Book List of the Week

Jeffrey Beers’s Book List: Fearless and Passionate

By Steve Kroeter August 26, 2013

Jeffrey Beers, Interior designer (New York)

Prominent hospitality designer Jeffrey Beers chose many of the titles on his book list because “the subjects and authors are people I admire as leaders in their fields.” He adds, “Their personal philosophies have encouraged me to live passionately and fearlessly, and to always strive to create experiences that bring people joy.”

The designer, who is known for his work on the iconic Fontainebleau Resort in Miami, The Cove Atlantis in the Bahamas, New York restaurants such as China Grill, db Bistro Moderne, and Toy, and scores of other dramatic, high-profile social spaces in cities around the world, sent us biographies of hotelier Conrad Hilton and entrepreneur Steve Jobs, and the reflections of restaurateur Danny Meyer. All focus on the experience and high level of satisfaction of the customer, a guiding principle for Beers. He also includes John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage—“I loved this book for its view of hope and confidence concerning our future,” says Beers. “The series of vignettes are inspiring and spiritual.”

As an architecture student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Beers became interested in the relationship between architecture and glass (working with glass artist Dale Chihuly) and he would go on to explore this topic further in Brazil on a Fulbright scholarship. On his book list is the celebrated Brazilian architect’ Oscar Niemeyer’s memoirs, The Curves of Time, along with the comment, “I was lucky to work with Oscar Niemeyer at the beginning of my career. He was a remarkable man and an inspiration to me, opening my eyes to the world of color and form.”

Toy restaurant, New York,, designed by Jeffrey Beers, 2012. The 12th collaboration between restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow and Jeffrey Beers International, its centerpiece is a 1,500-pound ceiling installation of mirrored triangles that pulsates with projections of geishas and Ming dynasty motifs. Photo: Eric Laignel

Color and form characterize two other books on Beers’s list. One is Miami Modern Metropolis: Paradise and Paradox in Midcentury Architecture and Planning, edited by Alan T. Shulman, which Beers calls “a portrait of a city discovering itself through design.” The other is the Umberto Eco’s investigation of the protean concept of the beautiful, A History of Beauty. “A dense tome on collected wisdom and aesthetics,” says Beers. “I get lost in the pages of rich illustrations.”

View Jeffrey Beers’s Book List

Adam Tihany

Architecture United States Interior Design Product/Industrial Design

Ed Ng

Hong Kong Interior Design

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