ontemporary interior design practice can, and perhaps should, be a risky business. Advantageous risk-taking can take several forms - from an impecunious designer quitting a stable job in a high-profile firm to hang out their shingle and go it alone, to a director hiring an enthusiastic young staff member with plenty more potential than experience on a well-judged hunch. The risk-taking that truly advances the discipline is a critical practice that sees the interior designer (and its clients) embark on a journey. This requires them to leave the stable ground of the profession’s established tropes and styles (or even canonical tendencies) and venture forth with a vision that prioritizes innovation. To succeed in this mode of practice, interior designers must simultaneously embrace originality, acknowledge traditions, and deliver on function and brand values. The practices that collaborated to create the Ace Hotel in
