Next up on Designer Diaries is one of our Junior Designers, Julia Whittley, a Bay Area native who joined BHD last year. Read on to learn more about her!
1) What is your favorite BHD project (either that you have worked on or not)?
Grand Hyatt SFO. The spaces have those fresh and inviting vibes that make you want to enter the room with a smile on your face. I am also loving our recently completed Canopy by Hilton Baltimore project, especially because of the high attention to detail, which the designers of this project have excelled at. So, keep a look out for that one!
2) What is your favorite design product?
The future is here with the Remi Smart Mirror!
3) What (or who) inspired you to be a designer?
Once when I was a kid, we got an architectural magazine in the mail and I was obsessed with it. I cut out all my favorite images and glued them into a notebook. Not long after that was the first and only time I told an adult what I wanted to be when I grew up. They asked me some questions, and then, said I should probably pick something else. So, I stuffed that dream away until my early 20s when I decided to take a stab at becoming a designer and applied to my school’s interior design program.
4) What is your favorite hotel or restaurant?
I recently went to Ozumo. It’s a contemporary Japanese restaurant on the Embarcadero. I have never been inside (because COVID) but the food is great.
5) What is your most used emoji?
Without a doubt 😬 …It’s probably my most common facial expression as well.
6) What was your first job?
I started babysitting when I was 10. It’s a job that I really enjoyed and stuck with, all the way through college where I had a part time job working with infants and toddlers.
7) What are you streaming right now?
Does football count?
8) What is your favorite snack food?
I wanted to put down something healthier but it’s Cheez-it’s. I love Cheez-it’s.
9) Where have you gotten lost on purpose?
When I was studying abroad in London, I took a trip by myself to Napoli. Each street had a different market and was so different from anything I had ever experienced, so I decided to keep walking and figure out where I was later.
10) Coffee or Tea? How do you take it?
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my tea. I’m always stocked with a full assortment. Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten into matcha, and I’ve been able to perfect my matcha latte skills since we’ve been working from home.