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When you’re putting together a Studio Gang–designed 40-story high-rise with apartments going for $5 million, every detail has to be perfect.
That’s why real estate investment firm Tishman Speyer tapped FrenchCalifornia, Guillaume Coutheillas’s design and branding agency, to develop interiors for a unit on the luxe 38th floor of the Mira tower in San Francisco. Coutheillas selected contemporary pieces that complemented the building’s uniquely angular architecture. “We were able to develop an entire concept around a very Italian style,” he says. “We called it ‘modern Dolce,’ with lots of straight lines and puffs of color.”
As a full-service branding agency, Coutheillas says FrenchCalifornia marries the goals of the developer with the vision of the architect and the needs of the residents.
“We do everything, from creating a brand identity, naming the development, and building the website and brochures, to designing and decorating the physical space,” he says. “It’s just a more holistic, comprehensive approach.”
Mira is just one of a number of properties in the portfolio of FrenchCalifornia, which has become a go-to for the developers behind projects ranging from the Crescent in San Francisco to the Steinway Tower in Manhattan.
“A physical space is the embodiment of the brand, especially when you work for real estate clients,” Coutheillas says. “Ideally you have a continuity between what they’re telling you, what’s on their Instagram, in their brochures, and what’s in the lobby.”