 | |
 | |
| THREE’S COMPANY: Gary Phillip Koerner and his architecture firm, Three, are responsible for the luxurious Fairmont Mayakoba in Mexico (top) and the renovation of Dallas’ Hotel Palomar. photos courtesy of Three |
Gary Phillip Koerner has changed the way he describes his company. “i used to think we were architects,” he says. “Now I think we’re sherpas with ideas.”
In reality, Koerner is design principal and president of Three, a Dallas architecture firm. His sherpa quip refers to Three’s expertise designing four- and five-star luxury hospitality properties for sometimes-anxious developers, many of whom have never built a hotel before. Koerner and Three not only guide them like Himalayan sherpas through the arduous approval process but help bring their vision—“I want a killer room!”—to beautiful life.
Among the elite firm’s projects so far are The Peninsula and L’Ermitage, both in Beverly Hills, Calif.; the Westin Riverwalk Hotel in San Antonio; and Portugal’s Monte Rei Country Club. Three has also been responsible for the 401-room Fairmont Mayakoba Resort, located about 35 miles south of Cancun on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and the $28 million renovation of the Hotel Palomar Dallas.
Koerner, who helped design Dallas’ Mansion on Turtle Creek before founding Three with Frank Butler and the late Tom Schutz 25 years ago, says today’s most spectacular hotels are all about “fashion and style,” as well as “bigger rooms with higher-quality finishes.”
Luckily, the sherpas at Three seem more than up to the challenge.
