1939 AN ART DECO RECLAMATION
This is a story about adaptive reuse. Not just transforming a 1939 art deco residence, a historic landmark with decades of memory, but reimagining it as a counseling office designed to meet people in life’s most vulnerable moments. It’s the story of honoring heritage while layering in hospitality. It’s a narrative not about preservation for its own sake, but about giving history a future… one where design, hospitality, and purpose converge to care for the human spirit.
Charles Vesley | Head of Design:
From the start, we knew this wasn’t just about designing an office. It was about creating a first touchpoint of care. People come into therapy in moments of grief, trauma, or depression and the environment around them either affirms their dignity or diminishes it.
Devin Dang | Head of HOSPITALITY:
Exactly. Hospitality at its best is about saying: “You belong here, you’re safe here.” But when you look at the typical counseling office… sterile white walls, fluorescent lights, furniture that looks like it came straight out of a big-box showroom, it doesn’t exactly say welcome.
HOSPITALITY NOT HOSPITAL-ITY
STEWARDSHIP OF EXPERIENCE
CV:
We asked ourselves: Why should spaces of healing feel clinical? Shouldn’t they feel like home? Like a place you’d want to linger, breathe, and open up? That became the design challenge, to honor the heritage of the building, while creating an environment that invites vulnerability and points toward wholeness.
DD:
And that’s where design and hospitality intersect. Hospitality is more than service, it’s stewardship of experience. Every chair, every color choice, every texture… it all signals something about how you’ll be treated once you’re inside.
STABILITY WITHOUT STERILITY
CV:
The design direction we landed on is something we call Organic Expression. It’s a warm, natural foundation layered with expressive accents. Calm, grounding elements from organic modernism, but paired with intentional pops of personality. Rich greens, sculptural furniture & DECOR, tactile materials.
DD:
the space feels both steady and alive. Which is exactly what clients need: stability without sterility, warmth without chaos.
CV:
One of the things I’m most proud of is the dried lavender installation. At first glance, it’s beautiful… textural, sculptural, almost art-like, but it’s carrying so much more meaning. Lavender is part of the client’s brand identity, so it instantly ties the space back to their vision. But it’s also deeply symbolic: lavender has been used for centuries as a calming agent, lowering stress, easing anxiety, even supporting rest.
DD:
The moment you walk in, you’re not just seeing design you’re feeling hospitality. The installation becomes more than decor. It sets a tone. And that’s what people need in their most vulnerable moments.
LAVENDER AS A DESIGN LANGUAGE
CV: We even thought about scent as a storytelling layer. The fragrance throughout the office is Lavender which was borrowed from the client logo and shows up IN the feature wall and Lavande 31 by Le Labo. It’s subtle but powerful… it grounds the room, anchors the senses, and creates consistency. Every time a client returns, that smell cues safety, familiarity, and calm.
DD:
And that’s the genius of it… hospitality is sensory. It’s not just about what you see. It’s what you smell, what you touch, what you hear. By weaving lavender into the visual identity, the physical environment, and even the atmosphere of the air itself, we created a cohesive narrative.
CV:
It’s a reminder that purpose-driven design isn’t decoration. It’s storytelling. It’s creating an environment where the brand’s mission… healing, calm, wholeness… isn’t just on the website or the brochure. It’s literally in the air people breathe.
DEFENDERS OF HERITAGE
DD:
I love how the design you DEVELOPED honors the story of the building. This 1939 brick veneer apartment house has been in the same family for over 70 years. So the design had to preserve its bones while introducing a new chapter of life.
CV:
That’s the beauty of adaptive reuse: the walls carry memory. ThIS building has held young women entering the workforce, families weathering loss, generations passing down legacy. Now it will hold people seeking healing. That continuity matters.
“ WE CAN’T HEAL ANYONE, BUT WE CAN CREATE CONDITIONS WHERE HEALING FEELS POSSIBLE. ”
DD:
And it proves that purpose-driven spaces aren’t only about aesthetics, they’re about narrative. You’re stepping into a story that started long before you and will continue long after you.
CV:
Ultimately, WE BOTH AGREE, this project reminded us: design and hospitality aren’t separate disciplines. They’re two expressions of the same truth… that environment shapes experience. We can’t heal anyone. But we can create conditions where healing feels possible.
