Sean MacPherson is one of an elite group of nightlife creatives who brings instant credibility to any project he's working on. Along with Ian Schrager, André Balazs and Jason Pomeranc, MacPherson (with his frequent business partner Eric Goode) has been defining and refining the concept of the club-hotel that has come to dominate the nightlife scene. With each new undertaking -- from his restaurants in Los Angeles to his successes in New York with the Park, the Maritime, the Bowery Hotel and now the Jane -- MacPherson's brand of cool California urbanism continues to resonate.
MacPherson was born in New Zealand and grew up "all over the place," including in California, Mexico and Sun Valley, Idaho. A Cali skater kid in the '70s, a hip-hop fan in the '80s, but always "attracted to the vitality of social life," he studied philosophy and business.
As tastemaker-in-chief of all his projects, he has his nose in every corner of the building, from the overall design to the choice of doorknobs. (The financing usually comes from savvy investors who prefer to let the creative take the lead.) His sense of space, design, proportion and comfort work perfectly, yet don't call attention to themselves -- like MacPherson himself. While the word hotelier is frequently bandied about to describe his role, MacPherson's hands-on design credentials put him in the camp of the indiepreneur, one who oversees both art and commerce.
David Hershkovits: You recently attained pop culture status by playing yourself -- or at least a facsimile of yourself -- on Gossip Girl in a scene that was shot in a power office with a power view of Manhattan. Now that you've reached the pinnacle of your career, where do you go from here?
Sean MacPherson: Oh yeah, exactly. I call it maybe the nadir of my existence, certainly my New York existence. I once read this Gore Vidal quote, "Never miss a chance to have sex or be on television." So I decided to take Gore's advice on this particular one.
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