jerry was the epitome of pushing the creative boundaries. His own corner office had whimsical objects hanging from the ceiling – things he’d collected from his travels that felt other-worldly, but surely inspired his daily work. When describing his experience on the Palace of the Lost City, which opened in South Africa in 1992, he once said “what I learned from this project is that if you can imagine it, you can build it.” Jerry, our client Sol Kerzner, and the design team ultimately developed a new style of architecture, driven by the client’s vision and the designers’ imagination. Nearly 30-years later, Sun International still refers to the project as “a tribute to man’s imagination and brilliant architectural achievement.”

Imagination is required in our work but, to me, it is also a gift. It’s one of my own personal passions and is so central to what we do collectively at WATG and Wimberly Interiors. We don’t need permission to liberate our minds and be creative – it is a given, so deeply embedded in our culture from the beginning seventy-five years ago, even before Jerry Allison’s days. This is why I’ve been here for twenty-seven years – I love our spirit of imagination and “escapism” and I’m passionate about carrying this guiding principle forward with our team and for our clients.

We don’t need permission to liberate our minds and be creative – it is a given, so deeply embedded in our culture from the beginning 75 years ago.

Over the last two months in quarantine, I’ve heard from many fellow team mates who have been transforming their personal spaces into new sources of inspiration and motivation – maybe rearranging furniture, art, plants, or just working in different places through the course of the day. Even if we’re not moving or changing anything at all, we’re all still experiencing our homes in new and different ways – exploring new recipes in our kitchens or taking in nature in our own backyards. We’re using spaces we hadn’t really used before.

We have been forced to break out of our routines and try new things, with the new perspective that there are no rules, and no bad or wrong ideas. Anything goes when you’re exploring new ways to entertain our families and seek diversion from the workday. Here at home, I recently completed a 1,000-piece puzzle that I’d bought eight years ago and carried with me on at least two or three vacations over the years hoping for the space and time to open it. But I never did, until this pandemic forced me to slow down. It’s been an amazing experience to be able to sit and think, because when you’re working on a puzzle, you can really only do that one thing. You can’t multi-task or juggle devices. As you search for pieces, you really have to be focused and still. I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed this newfound opportunity.

Anna Wintour has been reflecting on her own new post-COVID-19 perspectives in a series of Vogue posts. In one, she describes a space in her home that she previously only used to get from one room to another, but that she now uses daily as her “WFH HQ.” She also shared a picture of the bench in her garden, a gift on her 25th anniversary at Vogue, that she now appreciates for new reasons. Reading her posts got me thinking about how we all have the ability to see things from new perspectives as long as we allow ourselves to.

We push the limits of our minds through different perspectives and heightened senses, and ultimately help to make our clients’ dreams a reality.

This is not unlike the role we play on design projects. One of the many favorite parts of my job is our team’s ability to visit a new project site and, as we move around the site and stand in different spots, take in different perspectives and imagine what the space can become. Aroma, rhythm, touch, lines of sight – these are the sensations we gather and hold with us. We push the limits of our minds through these different perspectives and heightened senses, and ultimately help to make our clients’ dreams a reality.

We love walking into a new space – an old building, a piece of land, a restaurant, a meeting room – and having the client ask us, “so what do you think?” In some cases, we’re pushing beyond what our clients might have imagined. Maybe the client has held onto this piece of land for decades and has ideas about what they want to do. But when we start working together, together we imagine what the original dream can become.

When we arrived as a team at the project site in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico that would later become the Nobu Hotel Los Cabos, we all scattered and explored it from different vantage points in order to imagine every possibility and the journey hotel guests could one day experience at the stunning new Pacific Coast resort. When we toured Bird Cay in the Bahamas, we explored the abandoned estate home and took in the beautiful vistas of the private island, thinking “if these walls could talk!” Over a conch ceviche lunch (served fresh by our boat guide, since the island doesn’t have any restaurants) we imagined the stories ourselves, and excitedly started to conjure them – creating the images of what this resort could become. The experience is similar when we’re renovating an existing property, like the Park Hyatt Aviara where we’re creating a new outdoor guest experience. We walk through the space and not only see things from perspectives that are new to us, but we also create new lenses for our client to look through, so they too can reimagine the space’s potential.

As designers, we have to keep creating. It doesn’t stop for us. Even when we’re at home rather than in our design studios or out on the project site, our minds are still creating ideas and imagining things. Our senses have been heightened by what we’re enduring today. Imagination allows us to step into worlds that are unlike our current one. Even when the world around us is worrisome, we can create havens for ourselves and our family and find joy in that. This time of quarantine has given us the opportunity to find new interpretations of joy.

Imagination allows us to step into worlds that are unlike our current one.

It mimics the sense of escapism we often feel when we travel, and the new perspectives we gain. When we’re removed from the distractions of our “normal” lives – when we’re still – we notice the details and develop a heightened sense of our surroundings. When we emerge from this period, we must continue to make time for focus, stillness, creativity and connection.

ABOUT
Monica Cuervo is Senior Vice President and Managing Director of The Americas at WATG. With more than twenty-seven years of domestic and international design and leadership experience, she has been at the forefront of over 50 destinations worldwide, including the award-winning Nobu Hotel Los Cabos, The Ritz Carlton Lake Las Vegas (now a Hilton), and the Four Seasons Cartagena, among others.