St. Louis Marriott Grand

Some Assembly Required

The commission called for 18 large-format, overlapping acrylic prints for the lobby of a hotel mid-renovation. The tight part was the calendar — the commission landed at the end of February, with final delivery due in April.

"An added challenge was that it was the end of February and we had to deliver the final in April."

The shoot itself was four days on the ground in St. Louis — 20°F and rain for a chunk of it — chasing down 2,500+ photographs of the city's old and new architecture. Some buildings had to be shot twice, once under flat rainy light and once in sun, just to keep the final panels visually consistent with each other.

"My feet felt like they were going to fall off by the 3rd day, but a combination of excitement and adrenaline quickly made me forget about the aches."

Back in New York with 2,500 images and five days to deliver a first draft, the breakthrough came from an unexpected place — house music. Layering architectural details the way a DJ layers a transition between two songs became the organizing idea for the whole piece.

"I needed to use the layered visuals in this piece the same way the DJs were using the beats."

The composition evolved so that architectural elements from one panel begin appearing in the next — a slow visual merging of old and new St. Louis architecture, carried across all 18 pieces and 40-plus feet of wall.

Two things stuck after it shipped: how much a clear mock-up and an honest conversation about budget upfront saves everyone downstream, and how much passion it actually takes to get through the late nights a project like this demands.

"Success has a tremendous healing quality about it."