High Style: Adam D. Tihany, designer of Beijing's New Tallest Bars and Restaurant at Guomao 3

After growing up in Jerusalem “where to call Jesus you dial local,” Adam D. Tihany has made his mark by masterminding chic interiors all over the world, from New York to Vegas to Dubai, and most style-capitals in-between.

Now one of the world’s pre-eminent hospitality designers, Mr. Tihany, will soon be marking the debut of his design concepts in Beijing. Tihany has designed the interiors for what will be the city’s highest dining and entertainment venues, located from levels 79 to 81 of the 330-meter tall China World Tower (Guomao 3) at the China World Trade Center complex.

These venues, set to open in the first quarter of 2010 will be managed under the banner of soon-to-be-launched China World Summit Wing, a luxurious hotel by Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts. Conceptualized by Tihany are Western restaurant Grill 79, which will occupy the 79th floor, The Lounge and Atmosphere bar (both on level 80), as well as the Chairman Rooms (private dining rooms on the 79th floor) and The Peak (on the 81st floor).

Mr. Tihany has conceived interiors for more than 300 luxury restaurants around the world, including chef Thomas Keller’s Per Se, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Jean-Georges, chef Daniel Boulud’s Daniel and chef Sirio Macchioni’s Le Cirque 2000, all in New York City. In Asia, Mr. Tihany’s notable projects include Pudong Shangri-La, Shanghai’s award-winning Jade on 36, Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore’s striking The Line, and Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur’s Lafite.

Fresh from the opening of the $8.5 million City Center in Las Vegas – “the old-fashioned Dubai” – Mr. Tihany found time to sit down for a chat with Agenda during a short visit to Beijing.

Having designed many of the most prestigious dining and hospitality venues in the world, what is the secret to your success?

I don’t know or pretend to know the secret to success. It’s important of course to know where you are going to as well as where you are coming from. I do know the secret to failure – that is trying to please everyone.

Do you have a signature aesthetic style, as do some of the design heavyweights like Philippe Stark or Zaha Hadid?

Every day I pray to be like them, because it is so easy. If there is one style that you do well and you can do it everywhere, that’s wonderful for them. But in order for us to get the best results for our clients, we have to do something different every time. Think of me not as a designer, but as a custom tailor, or as a portrait artist. It’s about a having a brand that uses me to make people look good. When it comes to design, we always try to be site specific, and do things that cannot be in London or New York or Paris or anywhere else. We are not Gucci. We are more like Brioni.

Describe briefly the process of conceiving designs for projects like these.

You have to ask the question, how should the interior do justice to this location? It needs to be timely and timeless. So we have to know what has come before and imagine what should come later. We have to wind back our heads and think forward. It is a crazy process.

Up in the sky in a tower like this, it is important that you will feel comfortable, not like you are on some foreign planet. Yet, we never design for reality. It is all about perception, aspiration, fantasy. If we design for reality we will always fail.

You are also designing the “tallest restaurant in the world” on the 123rd floor of the Burj Dubai (the tallest building in the world). How does working on the tallest restaurant in Beijing compare?

Well, that restaurant is 40 floors higher! But the view and the experience are both totally different. It’s weird shooting up to the top of the Burj Dubai. You go up almost 125 floors, in 36 seconds, and what do you see? Nothing. There is no view. It’s all desert. Only when you look down do you see the city, because you are so high up. At night it is completely dark. I suppose if you are drunk enough, you can see everything. You’ll be seeing spaceships.

And how about the view for the venues in Beijing?

It is an amazing view of the city. Looking to the west, you can see the rooftops of the Forbidden City. You can see everything. The city is so massive and sprawling that it goes on forever. So this is a very important element of our design. In the daytime, on a clear day, most people will not even notice the design, because they’ll be gawking at the view. At night, you get more of an impression of what we are going for, when the view becomes part of the interior. With a view like that, you can serve anything and people will go!

Speaking of the food, why a steakhouse?

With restaurants, nothing is a guaranteed success, but the closest thing is the Tuscan steak house. It is the most successful F&B model in the world. People love that kind of food all over the world. Everyone eats steak. Everyone enjoys it.

What sort of clientele do you envision for these venues?

I think we’ll see a mix of local businessmen and international travelers. These are sophisticated, worldly people willing to spend the money for a memorable, high quality experience. This customer likes good-looking people. So in our design we have to make sure the lighting is good.

How do you think Beijingers will receive Grill 79?

At chef Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York [designed by Tihany], the restaurant is fully booked three months in advance. Every morning at 9am they start taking reservations for three months ahead, and by 9:15 they have sold out.

This restaurant [China World Summit Wing’s Grill 79] has 80 seats. I will be heartbroken if this is not going to be sold out for the next three years. This venue has been carefully designed to have substantial sophisticated staying power, just like everything we do. And it has a great support system behind it with Shangri-la and China World.

What is it like to be involved with all these high-profile projects – China World Summit Wing, Burj Dubai, Las Vegas City Center – at the same time?

Well, we all got lucky. You are witnessing history, because [after the financial crisis] no one will be able to finish any developments like this for the next ten to 15 years.

This China World project, in particular, is all about optimism. Yes, there is a future and no, it is not so dark. From up there you see a powerful city that represents the new world order. It is an honor for us to participate in the project.