Project Spotlight: Leadership Change

The air is fragrant, crisp, and cool, and leaves are turning beautiful shades of crimson, yellow, and orange. We are loving the change in seasons and are excited to announce new leadership changes at BraytonHughes!

In addition to our 30th Anniversary, this year we are celebrating the promotion of Janea Nakagawa to President and Joel Villalon’s new role as Executive Advisor.

When Janea joined BraytonHughes in 2005, she became the first female principal in the firm’s history.  Her project management and corporate design expertise has been invaluable to the company, where she has specialized in corporate, multi-family, and residential interiors. Before pursuing interior design, Janea considered a career in fashion design, and through she is not a big fan of sewing (to this day she can’t sew a button), she taps into aspects of fashion design in her work, putting together elements such as art, architecture, and furnishings into unique combinations that reflect the vision of her clients.  

Joel has been with our firm since its beginnings, and his hand is evident in the team’s designs, including various projects that have been recognized for design excellence.  When he’s not working or attending concerts, he’s collecting art and tiles on his travels around the globe.  See some of his curated collectibles in his Guanajuato home. 

Working collaboratively as principals through the years, Joel and Janea have created a nurturing space for everyone to feel respected in their growth as designers. We would not be where we are today without their strong leadership and design expertise, and we are grateful they will have the opportunity to continue working closely together, deepening our roots in hospitality, residential, and corporate work and further diversifying our portfolio. 

Upon the firm’s 30th Anniversary this year, please join Towan, Rachel, Kiko, and the rest of the BHD team in congratulating Janea and Joel for forging a path of success and paving the way for more exciting milestones at BraytonHughes Design Studios.

Project Spotlight: The Year It Began

When Richard Brayton and Stanford Hughes got together to establish BraytonHughes Design Studios thirty years ago, a cultural shift and major innovations were happening. The Soviet Union collapsed, the Hubble telescope took its first observations of the planet Jupiter, and the very first web page was created, changing our lives forever! Amidst these world events and advances in knowledge, BraytonHughes Design Studios was launching in San Francisco.

With these 10 noteworthy moments in history, we hope you enjoy this look back to the year of our founding, 1991, a time when:

The Melchor Investment Company, Palo Alto

1. Brayton Hughes Design Studios completed its first project, offices for The Melchor Investment Company in Palo Alto. In a building that once housed a glass factory, Stanford and Richard created interiors that honored the building’s original industrial character.

2. The World Wide Web was launched to the public, with instructions on how to use it. We owe the ease with which we retrieve and share information online to British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee.

3. Disney released Beauty and the Beast, the first animated film ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

4. The MP3 file format was accepted as a standard.

5. 60 Minutes was the most popular TV show, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the highest-grossing film, and A Thousand Acres was the best-selling book.

6. The “Grunge Revolution” began, and Nirvana’s Nevermind became one of the most popular albums of the decade, selling 11 million copies in the U.S.

7. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System launched in the U.S., marking Nintendo’s entry into the 16-bit console market.

8. In San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Park, a free concert called “Laughter, Love and Music” was held to honor the memory of promoter Bill Graham (January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991), who died in a helicopter crash ten days earlier. Approximately 300,000 fans made their way to the park’s polo grounds to hear performances from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Grateful Dead, Journey, Santana, and more. “I haven’t seen this field this full since we tried to stop the Vietnam War,” Crosby said.

9. A passed referendum in South Africa supported creation of a new constitution for multicultural society, bringing an end to Apartheid.

10. People Magazine named Patrick Swayze the “Sexiest Man Alive.”

There have been many high points in our thirty years as a firm, and we’re grateful to our amazing founders, clients, partners, and committed team members for being a part of this journey.

Project Spotlight: Looking back on 30!

As we enter our 30th Year (yes, you heard that right), we find ourselves looking back at some of our most iconic projects.

The chapels at St. Ignatius Church at USF is an iconic early San Francisco project. The 10’ by 10’ scale allowed us to zoom in on each detail and address interior architecture, furniture, accessories and art holistically. The stained-glass oculus crowing the dome in The Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe shows celestial bodies as they would have been positioned in the sky over Mexico City on December 12, 1531, when Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Saint Juan Diego.

Another early showcase of the firm’s meticulous attention to detail is the Hellman & Friedman office at One Maritime Plaza in San Francisco. Warm and tactile pear wood adds richness, while sliding glass doors allow daylight to penetrate the heart of the space. For added openness, designers experimented with interior partitions until we found the perfect solution to optimize the view for each occupant.

At Four Seasons Resort Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt we channeled the spirit of the distinctive locale. Here, a large-scale dome pierced with colored glass lands over a minimalist, white-washed room with a simple disc-shaped granite fountain in the center. This contrast of opulence and austerity makes for a dramatic arrival experience, while guestrooms draw inspiration from the simple homes of North Africa and Egypt.

Similarly, The Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana displays great sensitivity to the surrounding terrain. For the spa, we worked with natural, textured materials and finishes, dramatic yet soothing cove lighting, and modern, sculptural furniture influenced by the landscape outside. To design the resort’s signature restaurant, BāBā, we looked to historic barn, school, and ranch house structures, integrating weathered wood planks into the design to reinforce a sense of place.

Here’s to the next chapter and to creating beautiful and iconic spaces together!