When the refurbished Beverley Hills Hotel debuts this fall, designer Ken Fulk will complete a trifecta of renovations interpreting the California experience through his distinct lens. The trio, including The Cottages at Little Saint and The Huntington Hotel (shown below, left), are distinct but all have Fulk’s singular exuberance. When renovating The Cottages at Little Saint, Fulk eschewed an agrarian wine country aesthetic for a ’70s rock ’n’ roll vibe, imbuing the small dwellings with color and pattern. The designer is also behind the look of San Francisco’s newly reopened Huntington Hotel. Fulk is an advocate of the City by the Bay’s charms, crediting the place in part for his success. The sentiment shines through in a sensitive treatment restoring elegance to the iconic spot. But perhaps no other place represents the Golden State’s allure better than The Beverly Hills Hotel. “When Paul Revere Williams redesigned it in the 1940s, he was swinging for the fences,” Fulk notes. “I don’t intend to mess that up.” Instead, the designer plans to burnish and enhance the legacy, making it “the kind of cinematic location worthy of a Capra film.” This is a big year for Fulk, who will shortly mark three decades in business and recently released a collaboration with Perennials and Sutherland, and you can view these projects as a statement of his design philosophy. “We need places to escape,” he says. “That need isn’t frivolous; it’s vital.”
