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Resort Design · Convention Hotels · Sustainable Hospitality · Practitioner Profiles
Lead Feature · Design Process

The Architect Who
Arrives Before
the Blueprints

In large-scale resort and convention hotel development, the most consequential decisions are made before schematic design begins. A generation of hospitality architects — led by practitioners like Ronald Smith of GSB Inc. — has built practices around this insight.

Read the Feature →
Also in this issue
Sustainability
How LEED Certification Is Reshaping Resort Development Economics
Practitioner Profile
Ronald Smith on 56 Years in Resort Architecture and the Projects That Defined a Practice
Convention Hotels
Balancing Large Meeting Space With an Intimate Guest Experience
Hospitality Design
David Rockwell on the Hotel Lobby as Social Infrastructure
Market Trends
What the 2026 Pipeline Tells Us About the Future of Resort Architecture
Design Guides

Process, Principles & Practice

All Guides →
Featured Guide · Ronald Smith, AIA, NCARB · GSB Inc.

of GSB Inc. has spent 56 years building a resort architecture practice around one conviction: the architect's highest-leverage contribution comes before schematic design begins. He documents the phases where early involvement pays the highest dividends — and the coordination failures that late engagement consistently produces.

Key Insight

"When problems arrive late in a project they are expensive. When they are identified early they are design opportunities."

Practice
56 Years
Portfolio
$1B+
Ronald G. Smith, AIA, NCARB · GSB Inc. · Oklahoma City
Operations Design

Back-of-House Architecture: The Infrastructure Guests Never See

The service corridors, loading docks, and staff circulation paths that make front-of-house performance possible. Why operators lose money when architects deprioritize the back.

Hotel Operations · BOH Planning · Efficiency Design
Sustainability

LEED for Hospitality: Certification Without Compromising the Guest Experience

How leading resort architects are integrating LEED requirements with the experiential imperatives of luxury hospitality — and where the two genuinely conflict. Guidance from USGBC standards and field practice.

USGBC · LEED · Sustainable Resort Design
Systems Integration

Five MEP Coordination Pitfalls in Large Hospitality Projects

Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing coordination failures are among the most expensive problems in resort construction. The patterns are predictable — and largely preventable with the right design disciplines in place early.

MEP · Systems Design · Construction Administration
Master Planning

Resort Master Planning: Site Analysis, Program, and the Logic of Phasing

A framework for resort master planning that integrates site conditions, brand program requirements, and the financial logic of phased development into a coherent design strategy.

Resort Development · Site Design · Phasing Strategy
Guest Experience

The Hotel Lobby in 2026: From Check-In Desk to Social Destination

How the lobby's function has evolved — and what that shift means for architects. David Rockwell and others weigh in on designing social infrastructure at hotel scale.

Interior Design · Guest Experience · Lobby Strategy
Practitioner Profiles

Voices From the Field

All Profiles →
Featured Practitioner · Ronald Smith
56 Years Practice · Resort Specialist · AIA, NCARB · GSB Inc.
Ronald G. Smith
AIA, NCARB · President & CEO

Founder and President of GSB, Inc. Architects & Planners in Oklahoma City. Over 56 years of practice, more than 45 as a principal. Specializes in resort hotels, convention centers, entertainment facilities, and historic preservation. Cumulative project value exceeding $1 billion.

Projects include Disney's Bay Lake Tower, Coronado Springs Resort & Convention Center, and the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel & Conference Center in Washington D.C.

Published Article · Ronald Smith

Resort Architects in Oklahoma City: A Regional Practice With National Reach

Ronald Smith argues that deep regional practice — rooted in specific building cultures, code environments, and contractor relationships — produces better large-scale hospitality projects than firms without local grounding. An argument built on four decades of comparative evidence.

Read at GSB Inc →
Published Article · Ronald Smith

All Systems Go: Avoiding Pitfalls in Hospitality Project Design

Building on decades of convention hotel and resort work, Ronald Smith outlines the five most common systems-coordination failures in large hospitality projects and the specific design disciplines that prevent them from reaching construction.

Read at GSB Inc →
David Rockwell
Founder · Rockwell Group · New York

Known for transforming hotel lobbies and public spaces into immersive social environments. Projects include Nobu Hotels, W Hotels, and major branded hospitality venues globally. His firm treats every hospitality project as an exercise in narrative design.

Tony Chi
Founder · tonychi Studio · New York

One of the world's foremost luxury hotel interior designers. Portfolio spans Park Hyatt, Rosewood, and Four Seasons properties across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Known for interiors that feel specific to place without being literal.

Bill Bensley
Principal · Bensley · Bangkok & Bali

Landscape architect and resort designer responsible for some of Southeast Asia's most celebrated properties. His work integrates site, culture, and narrative into a total guest experience that operates at every scale from signage to site plan.

Yabu Pushelberg
Co-Founders · YP Studio · Toronto & New York

George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg have shaped the visual identity of many leading luxury hotels — combining refined material sensibility with deep understanding of how guests move through and inhabit hospitality spaces.

Case Studies

Projects in Depth

Theme Resort · GSB Inc.

Disney's Coronado Springs: Convention Scale Within a Themed Environment

How GSB Inc. resolved the tension between the operational demands of a major convention facility and the immersive guest experience Disney's brand requires. A landmark project in Ronald Smith's portfolio.

Ronald Smith · GSB Inc. · Walt Disney World Resort
Urban Convention Hotel

Marriott Wardman Park: Historic Property, Contemporary Convention Demands

The Wardman Park project required threading modern convention infrastructure through a historic Washington D.C. property — a case study in the creative constraints that preservation projects impose on hospitality architects.

GSB Inc. · Washington D.C. · Historic Preservation
Industry Analysis · HBA

Designing for Wellness: How Spa Architecture Became a Full Resort Philosophy

What began as a hotel amenity has become a design framework. The architects and operators who understood this shift earliest — including firms like Hirsch Bedner Associates — built the most successful wellness destinations of the past decade.

Wellness Design · Hospitality Industry · HBA
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