Categories
Construction — Design
Interior Designer
An interior designer translates your concept and brand into a buildable FF&E package: lighting, finishes, millwork, banquettes, signage, art. For a restaurant or bar you want one with hospitality-specific experience (durability, sightlines, sound, code-compliant fabrics), not just residential — they should partner cleanly with your architect of record and stay inside your buildout budget.
View vendors →Architect
An architect turns your concept into the sealed DOB-filed drawings a general contractor can build from. In NY only a licensed architect (or PE) can seal those plans, and for hospitality they have to layer DOB, FDNY, DOH, SLA, ADA, sidewalk café, landmarks, and energy code in one set. The right architect for a restaurant or bar has done hospitality before and can keep your buildout on schedule and on budget.
View vendors →Signage & Wayfinding
Signage and wayfinding vendors design and fabricate your exterior signs, interior wayfinding, ADA Braille placards, neon, and illuminated channel letters. Restaurants, hotels, and event venues all need them — and DOB sign permits, landmark approvals, and zoning sign limits all gate the work. Roughly 80% of "neon" sold in 2026 is LED-flex faux-neon, with real glass neon a NYC artisan niche led by Let There Be Neon, Lite Brite, and BMS Sign; budget 50-200 signs per venue (ADA Signs 2026 benchmark) and walk the guest path on plan.
View briefing →Lighting Designer
A lighting designer creates the lighting plan for a restaurant, hotel, bar, or venue — fixture selection, layout, controls, scenes, and the NYCECC compliance package that DOB requires. Hire one as part of the design team for any new build or major renovation. The 2025 NYCECC, effective March 30, 2026, adopts enhanced lighting efficiencies based on IECC 2024 and ASHRAE 90.1-2022 with NYC amendments more stringent than the national baseline — your designer must price the spec to the new code; 2026 launch of WAC Architectural is widening specification-grade options.
View briefing →Acoustic Consultant
An acoustic consultant measures, models, and specifies the sound environment — STC ratings between rooms, NRC for ceilings and walls, mechanical noise control, and the sound-isolation strategy that keeps your restaurant from sounding like a subway platform. Hire one for any nightlife venue, any music room, any restaurant with an open kitchen, and any hotel near a transit corridor. The Waldorf Astoria's 2025 reopening absorbed senior bandwidth from 2022-2025 across multiple top NYC firms; consultants carry $1M-$5M occurrence / $3M-$10M aggregate professional E&O and mutual indemnity is now a standard ask.
View briefing →Other Operations sub-areas
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