Content area
Full text
Photography of projects by Grey Crawford
Brad Korzen, CEO of Kor Hotel Group, and his wife Kelly Wearstler, founder of Los Angeles firm kwid (Kelly Wearstler Interior Design), have become hospitality design royalty almost overnight. Inside of just a few years, Korzen a 39-year-old residential real estate developer-turned self-taught hotelier has grown his hotel holdings from zero to four boutiques, thanks largely to their signature Wearstler-designed interiors toasted by Conde Nast Traveler, House & Garden, Wallpaper, and even Vogue. But with four high-profile properties in California to their credit (the Kor Hotel Group portfolio includes Avalon Hotel and Maison 140 in Beverly Hills, Viceroy in Santa Monica, and Estrella in Palm Springs), the couple insists fame is a happy accident triggered by the unlikely residential location they chose for Korzen's first non-residential venture. "We weren't on a mission to become hoteliers. It was the [Avalon's] location coupled with Kelly's eye that made me want to move on it," Korzen says.
Avalon was a beat-up, mid-century property. Wearstler's design, which Korzen first test-drove in his residential developments, then his own apartment, transformed it into a sort of calling card for what has become Kor's martini chic image. As a result, new career directions were born for both: For him, wunderkind hotelier; for her, princess of West Coast boutique hotel design.
Quite a transition. In the beginning of his career he had only renovated two- and three-unit apartment buildings in Chicago. "I went to University of Miami Law School and was...