San Francisco-based interiors studio Bamo has promoted designers Elaine Hwa Smith and Lindsay Noelting to Associates as the firm prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary this October.

“We strive to give each other the same support and respect we give our clients,” says Co-Founding Principal Gerry Jue, who believes the title is special as it recognises key individuals who’ve made the most of their opportunities, and the commitment of the firm to their ongoing leadership and growth. “New leadership can only grow within an environment that nurtures it. It’s a mutual investment with big benefits.”

Principal Anne Wilkinson adds: “Associates are on the ground, in the field, in the mix. They embody Bamo – internally and externally. Lindsay and Elaine both have already made real contributions over the years, and it is exciting to have their voices, their points of view, amplified.”

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Elaine Hwa Smith

The promotion to Associate coincides with Hwa Smith’s 20th year at Bamo. She joined the firm shortly after graduating from Cornell. Many of her fellow Associates, she points out, have been at the firm just as long: “This longevity and loyalty really says something about what we are doing right.”

Hwa Smith’s projects have included Four Seasons hotels in Bora Bora and São Paulo, and – closer to home – a set of new venture capital office spaces in San Francisco’s Ferry Building. For all of these projects, she was on site collaborating with the project team to maintain the spirit of Bamo’s design intent and to take on the challenges that arise in construction. In the words of Wilkinson: “This is Elaine’s superpower, and it allows everyone working with her to enjoy a real level of comfort. She’s the one on the ground that the clients see leading the project and carrying it through to completion.”

In her new role, Hwa Smith welcomes the opportunity to continue exploring leadership in design, as well as management and mentorship within the firm. For her, those three come together meaningfully as she has helped spearhead Bamo’s committee on Diversity, Belonging, Inclusion and Equity (DBIE). She explains that creating a welcoming and productive workplace, much like mentorship, isn’t strictly formal: “It is often about having more intentional conversations.”

In completing the Four Seasons São Paulo, Hwa Smith says she came to understand another dimension of inclusivity: “We were installing on a day that the staff were being trained for opening. You could see how exciting it was for them. Design alone doesn’t bring a place to life. We are creating spaces that support the people and teams who work there and who bring these spaces to life.”

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Lindsay Noelting

Noelting joined Bamo in 2013, and promptly began work on the Four Seasons Madrid. She never imagined it would become a seven-year journey. Having time to get to know a country, its culture and to see a vision all the way through, she says, was invaluable: “We are creating living, breathing experiences – not just an aesthetic.”

Since then, Noelting’s projects have included private residences in the Bay Area and Hawaii, Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, and the Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki. Bamo’s job, she explains, “is to create welcoming spaces. That starts with where we work. Flourishing creativity depends on mutual trust. Clients trust us with their personal vision, with their brand vision, and that trust has to filter down into how the work is done.”

Wilkinson offers an insight on Noelting’s leadership: “It takes maturity to tap into what clients are saying, to hear what they really want. Lindsay is able to bridge the language gap. And she has a strength that allows clients and colleagues to feel more confident.”

For her part, Noelting seeks to create an environment that allows designers to grow: “Self-censorship can impede creativity. When all team members feel invited to share their ideas freely, that is often when we spark an idea that results in our best designs.”

“There is no magic formula for it,” she concludes. “It doesn’t just come together on paper, in a presentation. It’s the entire process of working together, of having the client’s involvement.”