[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Welcome back to the Interior Collective. I'm your host, Anastasia Casey and today's guests are two women whose work I've admired for years. I'm joined by Lucia Bartholomew and Kaylee Lambert, the co founders and design principals of Electric Bowery. Based in Venice Beach, California, Electric Bowery is a design studio that has carved out a distinct niche at the intersection of residential and hospitality design, with a philosophy rooted in wellness, inclusivity and creating spaces for a life well lived. Their work is as soulful as it is striking. What began with residential development projects has grown into a portfolio of hospitality destinations that celebrate landscape, site specificity and collaboration at every level. Lucia and Kayleigh's story is one of partnership meeting at Gary Partners, building a shared vision and founding a female led studio that thrives on openness and innovation. In this conversation, we'll explore what it means to run a business together as women in a male dominated industry, how they've grown their firm, and how their signature Electric Bowery aesthetic translates seamlessly between private homes and public spaces. If you've ever been curious about partnership, hospitality or the design philosophies shaping today's most inspiring spaces, this is an episode you won't want to miss.
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[00:02:00] Speaker B: If you've been listening to the Interior Collective for a while, you probably have heard all kinds of software recommendations and maybe even tried a few. But if your system still feels kind of all over the place, I totally get it. That's exactly why I wanted to share Materio that's M A T E R I O. It's an all in one platform built just for interior designers. From concept to install and everything in between, you can try it for free at Getmaterial and Interior Collective. Listeners get 50% off their first month hello ladies. Welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you both. As we were talking before we hit record, I'm really excited for today's opportunity to just Learn from two expert partners. Because designers are often really interested in having a creative buddy, someone to, like, get through this business with a sounding board, or someone who's great at the business side of things. So I'm really grateful and thankful that you are here to share in your expertise of having a business partner. So let's go ahead and take it back to the beginning. Talk to us about when you first met Gary Partners and what drew you two to each other as collaborators and eventually led you to start Electric Battery together.
[00:03:13] Speaker D: So it's kind of a funny story. The first day we met, we were hired and started at Gary Partners on the same day. Kaylee actually held the door open for me walking in on the first day, and we kind of did all the onboarding there together. And we found out we had so many kind of personal similarities, like, we were driving the same car. We have, like, a lot of kind of similarities in our history. We both did the Cornell program. Well, she went to Cornell, and I did the program abroad at Rome. So we, you know, immediately had a lot of kind of stories to share. Our time in New York, lots of kind of overlaps. We lived kind of near each other in New York at slightly different times. So we were kind of fast friends. And being hired at Gary Partners was sort of a strange experience. It was such a big firm, and we were hired for, like, one big project, and we were focusing on really specific details of, like, the stairways and exit stairs and stuff. That was just not the most fun design side of things.
And we both kind of just, you know, we talked a lot about how we wanted to do something a little different, a little bit more intimate, a little bit more human scale in our careers and not necessarily working on these gigantic buildings abroad that wouldn't be done for decades. So we were really aligned in that way. And I think, like, over the course of that time at Gary Partners, we kind of just started to dream up this idea. And then Kaylee's family has a business. I'll let her kind of jump in on that side of things and how that helped us get started.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Yeah, well, very much started with friendship, as Lucia mentioned. So our time at Gary was awesome. And just getting to know each other. And I think we were kind of Lucian. I are also just coincidentally about the same height at the time. Our hair was about the same length. We were often mistaken for one another.
So, yes, fast friends. And it was a very, you know, fun experience working there together. But as she mentioned, we were interested in, and I think aligned not only in wanting to work at the more intimate scale. But also, you know, we're both women, we were Both in our 20s at the time, but still thinking ahead in life and our futures and with our own partners and now husbands and family planning. And I come from a family of architects and just knowing how demanding the design profession can be, time wise and bandwidth wise and so how to manage those expectations between life and work life and home life, and wanting to plan ahead for flexibility with our own families. So, yeah, in that, you know, I have a lot of personal experience watching my parents do it and my mom helped guide us and mentor us in that. Those first steps in getting our own studio started up, we were sort of moonlighting working at other studios after Gary partner smaller studios, while we were also on the sidelines in my. This home that I was renovating with my husband that was essentially looked like an abandoned house, but we carved a little corner out of it where we, we started the, the studio, I guess. And those were the very early days. So it was, you know, driven both out of obvious friendship and connection and I think just like immediate trust. I think that was a big part of it. Like trusting your gut. I could not have thought, you know, prior to that there was never a, you know, colleague or, or maybe even a classmate that I'd gone through my architecture degree with that I could think, oh, one day we're going to be business partners. It was never that way. So, yeah, it sort of very organically unfolded and that was the beginnings of what now is Electric Gallery.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: So without knowing each other while you were both studying, because one was in Rome, one was at Cornell and.
But essentially taking the same program. I don't know how exactly aligned the program is when you're abroad versus on campus, but it is interesting to me that you were both classically trained in the same way. Essentially. How much do you think that that affected the ability to be like, oh, we could definitely work together because, like, we have, we have the same foundation.
[00:07:30] Speaker D: Yeah, I think. Well, I. So my background, I did an undergrad degree that was just a liberal arts degree. Like it wasn't an architectural degree. And then in that program I did a study abroad program at Rome. It wasn't my full thing, but it was through the Cornell program. So that was just kind of six months of my training. And then I went to get my master's degree at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, which is a great program. It's very different than, you know, what I learned there is very different than what we do day to day, it's actually a lot less classical, probably a lot less traditional in a lot of ways than the Cornell program is.
So in some ways, I think, like our educational experiences were pretty different other than that overlap of the Rome experience.
But even still, our kind of inclinations towards what we wanted to do and the kind of work that we were interested in were very similar. So even coming from pretty different educational experiences. And again, what we do now is so different than where we met at Gary Partners. I think that was kind of almost helpful to show us because we were both there and we were like, this isn't necessari the way we want our architectural careers to go. And being in kind of a big environment with, you know, maybe one star architect and then everybody else is kind of just helping to fill in the details. Like we wanted something that was more collaborative and more about the types of spaces that we engage with every day. So, you know, homes, hospitality projects, hotels, restaurants, stuff that excites us in our kind of day to day life as opposed to, you know, kind of more institutional work. So different backgrounds, but I think just really similar interests. And we kind of found that out pretty quickly again as friends and working together and going out to eat together and going to different friends houses together, like having the opportunity to kind of talk about those spaces was a lot of fun and different than our work experience when we met.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Yeah, just to add, I mean, I think, yes, different educational backgrounds in terms of, I think the sort of both design backgrounds from Cornell vs Sci Arc in the architecture world, but just a very different methodology of teaching. And again, Cornell is much more traditional, I would say, but then again, just professionally speaking out of college or even prior to Lucia having gone to her master's program, we both also had experience in I think, a different range of studio environments.
You know, prior to Gary Partners and you know, shortly after, before we really took Electric Bowery out there in the world. But I worked really closely with Rafael Vignoli and worked at that studio for a long time. So also kind of, you know, a star architect firm and Lucia was with som. So these bigger, bigger studios learned so much, I think so much. And you know, we loved those experiences. Speaking for Lucia here, but for myself too, you know, you learn so much and you, you learn both what you.
A great, a great environment to learn and you know, get different experiences, but you also learn what you don't necessarily want to do forever. Right? So yeah, it was all of these different scales and then also working at sort of smaller, more residential studios as well. I think it's just really important to try everything and see what works for you. But as Lucia mentioned, you know, we both love food and culture and interesting places and travel. So a part of that is, again, relating back. Relating back to our friendship is just wanting to explore those kinds of places and really be involved in the design of the. The experiences that we both enjoy.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: What strengths do each of you bring to the partnership and how do they compliment each other? And I'd love for you to answer this as to what you think that you bring to the partnership and also what you think your partner brings to the partnership.
[00:11:22] Speaker D: I mean, I. I actually think this comes up very often. I think that we actually have a lot of similarities in our strengths. And, you know, that might sound counterintuitive, like you'd think that you need people with really different strengths to come together.
I think that we both are really good listeners and we really like to collaborate, and we always try to kind of, like, not let other people ego get in the way. We kind of want the best idea for the project.
So we really love working together. I think now we don't get to work as closely together on a creative level as maybe we did at the beginning, because we're both managing kind of, you know, independent projects. But I think, you know, we're both good collaborators, we're both good listeners. I think we're really good conceptually at kind of thinking about, like, what is the essence of this project? What are we trying to achieve?
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's true. I think that we're both very patient with one another and want the other's opinion. So it's not that as business partners, we always agree on everything, but I think that's really important to be able to be super honest. And it's not ever really contentious. It's a honest conversation.
And, you know, so many business partner structures are just that, where there's more like the operations, more contractual person, and then the more creative. And that is not the case with us. I think when we do have a creative problem to solve, the way that's best addressed honestly is if we can just have a little bit of time together, we can usually come up with the solutions that we both agree are the best very quickly.
So working in a vacuum is not for me, nor do I think it's for Alucia. I think I've said it a million times to other people and. And to Lucia, but, like, I would never want to do this alone. And it's so reassuring to know that you have somebody else on your side that, you know, we're all working toward the same end goal. And we want what's best for the business, of course, always, but we also want what's best for each other. So, again, I think that leans back into the personal piece of it. And, you know, again, whether you can say we won the lottery in terms of finding each other as business partners or we've just managed it well, I'm not sure, but kind of feels like.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: Can we talk a little bit how you've managed it? Because you've. You've both said friendship so many times already, you know, 10 minutes into this interview. And I think it can feel really scary to someone who's like, yes, I love this person. They are such a good friend. I love working with them. We have worked together in the past, and then to take that step, to be like, well, now this person owns half of my, you know, livelihood. And there can be things that you disagree with, probably more so on the business side of things and the risks that you have to take as an entrepreneur, more so than, you know. It sounds like you're very creatively aligned. How do you navigate and maintain, like, a separation if you do, like, do feel that there's a delineation between your friendship and your partnership to make sure that your friendship is protected?
[00:14:26] Speaker D: It's a good question. I mean, I think I'm trying to think of, like, you know, instances of big conflicts, and I honestly just can't. I think we've really had a lot of luck in just, you know, being pretty aligned, both on the creative side and on the business side. I mean, we have to make decisions all the time, like, every day of, are we going to take this new project? You know, how are we going to handle this financial decision? And we really do just kind of, like, work through it together. I mean, on a friendship perspective. You know, we don't live in the same town anymore. We don't get to see each other as much as we did at the beginning, unfortunately. But we do kind of make special, like, weekends and retreats and times that we can be together. And we. We try to kind of, like, talk about business for a while and then just, like, you know, get to enjoy our. Each other's company. I mean, our husbands get along well. We both have little kids, so we're in pretty similar phases in our lives, which I think helps. And we both really want to have a good balance between, like, our family lives and our business life. So we've been able to kind of Lean on each other. I mean, when, you know, Kaylee's got two kids and I have one, you know, they range between 4 and 7 now. And so we've had to kind of go back and forth at times where, you know, one of us is going through having a baby. And so we've really leaned on each other a lot. And I think, again, back to that trust. Like, that trust is there because of the friendship.
So I think that really kind of helps. And, you know, we've really never gotten to a place where we have, like, lock locked, you know, lock jam on a decision. We are always able to work through it, listening to one another.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: And I think making the effort to just carve out that time to have those conversations. I mean, even if it's a phone call, a video call, obviously in person time, as much as we've now moved from thanks to Covid, we, you know, can be more remote, which has its benefits, but nothing replaces that in person time. So we really do try to, you know, carve out that time. And whether that's for a number of days or, you know, for more of a retreat, if you will. And when we say retreat, it's not like we're going to the spa, though that would be lovely. It's oftentimes, you know, with a very clear agenda of a lot of business items or how we're going to address things with our, you know, the management of our. Of our team overall or, you know, may include our directors at times, or just for Lucia and I to have time together. Nothing replaces that in person time still. So I think just making the time to have clear communication.
If too many days go by. Well, I wouldn't say any days really go by that I don't talk to Lucia. I think that's a big part of it. Just like any relationship, you know, it's its own type of marriage. Right. Like, just really clear lines of communication. And never withholding a strong opinion about something is really important if there's, you know, and being open to hearing the other person's opinion or perspective. You know, I know I'm not scared to bring things up to Lucia that are just on my mind. Might be bothering me that I might consider we want to do differently. And I'm not looking for her to agree with me. Maybe it does bring up something to think about or it's reassurance that, you know, no, actually we were doing it the right way. So, yeah, I think it's really just all about trust and communication.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: It also in, you know, Just the few moments we've already had together, it just feels like ego just doesn't exist in this world between you two. It just sounds so much about the creative work and, like, what you're actually putting out there that you just both seem so symbiotically fulfilled in your creative partnership. And it doesn't seem. Sometimes we'll talk to partners on the show, and there's definitely one who's, like, happy to answer all the questions, and then there's someone else who's happy to, like, be the supporting role. And it just instantly you can tell that you do, do really work in tandem.
[00:18:25] Speaker D: I think that actually relates a little bit to, like, the style of our work and the, like, the body of our work, which is really varied. We are not trying to project, like, a very specific style that, like, people are buying into and buying one thing. We're really trying to do a lot of unique and different things and whatever the best solution is for the particular client or project and the context, which I think allows for a lot of creativity. Not just between Kayleigh and I, but also the whole team. Like, we really want to hear the best ideas from everyone and try to think about every project as, like, a new challenge. And I think it's like, a very different way of working than trying to have, like, a very specific style that people are like, oh, I want it to look exactly like all of your. Your other work. It's super specific. I think people work with us for the kind of journey that you go on and the ability to create something that's different than everything else that they've seen everywhere, as well as within our own body of work. So I think that allows for a lot of.
Or it helps to kind of prevent it becoming really ego driven. Like, what is kind of this specific thing, you know, identity that we're trying to maintain. So it creates space for both one another and the whole team.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think from the very beginning, we were really thoughtful about that, not wanting.
I mean, we could have so many design studios. It could have been Lambert, Bartholomew or, you know, but we wanted to leave room for growth, for others to eventually come into the studio. And as they have that we are a team.
So many of the initial names that we were considering for our studio had words like collective or collaborative in them. And, I mean, at the end of the day, there does, obviously, for the sole purposes of running a successful business, need to be some structure and, you know, hierarchy and training and, you know, all of that, of course.
But we have really grown organically and really, I think we're both super proud of the team that we have and the loyalty we have with our team. It means a lot, like the relationships that we have with our clients and with all of our employees together. I think it's super important for us that there is no heavy ego involvement, because, again, we really want everyone to be excited to work on projects and not feel like their ideas are diminished. There's no bad idea. I mean. I mean, well, I don't know. I think I come up with bad ideas sometimes, but then, you know, I can. I. I still want everyone to feel comfortable and myself, too, to just talk about it and then, you know, we can correct course or whatever else. And it's the same with our clients as well. We want them, though, that, as Lucia said, the ethos of, like, how Electric Bowery has evolved over time. And I think also even our own narrative, how we present our studio, has improved. And really, we've honed in on the fact that we are good listeners, and that's purposeful, and that's, you know, why so many of our clients sign on with us, is that we want the projects to be super specific to them and their needs, not with just our.
I don't know, maybe there's a project that comes on. It's like, oh, my gosh, this would be such an amazing PR piece if we did it this way. But it doesn't fit what their interests are aligned with their interests, in which case, you know, we need to walk that middle line. So it's. It's always a constant challenge having to, I think, be firm on our boundaries and, you know, beliefs for each project, design initiatives and everything, but then also balancing what the client wants. So it's just.
[00:22:11] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. I think we're lucky to have some really creative, interesting clients. Like, a lot of them are in creative fields on their own, and they do come to the table with great ideas, but kind of need our vision to help refine those and bring them to life. And sometimes they're too big or they're a little off in one way or another. But we love that process. We love that our clients have so much to bring to the table. So, like Kaylee said, that helps make each project really unique in the process, a lot of fun and collaborative. I mean, it's so important to have good clients. And I think one of the challenges is just making sure before you sign on that project that it is the right fit and that everyone's really aligned and, you know, on board for the process. And you know, compassionate with one another through the whole process. And we've been really lucky to have mostly, I think, really extremely wonderful clients.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: Well, I'm definitely going to dig into how you've positioned yourself to be so lucky to have amazing clients, but I would love to hear about your team. How large is the team today?
What does the company structure look like? And kind of how has that evolved since it started with just you two in the corner of Kaeli's house when you first launched?
[00:23:20] Speaker D: So now there's about 18 of us including yeah, it's about half and half architecture and interiors with then a couple support staff, so procurement office manager and kind of office controller bookkeeper.
So it works pretty well. I mean we try to not keep it so clearly divided between the architecture and interiors. I mean people come to us for one or the other, but there's a lot of overlap and fluidity between the two, which I think is kind of part of the ethos of our business is that it's not so black and white. Architecture and interiors, we really like to think of those things holistically.
Some projects we just do one or the other, but we really prefer if we can do it all in house so that, you know, we're thinking about both elements from the very beginning of the project.
But it's a great team. From the beginning when it was just Kayleigh and I working in her semi abandoned home, we had someone just knock on the door and I don't even know, I guess we had a sign outside that was our first employee and we were so desperate at that point for some help that we were like, sure, come on in. And then from there we. Our second employee is still with us today. Like our design director, Daniela, she's been.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: An amazing part of the team.
[00:24:31] Speaker D: She worked with Kaylee at a kind of previous employer and then came on board again really early and has been instrumental from the beginning of the, of the company's growth.
But it kind of grew organically. I mean at first it was just architecture until about five years ago. And then we brought on a director of interiors, Stephanie Luck and she has also been instrumental. So the two of them, Daniela and Stephanie are round out the kind of four of us that really lead things on a day to day basis.
And so yeah, from there kind of during COVID we really ramped up with the interiors and now we really do kind of half and half architecture and interiors.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: When you say half and half, talk us through like what a typical project for you means in the scope. Meaning are you Doing half projects that are just architecture, half that are interiors, or it's like half of the project is architecture, then it moves to interiors.
[00:25:22] Speaker D: I would say 75% of our projects we do both architecture and interiors. And the teams work kind of really cohesively together from the beginning. So we'll have someone that's officially an architect and someone that's officially interiors, maybe a couple, depending on the size of the project, working together from the beginning.
And then there's some where we are only kind of contracted as the interiors team, but we may have someone on the architecture side involved. Even if we are only contracted as interiors for that kind of coordination with the architect of record and making sure there's kind of that level of project management on that side of things.
But it's really project specific. Every project's a little bit different. And that's part of the challenge. I mean, we at any given point have 10 or so projects going. And that might range from a smaller, you know, 1500 square foot residential remodel to an 8000 square foot residential new build to a 75 room hotel. So each project requires a slightly different kind of formula of architect interiors, how many people? And that's, I think one of the biggest challenges that we face in running the team is we want to have this perfect formula of how many people, how many hours do they spend on each project. But we have so much variation between the types of projects we do that we have to kind of balance that kind of structure with flexibility. Yeah, yeah.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: I think that's really important and has been one of our biggest challenges is just that, you know, as we've grown, structure is important, but needing to also be aware that we need to deviate from the quote unquote, perfect structure depending on the project. And since Lucia and I both have now, over the course of our careers, had so much experience from, you know, obviously more the stair details we were drawing at Gary Partners together and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi to, you know, picking paint colors, but also even to like a lot of site management, client management, feasibility studies. Like because of our architectural backgrounds, master planning, we really can cover all the bases, like from the very beginning if we're, you know, our project, Wildflower Farms is a great example of that. You know, it was a tree farm turned to a 65 room or 65 cabin, and obviously the whole, the whole hotel facilities, but it was just raw land. So like from walking that site in the very beginning to compiling the teams and the relationships and really working with the clients that way, I think we that's like one example of like straight from true nothingness. Like, you know, and over the course of figuring out all of the steps and then the staging and the various, various different phasing of projects, that's really a strength that we bring to the table with our clients and projects is like how we can best address each project and then how we can best staff each project with even personalities makes a difference. Certain team members that we know are going to mesh really well. Hey, this client has a interest in cars and this, this employee loves cars. You know, like they're gonna get along great. So, you know, we, we think of things like that too.
So it's, it's never super standardized, but we really try to think about those extra steps that will make a project more enjoyable and thus more successful. I think ultimately.
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Can you walk me through what your day to day looks like within this studio? You talk that you have a team of 18.
It's split between architecture and interiors. Do you have.
I know you have a design director. Do you have lead designers, junior designers? I know you have a procurement person. How is that broken up and where are each of you fitting in that kind of chain?
[00:30:13] Speaker A: Well, things have changed a lot since COVID and we basically had our studio. Our studio is based in Venice beach. Has been. It originally was in my house, then it was a out of a garage as every great business starts, right. And then moved to our space that we're still in in the heart of Venice. For those who know Ven, we're a stone's throw from Giusta. Everybody knows Giusta. We eat there far too often. So when Covid came around and you know, shelter in place and all of that, the whole concept of having to work remotely seemed impossible.
But that changed, you know, for everyone, obviously. And basically since then we've been, we've. Well, once people could come back into the studio, well, I ended up in big surgery.
Was never intended to be a permanent move. But you know, several years later, getting rooted here, more projects here, that did become a reality and I traveled back to the studio. And Lucia likewise is in the Santa Barbara area. So similarly, you know, there's some commute for she and I going back to the studio. We have employees now based in New York City and one that's in Ojai. So we have these different hubs, I guess, but we still have our main studio in Venice with a hybrid work schedule that kind of lasted from the COVID era days, but has honestly worked out really well and I think is really appreciated by our team members to have that flexibility.
Every single one of our employees, I'm pretty sure has a dog who frequents the studio. So, you know, we also have the rotating schedule of that. So we really try to accommodate as much as we can while still maintaining some studio culture and those studio in studio days.
But as it relates to the day to day Lucia, I don't know if you want to speak to that more as you're in the studio on a more regular basis than I am.
[00:32:14] Speaker D: Yeah, well, I guess I think that speaks to another one of the challenges with having so many people remote and also projects that are kind of all over. We usually have, we have, you know, between Kayleigh, myself, Daniela and Stephanie, who we mentioned before, the two, the design director and creative director, one of us is kind of the lead on each project, overseeing the, you know, kind of quality control, client management. And then we usually have like a lead designer right under that. And depending on the type of project, that'll either be an architect or an interiors person leading the project.
And then again, depending on the size of the project, another couple of people juniors or intermediates, depending on the scale of the project. But we try to be really regular with team meetings and a lot of times those are on zoom because one or more employees are not regularly in the Venice office.
So that's been, you know, again, a challenge to learn through Covid is how do we manage these, these teams when not everyone is, is in the office every day. But the other side of that I think, yeah, Kaylee was speaking to is just the office culture. So we're really trying to make sure we do a lot where we all get together. We all always all get together for a holiday party and we're doing a retreat this fall with the whole team together and, you know, making sure that everyone feels like they have a really good line of communication with one another so that when they're not in the same building, they feel really easy to, you know, kind of talk on the phone or on zoom and talk through things. So we do our best. And I think, you know, we're not alone in trying to manage that challenge of like a hybrid remote office. But it's important, and I think because we are kind of getting work all over, it makes sense too. So we're getting more work in New York and, you know, other places, and there's been a lot of work in Big Sur, so we have to kind of figure out the best way of handling that. It's all related.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: Okay, so with a design director and a creative director, what are your actual roles at the company? Have you moved into more of like, leadership and business oversight, or are you still essentially creative directing over your creative directors?
[00:34:13] Speaker D: Not necessarily over. I think again, one of the four of us will be more involved in each project. So on certain projects it'll be either Kaylee or I, or on another, it's one of the design directors. One of us is always kind of at least lightly between Kaeli and I, at least lightly involved in all projects. But we do have a lot of trust with the design director. So there are projects where they're really running with them.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: And then below, whoever that overhead person, either you or Kayleigh, your design director or your creative director. How many supporting people do you usually assign to a project? I know you said that, you know, some projects are 1500 square feet, sometimes it's 75,000 square foot hotel. But in general, if someone was interested in starting to build out a team as honestly robust as yours, 18's a lot for a lot of the studios that we talk to. How much kind of support are you providing each project?
[00:35:05] Speaker D: I think I would say it varies between probably two and five underneath, you know, one of the leads. And again, that's from sort of that 1500 square foot to a big hotel project.
But yeah, it does. It does vary quite a bit based on the scale. But I think if someone were getting started and focusing on residential, you can do pretty well with a team of, you know, four with a few projects. And I think again, that's been one of our challenges is just making sure we don't overstaff a project and have too many people. Because sometimes that gets tricky too. It's just too much kind of of management and coordination. And, you know, sometimes it really only does need one or two people with our oversight, and that can be a really strong team. And then the balance is, from the business management standpoint, making sure we have, like, the right number of projects for the staff. And that's challenging, too. I mean, for better or worse, we probably spend, you know, if we're lucky, 50% on creative kind of oversight and design, and the rest is kind of like management and business development. A lot of kind of new client engagement, which is really fun. Like that part of the business development. I think we both really enjoy meeting people and seeing if it is the right fit, learning about their projects, and even if it's not the right fit, learning about their projects. So I think we both enjoy that part of it.
Maybe not the writing proposals part, but the kind of personal engagement.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: Okay, let's talk about how Electric Bowery really started on, like, with residential development. Started on residential. How did you navigate to transition to these much larger hospitality spaces? Like, how. How did you make that jump?
[00:36:45] Speaker A: It's hard to start a studio because, yes, you can always reference, you know, portfolio pieces, obviously with credit to your prior employers and such, and denote which parts you were responsible for and everything. But it's really hard to put together a portfolio that, you know, is robust enough to garner the attention and the types of projects that you want. So we were so fortunate. I think it's also just a timing thing. We were so lucky to have been together in Venice during this time when there was. Venice beach was just blowing up. This was. Makes it makes it feel like eons ago, but, like, Silicone beach was the thing, right? So all the Googles and the Snapchats and all of these places had moved, emerged. You know, there was sort of this whole tech segment of people that was moving to Venice and there was a lot of opportunity for development. Now we would see so much bad development, terrible designs. You know, it's just like slap things together as quickly and cheaply as possible, maxing out square footage on these lots. You know, there are entire blocks of Venice in particular that were honestly destroyed. You know, like, they were void of character and whatnot. And then, you know, so it was very specific and we had that local knowledge of block by block, even even halfway down the block where you want to be and why you wouldn't want to be around this corner or, you know, whatever. What, you know, you can change or not to be able to. We were. We made the sort of pitch to outside investors that, you know, we had the know how and Knowledge to create a more design forward development opportunity.
And we were very fortunate to sell that idea and have quite a few very successful development projects where you know, we had an interesting profit share structure that allowed us to essentially create our own portfolio of work early on. That was so helpful and it was also an amazing learning experience for us because while we had obviously worked on many projects before with other architects or designers and done certain amounts of construction administration and everything, but having to actually manage all those subs and sort of almost serve as general contractor ourselves was, was just like a crazy helpful learning experience that also gave us so much more, I think, of a relatable outlook on budgets. You know, we are so fortunate now to work with a lot of clients who have much, much, much larger budgets than when we originally started.
That said, you know, there's still value and we always look at things from a, a return on investment standpoint. We always try, you know, look at things just from where the value should go and don't want to make absurd suggestions that we don't actually think are worth it.
So I think looking at it from that perspective, having gained that experience, built that portfolio of work, helped us. The first hospitality projects that we did were, I would say, well, one in particular, I guess Silverlake pulling in, right. They were, you know, an ownership group that was looking to do this kind of for the first time.
And so us going as partners together sort of green on the understanding of like how we and be more flexible and creative on how we could evolve this otherwise like terrible looking building. But like do it with a really budget conscious outlook that is going to give you the most bang for your buck. It was kind of like a lot of that, I think, development like outlook that helped us be really good partners in that and you know, working together to come up with really, really creative solutions. I mean that project was a really interesting one because of how we had to navigate the expansion very sensitively of that building to be able to make it a functional hotel. And then that was one too where even prior to having a full bore interiors sort of group within our studio, we did all of the interiors and styling.
So it was like soup to nuts. Like just very helpful learning experience. And so yeah, I think being in it really deeply in it from the beginning with those early development projects helped lead to that. And then the projects that followed, Wildflower was one of them as well.
[00:41:29] Speaker D: I mean, I think Wildflower actually might have even started before Silver Lake because it was such a long project. But I think, you know, it's Once you get one or two of these under your belt, it becomes so much easier. And they hotels are great because they gain so much exposure once people come and stay there. You know, the hard thing about residential until you start getting published is nobody sees it once it's done, except for the people who live there and of course their friends. And, and early on, I think even past the development then there was a lot of word of mouth, especially in Venice. It was like, you know, people hearing from their friends who had hired us, and that kind of organic evolution was really helpful. But then the hotels really did start to just attract a lot more attention from people visiting them. And like our recent hotel, Casa Loma, our client there, he had stayed at the Silver Lake Pool and Inn and loved it. And he was a hotel developer himself, so contacted us, so. So that does start to kind of just snowball, I think once you get one or two under your belt, I.
[00:42:26] Speaker B: Think it's such a special and unique opportunity to get to work with a studio like yours that is doing the architecture and the interiors, particularly when it comes to hospitality design.
What advice do you have to approach that balance in your projects when, let's say an interior designer is working with, you know, an outside party architect? Like, how can you have such a collaborative, cohesive design ethos with a partner that's not literally within your own company?
[00:42:58] Speaker D: I think it's a similar kind of process. It just requires a really good collaborative dynamic to be established from the beginning. We're doing a few projects now where that's the case, where we're just the interiors and we're working with an architect and it's totally, it's great. I mean, we learn from them. And I think it just requires both teams being on the same page from the beginning. I mean, while we of course love doing the projects in house and getting our, our whole team to be able to collaborate, you know, I'm really enjoying these other experiences too, where we're working with an outside team and we're getting to, you know, kind of pass things back and forth and seeing new ideas. I mean, it comes back to that same ethos of wanting to be collaborative and not being so ego driven. And that can be challenging, of course, like, everyone wants control and their stamp on things, but I think as long as the dialogue's really open from the beginning, just like, you know, let's all just make the best project, both of our names are going to be on it no matter what.
Whatever's the best idea for the project is the one we should do. And if you can come at it with that ethos, it's, it can, it can be great and a lot of fun. I mean, we're meeting great new people and, you know, and learning things that we didn't know before based on their expertise and the types of projects that they've done.
[00:44:07] Speaker A: So yeah, I think also it's important to add like it sometimes works to our benefit now how we've grown to work, even though Lucia and I are both licensed architects. But if we were taking on projects in other areas where we really want to be deeply involved, you know, in a, I would say, you know, even five, six years ago, pre Covid, it wasn't so likely that a client would hire an out of area architecture designer. Right. Because now we can work remotely so efficiently. But if we want to be doing the full bore architecture and oversight, it oftentimes works to our benefit to work with a local architect of record if it's not local to us. And that very much depends on, you know, client schedules and budgets, you know, travel allowances and everything else too. So we are very happy to collaborate with the right team and then we work really closely with them again, try to put any sort of egos aside. We very quickly know if it's going to be a fit and we want to know the team members involved before we contractually agree to anything too specific. But because it is, it is a two way relationship always. But the roles and responsibilities, just like outlining that from the get go, who's going to be the point person for what, you know, where, where that is all delineated so that things don't fall through the cracks. Because I think that's the biggest risk, you know, that, you know the finger pointing can ensue, right. That something was supposed to be covered by the architect or the interior designer. And that just doesn't serve anyone. So we try to avoid finger pointing at all costs.
[00:45:45] Speaker B: Of course that brings up a really good question that we're asked all the time from designers who are, especially if they do have either an architect on staff or have an architectural background, where, if you had to give one answer, and I know that it is a lot of gray area, where does the architect's job stop? And your interior design studio, when you are working on an, on a project with an outside architect, where does the interior design start? Because it does feel like it can get muddy. And that's where obviously a lot of conversations need to be in place so that it is really clearly delineated between who's doing what scope. But if you had to say, generally speaking, this is where we stop as architects and this is where the interiors starts as designers, I, I think there's.
[00:46:36] Speaker A: Two answers to that. Well, you were asking if we are working, you know, we're not doing it all under one roof. Like, for us, if we are working on a project where we're doing architecture and interiors, we really always try to start those like, simultaneously because they are so interrelated. And that ultimately, I think is the most efficient.
And there can be sort of more weight on one or the other over the course of the project. But we've really, I think, mastered that when we're doing it under one roof but with another team on board. It's so project specific and I think client specific.
For example, if there is a project, there's a project we're working on or we're just starting to work on in New York and there's an architect of record on that. And, you know, their role is to really carry through entitlements and everything. And, you know, we hope to. And I think the client hopes us to be involved in the design of the architectural pieces as well. So it really just has to be a conversation that's set early on, you know, or the path is set out for the whole team about when that's going to happen. But it's so case by case, wouldn't you say, Lou?
[00:47:52] Speaker D: Yeah, I definitely think it's very hard to give one answer because there's the structure where there's a design architect versus an architect of record, where then, you know, that can be quite different. And depending on how much work on the actual building there is to do versus just furniture. I don't think there is one answer. I mean, at least for us, there's not. We have, you know, a variety of different structures at work. I think the answer is that it has to be established at the beginning and with the most specificity you can have. So, you know, a really clear matrix on which drawings are going to be in which, which team set. And that can vary. I mean, typically I would say the interiors team is going to do all those interior elevations and details, but whether they actually draw those in a construction document set or redline them for the architect, I mean, that can vary depending on the team and what the client wants and just the kind of project structure.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Let's talk about design ethos. And I know that wellness and well being are central to your philosophy.
I definitely can comprehend that, what that means from like a Private residence. And like, how you would build a full lifestyle around someone.
How do you bring that into pos. Into hospitality, where guests may only stay a night or two?
[00:49:13] Speaker A: I think a big part of that is, I think, our process and how we have.
How we've continued to develop our process, and that has also come, I think, with further. Furthering the interior side of our team as well. But really looking at it as the full experiential approach.
I think a good example of this is, you know, for example, the Casa Loma project, the Win Laguna beach, the hotel that we did there. But we really try to think of the guest experience from their arrival point, you know, through the day, and try to design the space with the intent, you know, of like, how we would like to experience it and that, you know, we don't want to be going back to the same details or. Or the same, you know, you don't want to sit the same spot and eat the same dinner. So how. What are the offerings and, you know, amenities that might be unique on day two or whatever? How things evolve, the things that you're.
[00:50:14] Speaker B: Pulling out from, like, the client.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: It.
[00:50:17] Speaker B: It sounds like those things can sometimes be the things that a, you know, a hotel brand or a restaurant are kind of figuring out when we're further along in the build and not necessarily at the beginning. So how do you start to pull out those stories from the. Your clients that you're working with when it comes to hospitality, to begin to design those unique moments throughout the day when, you know, the menu isn't finalized yet or they haven't quite figured out, are we going to be able to get a spa treatment in this space or are we not?
[00:50:47] Speaker D: Well, I think crafting a really specific concept narrative from the beginning that pulls together like a couple of different threads to really just define what the experiences we're going for. It's really important to us to do that from the beginning. And I think that kind of can sometimes help the client then decide, well, what should the menu be based on? What kind of experience are we trying to create? Or do we need a spa to. To create this experience so it can kind of work a little bit back and forth where you're trying to figure out, like, what is the sort of core experience and then what do we need to. To provide that? So I think it's helpful when we have hospitality clients that understand that and want to work in that way and understand that. You really just need to kind of create a really clear vision from the very beginning. It can't Come later. And that'll help inform some of the programmatic decisions for them. You know, we work with varying degrees of experience with these clients. So some are newer and sometimes that's great. And they've got like a fresh perspective and fresh ideas. And the ones who have, you know, I think more experience come at it with a really clear idea from the beginning of what that experience they want to create is. And we help them kind of define the visual and the narrative around that.
But I think it's okay if it has to come early. And that can help kind of inform their program and some of the operational decisions.
[00:52:05] Speaker A: And we, and we love to be partners in dreaming up those pieces because it is, you know, it has to come from so many different angles. Like there's just the business, it's like running a business, right? There's the business pro forma part and then there's the, there's like the need to have versus want to have. And how does that all fall into place? So we can kind of, as Lucia said, come up with the guidelines for it. Not that you can't deviate within that later down the line. But there are certain programmatic pieces that really do need to be defined early, at least for hospitality, I think, for the project to run in a fairly linear fashion and not have, you know, too much back and forth. And that has to do with everything, even permitting and, you know, once you're dealing with spas and restaurants and such and what kind of food makes a difference with what you're going in with the health department. So, you know, it's like the cooking equipment and all of that. So it really does, you know, we believe in building the team of the right experts and consultants to bring on board early on to be able to make the most successful project. And we will make a, you know, kind of lay that out for our clients from the very beginning. And of course, if they have other specialty consultants they want to bring in, all the more welcome. You know, we, we really welcome the expert feedback on, you know, the lighting, the obviously kitchen consultant. We've been working with a lot of different consultants recently on the sort of environmental green building efforts that we really believe in.
And you know, it can only just make for a better project if we start with that team early on.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: Before we get ready to wrap up, I am curious, I want to talk more about your site specific design. And Kayleigh, you've given that example of, I believe it was your wildflower project, that it was literally like a grove before and started from literally Dirt. How are you designing and building things to be so site specific and specific to a particular project while also carrying this recognizable Electric Bowery identity? And it's interesting because you had said that we don't feel like we have this like signature aesthetic that we're like driving through all projects. But as an outsider looking in, I'm like, man, I can look at your guys work and like I know it's your work and that's just cause like I'm a super fan girl and you guys have the coolest website on the Internet. But I'm curious as to what it is that you think that you are weaving into projects that does have this common thread between them. Even though the sites, the requirements, the actual scope of the project are so different and the individual results are so.
[00:54:49] Speaker D: Different, I think that comes back to the approach and this kind of layered concept narrative that we bring to each one. So it helps that each project is really layered. So if, you know, depending on the context, that context may be an existing structure where there's some kind of history that makes sense to be one of the layers. But then the client has, you know, whatever kind of personal aesthetic drivers that are, you know, inspiring to them, that's another layer. So however that formula comes together, I think that's probably a consistent thing that you see is this like multi layered approach. Nothing is too one note, nothing's too, you know, neutral. It's, there's, there's a lot of richness that comes out of that in terms of site context. You know, Wildflower was a tree farm. That's like a blank canvas in some ways. And then it's really about how are you engaging with the nature and you know, bringing that into the project. And for that project they actually did really want to hire a California architect with kind of that experience of like always trying to bring the outdoors in. And in that kind of project from more of an architectural perspective, it's just about going to the site, really studying the sight lines. And that element of context is really important to just the space, space planning. But on an interiors level, I think, yeah, it's really that richness, the layered aspect, taking whatever kind of historical context may or may not be there, but folding in other elements. So it's not just kind of one note.
[00:56:07] Speaker A: Yeah, and warmth and livability, I would say are like two things that are really consistent.
It's not like a specific tile spec or any sort of material specification that we always use. It's really just about, yeah, warmth and interest. And it's Layered both in concept and in texture and form. And all of that, I think is really important to us.
And yeah, as Lucia said, when it is a blank canvas, all the more exciting. We can explore the different sight lines, the wind, the sun direction. And we look at this both from an environmental sort of green building standpoint, but we also look at it from just pure enjoyment, where we want to sit on the site from day to night. Similar. And I think that's sort of the thread between the hospitality and the residential that we always consider and why we think it's successful that we work on both and we like working on both, is that, you know, we want everyone's homes to feel like their own sacred oasis. Almost have that hospitality feel to them, and vice versa. Hospitality to feel more residential is at least the general trend that I think of the places that we like to visit that our clients are certainly opting for. So, yeah, there's just sort of a happy balance there in terms of how.
[00:57:28] Speaker B: We can approach both as we wrap up. For those who are listening, who dream of either starting a studio with a partner or bringing in a partner to a studio they've already begun building, what advice would you give them about building that relationship intentionally?
[00:57:47] Speaker D: I mean, I think we've touched on a lot of it. I think as much as you can, try to let your ego go to the wayside and trust each other and listen to each other and communicate, communicate about everything and ask each other for advice like, is this a good idea? Both on the business side and the creative side, the more you can kind of both feel like you're listening to one another, it just, it opens the door for the best solutions.
[00:58:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And like with any relationship, trust your gut, you know, with a potential future business partner with a potential future client, you know, it's not necessarily just first impressions, but being sure that it relates back to the communication. But they really, truly are aligned and you are. You get that immediate sense of trust. I think that's. You can really trusting your gut will just help so much.
[00:58:38] Speaker B: Okay. And I love to end every show with any sort of upcoming projects, collaborations, dream hospitality destinations you can share with us. We love to leave with a little secret.
[00:58:52] Speaker D: Well, in terms of, of projects, we're doing an exciting kind of residential, large new townhouse in the West Village that we're really excited about. It's going to be a beautiful project. We're doing a big hotel in North Carolina which is very sustainability focused. It's on a regenerative farm, and it's a really Interesting client. We can't say too much about it yet but all ground up. 70 cabins. There's 70, 70 rooms and a kind of beautiful in complex flex and Spa. Kayla, you want to speak to collaborations?
[00:59:24] Speaker A: Yeah, we are working on a collaboration with Bien Mal that will be launching this fall doing some custom blankets with them.
We can share images of that to follow, but some of that will be shared at dinner we're hosting actually at Wildflower Farms in collaboration with them toward the end of September. It's one of their design series dinner. I believe it's the finale dinner of the season which we're really excited about.
So that will be a both sort of shared and it will be a gift to the guests that attend that dinner as well as something that will then be available for purchase through their website in the fall to follow.
And yeah, just some exciting stuff that will be available to share new projects, some completing in Big Sur this fall as well. So we're excited to just get more new work out there and lots of other collaborations that we're working on, but those are kind of the ones that we can share right now.
[01:00:30] Speaker B: Well I can't wait to follow up with you ladies again soon to get that next phase of collaborations you're working on. This has been so lovely. I appreciate your time immensely and it's been really inspiring to me to hear two women working so aligned and in sync with each other to build such an incredible brand and a spectacular portfolio. So thank you so much for letting us be a part of your day.
[01:00:57] Speaker D: Thank you so much.
[01:00:58] Speaker A: Great to meet you for more in.
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Until next time. I'm Anastasia Casey and this is the Interior Collective, a podcast for the the Business of Beautiful Living.
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