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Callin Fortis, co-founder of Big Time Design Studios, will be the keynote speaker for the first Club and Venue Design Expo scheduled to take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California on Wednesday and Thursday, February 1-2, 2012. Fortis is the nightlife legend that created and founded the international award-winning brand, crobar. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of what was, is and will be, and has dominated the world's nightlife and hospitality scene for more than two decades. |
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What, exactly, is global design? Is it a perception of aesthetic, doing business in an international arena — or something else entirely? At Miami's Betsy Hotel, Hotel Design, along with sister publication Hospitality Architecture + Design sat down for breakfast with six designers and three sponsors to try to answer these questions among other subjects affecting the design industry. |
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Designed by international hospitality designer Callin Fortis, principal of Bigtime Design Studios, guests enter the bar via a dimly lit passage that still suggests its service past. Fortis has included optical illusion as part of the magic that transforms this otherwise claustrophobic space. By using a reflective vinyl that acts as a mirror he ostensibly enlarges the visual feeling of space exponentially. |
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Situado justo frente a la playa de South Beach, The Betsy Hotel no sólo encierra en sus paredes la historia de toda una época, sino el lujo y la exclusividad que llegaron con los años a quedarse. Renovado totalmente en el 2008, este hotel que lleva su nombre en honor de Betsy Ross, mujer a la que se le atribuye la confección de la primera bandera estadounidense, se distingue dentro de las construcciones art déco de su época por su arquitectura colonial. |
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The last place anyone expects to find anything remotely hip is Ocean Drive. But the renovated Betsy Hotel has done just that with its speakeasy space, B Bar. Described as a "jewel box," the lounge transports you to something akin to an obscure New York hot spot. Even if you stay at the Betsy, chances are you won't easily find the lounge. To arrive at the entrance, you must descend a small set of stairs, walk through what looks like a service hallway, and knock on a nondescript door. |
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Annointed “everything that was important in Miami” by Urban Daddy in 2009, B Bar is the latest creation of visionary designer Callin Fortis, the aesthetic master also behind iconic nightclubs Crobar, Cameo and Vinyl. Guests enter B Bar via a dim, hidden stairwell inside the subtly luxurious Betsy Hotel on Ocean Drive.
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Shades of dark red, lavender and deep purple, a reflective black vinyl ceiling, and hand-cut Parisian crystal lamps add just the right complimentary golden glow and a sense of the ethereal to
B Bar, the deep underground lounge now open at The Betsy Hotel on South Beach.
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In a town with more clubs per capita than any place else on earth, it's more and more difficult for a venue to stand out. That's what made Crobar and then Cameo so appealing. The mix of whim and wile had not been seen since the days of Lapidus, and both venues remain legendary staples of what it means to truly do South Beach. The design mind behind the massive creations was one Callin Fortis, head of his own Big Time Design, and Ken Smith, co-owner of Crobar Worldwide.
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For a place that takes the art of cocktailing to the next level, consider B Bar beneath The Betsy Hotel, 1440 Ocean Dr. which is not officially open. The brainchild of designer Callin Fortis -- formerly of crobar fame -- B Bar is the antithesis of the South Beach nightclub.
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Echoing the privileged pomp of Prohibition days, the B Bar in the basement of The Betsy has just opened in Miami Florida, offering a sumptuous take on a speakeasy, designed by Callin Fortis of Big Time Design Studio. |
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The Gatecrasher lion, so symbolic of the brand's glory days, may have hung up its glow sticks and laid down in the ashes of the Sheffield club, but Gatecrasher has reared its head once again - now a very different beast - and come back bigger and bolder than ever before with international nightclub designers Bigtime Design Studios.
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The Miami-based designer is responsible for envisioning some of the most famous nightclubs in the world, developing an empire based on offering people a good time. His award-winning concepts have earned him the reputation of being one of the most significant nightclub designers in history and it's no coincidence why - his resume is impressive to say the least. His chain of crobar nightclubs around the world and the legendary Rain Nightclub in South Beach are among his most notable and breathtaking concepts.
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(Birmingham) - An interview with Callin Fortis, founder of US-based Bigtime Design, on his conceptual design for the new £5 million Gatecrasher Birmingham.
Callin Fortis, founder of Bigtime Design, is an internationally acclaimed designer famed for big nightclub projects that impress even the A-list celebrities. Known for designing and branding the award-winning series of Crobar nightclubs in the US, Cal has now cast his conceptual creativity towards the new Gatecrasher Birmingham. He explains why this 'modern day Coliseum' is amongst his best projects to date and defines the notion of 'the sociology of good design'.
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Uninspired by the UK's club design, Simon looked abroad and instantly became excited
by the work of renowned US nightclub designer Cal Fortis of BigTime Design. Cal is
responsible for the award-winning-designs, best interior design, best renovation - of the
world's famous clubs including Crobar New York, Crobar Chicago, and the Cameo Theater in Miami. His clubs have revered the world over with fans including Paris Hilton, Harrison Ford, Lenny Kravitz, Cameron Diaz and George Clooney to name a few.
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Gatecrasher enlisted the expertise of designers Big Time Design headed up by Cal Fortis. Cal is responsible for the award winning designs, best interior design, best renovation - of the world's most famous clubs including Crobar New York, Crobar Chicago, and the Cameo Theater in Miami.
His clubs are revered the world over with fans including Paris Hilton, Harrison Ford, Lenny Kravitz, Cameron Diaz, George Clooney, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Moby, Matthew McConaughey and Tommy Hilfiger.
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Raine believes that clubbers these days want a variety of entertainment presented in the most technologically advanced way possible. To this end, Gatecrasher has spent £5million and hired famed American club designer Cal Fortis, the man behind the Crobar venues in New York and Miami, to transform The Works complex on Broad Street. The 2,500-capacity venue has been split into four rooms full of features such as an LED wall, giant mirrorball and top-of-the-range sound and lighting systems based on an aesthetic described as Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas meets Blade Runner.
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Gatecrasher have enlisted the expertise of designers Big Time Design, headed up by a legendary nightclub designer Callin Fortis, to create the ultimate Miami style club experience, devised in Ibiza, designed in New York and built in Birmingham.
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As the duo behind international clubhouse Crobar, Ken Smith and Cal Fortis are a power team. Fortis creates the ambiance and Smith keeps the customers happy. |
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Designer, nightlife impresario and Bigtime co-founder Callin Fortis primarily known for the nightclub design and branding of the international and award-winning brand of Crobar nightclubs, BTDs is combining fashion, music, branding and architecture into one package with new company Bigtime Design.
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Designer, nightlife impresario and Big Time founder Callin Fortis - primarily known for designing and branding the international and award-winning brand of Crobar night-clubs - is combining fashion, music, branding and architecture into one package with new company Big Time Design. |
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Big Time Design wins the Best Nightclub Renovation and gets nominated for Best Nightclub Interior Design for their work on Cameo Miami.
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The iPod of nightlife might not be the perfect analogy, but it certainly matches the type of brand recognition crobar enjoys. The anticipation with which the industry awaits creators Ken Smith and Callin Fortis' next move puts the duo on top of our list.
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Cameo is the brainchild of Callin Fortis, club owner and designer (BigTime Design Studios), and, with his business partner, Ken Smith, the force behind the Crobar clubs in Chicago, New York and Miami.
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With Cameo, Chicago kingpin Callin Fortis undid his crobar creation and remade it in the likeness of the Palladium of the past. Picture Wright retrofitting the insides of Burnham & Root’s Rookery while dancing to a “dirty disco” beat. It’s the hallowed hollowing of a classic core to make way for a whole new modernity, a keen that not only knows history, but knows how to make it. |
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The start of 2007 saw a new venue, Cameo, join the competitive Miami club scene. A replacement for the popular Crobar club, it is a collaboration between two of the cities most successful operators, Louis Puig; (of, among others, Space club) and the Crobar team of Ken Smith and Cal Fortis. This union came about because Ken and Cal had been very busy franchising Crobar worldwide and had very little time to spend in Miami. |
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“It’s going to happen,” says designer Cal Fortis, who is sitting in a small office in the Cameo Theatre, chain-smoking Marlboro Light 100s, talking about his attempt to remake his world-famous crobar nightclub, of which he is a part owner, into a whole new nightclub that looks as little like his previous one as possible. “Everyone is going to compare it to crobar. It’s inevitable,” he says, exhaling a long stream of smoke into the air. |
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When asked what his favorite aspect of his job is, Crobar brand Co-owner and Co-creator Ken Smith says nothing of mingling with celebrities, rubbing elbows with the greatest DJ talent on earth or knowing that his brand is on the verge of becoming internationally established. “The people,” he says. “It is different every night, but I always know that 1 am going to meet someone who is going to make me laugh.” Completed by the other half of the brand creation, Callin Fortis, the duo’s at-titude is pervasive throughout the Crobar philosophy in all three locations, Chicago (1992), Miami (1999) and New York (2003). |
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There is sociology to good nightclub design. How people move through space while they are dancing is critical. Because New York is one of the biggest melting pots in the world, we felt the way we would generate the most excitement was to create a metaphorical melting pot on the dance floor. With the design I attempted to encourage the “user” or patron to forgo his/her social boundaries while experiencing crobar. |
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Callin Fortis and Lionel Ohayan, December 2003 crobar is one of a crop of new superclubs that have been unleashed on New Yorkers over the past couple of years. Like many of the other venues, it is located in Manhattan’s destination du soir. Chelsea, and is the third crobar to emerge in the US, with sister clubs in Chicago and Miami, all owned by Callin Fortis and Ken Smith, crobar follows in the nightclub tradition of being forged from a reclaimed industrial warehouse space, andis apparently the first large-scale venue to be built from virgin property in New York in over a decade. |
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Perched on the edge of Lake Michigan, America’s third largest city has long been famous for its modern architecture, raucous character and tumultuous history. Chicago’s hippest and most fashionable restaurants, bars and lounges are profiled in this handy little guide. |
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