Today’s guest is accredited by the American Institute of Architects, LEED AP, and certified with the National Council of Architecture Registration Boards. He also has over 25 years of experience with award winning projects around the world. Chris McDonough is the Principal at The Gettys Group Companies. Chris joins the host Dan Ryan to share his journey through the hospitality industry and what it all means to him. 

Takeaways: 

• Every design has a story behind it and it can transport you to a different mindset when you are there. That is part of the beauty of hospitality.
• Hospitality can be a form of escape from the daily lives that everyone lives. Oftentimes a change in scenery or design can really change a person's perspective or outlook.
• Interior Architecture is a marriage between interior design and architecture. Combining both of these creates a very successful process for designing a unique space. 
• Not only does a space need to be beautiful, but it needs to function and work well. If it doesn’t meet both of these standards, then the space will remain empty and unused, leaving you frustrated.
• When you are building a hotel, you have the freedom to test it against the market knowledge and see what works as a design aspect and what doesn’t work.
• You want to create a space that makes guests want to come back and tell others about the amazing experience that they had and how much they loved it.
• When it comes to building a brand or a soft branded hotel, you want to narrow what your demographic is and if you focus on catering to the small group of people who will always return, then you will have created raving fans.

Quote of the Show:

3:05 “My heart’s really in hospitality mostly because of the feeling you get or the feeling that we want to give to guests and people that are experiencing the spaces we design.”

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-mcdonough-aia-leed-ap-a8650211/
• Website: https://www.gettys.com/

Shout Outs:

0:42 Wilco

9:58 University of Illinois

10:07 Chicago Cubs

10:08 Chicago White Sox

10:46 Admirals Club

10:45 San Francisco International Airport

10:51 Joe DiMaggio

17:54 Hotel of Tomorrow

18:41 John Lasseter

24:41 The Farnham in Omaha

25:34 Curio

27:25 Roger

27:25 Andrew

27:26 Ron

34:34 Leveque Tower

34:57 Empire State Building

35:09 Roger Hill

35:32 Hotel Verdant

53:52 BDNY

Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Podbean: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Youtube : https://youtu.be/2pFTRNfHYaQ