Vik Retreats

Stacy Shoemaker Rauen: Hi, I’m joined with Alex and Carrie. Thank you so much for joining me today. How are you both?

Alex Vik: Very well.

Carrie Vik: Very well, thank you.

SSR: Good, good. Excited to speak with you. So for the pod, we always start at the beginning, so, maybe, Carrie, let’s start with you. Where did you grow up? And did you always know or have a love for design or hospitality from a young age?

CV: Well, I grew up, my first 10 years, in Washington state and my second 10, 12 years in the Boston area, where I went to university, and then I moved to New York. And, I mean, not as a child, but as a teenager, I got very involved in art and photography and started, I think, probably some interest in design and art, but not really until college. And then when Alex and I met when we were in college, we started kind of exploring a lot more.

SSR: No, I love it. And, Alex, what about you? Where did you grow up? And same kind of question about art and hospitality.

AV: Yeah. I’m Norwegian, but I was born in Sweden. I grew up in Sweden until I was 14 and then from 14 to 18, I lived in the Canary Islands, outside of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. And my grandfather had an art auction business in Norway, the leading one, and so I was exposed, not that I was interested in it, but I was exposed indirectly all the time to art and design and things like that, and so I was very interested in aesthetics. So I always like to say the story, so that when I was living in the Canary Islands, I’d never been to the U.S. and I saw the movie Love Story and, of course, Ali MacGraw is very attractive, very aesthetic, all about art and design. So, Harvard looked like a good place to go, so I applied and they accepted me. I went there and I went looking for Ali MacGraw and I found her in art and design and aesthetics and my wife, Carrie was like an Ali MacGraw lookalike beauty.

SSR: Aw, I love that. So, what did you both study in college?

CV: I studied sociology.

AV: I was an economics major.

CV: Nothing to do with art and design.

SSR: No, but that’s fine. It’s a better journey story. And, Alex, you were on Wall Street, right, for a while, after college?

AV: Yes, in investment banking division, and then I became a stockbroker.

SSR: Got it. Got it. And, Carrie, what did you do?

CV: After I graduated, I went to work for General Electric in their computer services company, and I did that for six years. I was married when I stopped working for GE, I decided that I didn’t really want to be a corporate person, so I wanted to do more entrepreneurial things, which I had done in college. I’d had my own business in college, so kind of wanted to get back to that. We were looking forward to having children and I wanted a life that allowed me to be the kind of mother I wanted to be as well as, also, professional person.

SSR: Got it. And where were you all living? What were you all doing in terms of, I know art, you kind of came-

CV: We moved to New York City right after we graduated. Alex was working for Layman Brothers and I took the job with GE in Manhattan. So we lived in the village, that was our first apartment, was down in the village, and that’s when we really started going down to West Broadway on Sundays, seeing the exhibitions. This was in the late ’70s, early ’80s. There was a boom of art galleries and really funky happenings happening down there, which we really loved to kind of just go on Sundays and walk around. And then we started meeting people. We’ve actually bought our first pieces of fine art. In those early years, we met, I don’t know, was he a broker, Alex? I can’t even remember what he was. This guy, named Barton Beneš, we bought a couple of pieces of his, we bought a Christo.

So, we started kind of dabbling a little bit and we also were buying, when we moved into our second apartment, really, we started buying antiques, like low-cost antique furniture, to furnish our apartment. And Alex’s parents really were encouraging us to do that because we were living with my sister’s hand-me-down college furniture. So, we upgraded to the low-cost Lower Manhattan auction houses, there were two auction houses, and every Saturday, one or the other of them would have an auction. So, we kind of really got into going to the auctions, it’s a super exciting way to buy furniture. And then from there, we kind of, as we got older and more established, we started moving into higher-end antiques and then more fine arts.

SSR: Got it.

CV: Developed our interest that way. And, also, just very aesthetic and very keen on the aesthetics of things, so design became a big focus for us in our own lives at that point. Nothing to do with business, but in our own lives.

SSR: It was an exciting time in the art world. I mean, that must-

AV: We didn’t understand it. Had we known what we now know, we would’ve done things differently. But it was.

CV: Yeah, we would’ve bought everything we saw.

AV: Obviously, in those days, Soho, especially West Broadway, and there are a few galleries and if you went to the best ones and bought whatever they had, which was all really good, we would’ve been amazing. We didn’t have enough money, so we were kind of buying a little bit below that and maybe what we should’ve done is put all our savings and bought a Lichtenstein or a Warhol or something like that.

CV: Yeah, we should’ve borrowed money to buy those things.

SSR: Yes. Well, hindsight’s always easier than when you’re living in-

AV: Yes. Yes.

CV: But we had a lot of fun. It was really fun.

SSR: I’m sure you did. So, what eventually drew you to the hotel world? How did you end up falling in love with hotels or wanting to be hoteliers? What was that journey?

AV: I mean, I would say I was always involved with real estate from a very young age. I was working on Wall Street, but it was also investing in real estate and Manhattan, I was buying up buildings. And my father had been and was in the real estate business in the Canary Islands, so we got, through real estate, really got involved with hotels and invested in a number of hotels around the world. And then when we started going to Uruguay after the year 2000, essentially, we started looking for a ranch that was close to our beach house because it was such a romantic, idyllic ranch life. And we found an amazing property, where I am actually now, at Estancia Vik, it’s in José Ignacio. It’s 4,000 acres on the lagoon on the ocean. We wanted to build a home for ourselves there, but since we hardly ever went, we went basically for Christmas, New Years, holidays.

But we had so many ideas about art and architecture and design and nature, and so, in the end, we decided to make it much bigger and share it with the world, essentially, at small hotels. So, we did that first, for the Estancia, and then we bought the best property in the peninsula, José Ignacio hotel. So, we sold our beach house, moved there, then we built the same. So, we have a ranch and a beach property 10 minutes from each other. I like to say you can ride your horse from Jackson Hole to Saint-Tropez, they’re that different. And then we really got into this idea of all the things that we like to do, which is architecture, nature, art, design and so forth, incorporated into that. And we started working with, in Uruguay, we probably worked with couple hundred artists by now. We have another project called Bahia Vik, which is 500 yards down the beach from Playa Vik in José Ignacio.

And then with Vik Chile, which is a winery and hotel in Chile, where we have 11,000 acres and there, we have built an amazing winery with an architect, Smiljan Radić, who was a candidate for the Pritzker Prize as a result of the winery. It’s really beautiful. Spent six years with him, designing and building it. And then we designed and built two hotels, Vik Chile and Puro Vik that sort of work together, and so implementing more and more of our ideas. So, it’s been a really, really nice experience. All of them have been recognized as sort of the best hotels in South America and throughout the world. Vik Chile was recognized as the best vineyard experience in the world by Wine Enthusiast magazine this year.

SSR: Amazing. I mean, yes, they’re all beautiful. So, going back a bit, and then we’ll go back forward, Uruguay. So, was that a family vacation destination? Is that how you found it, or was that something that you all loved?

CV: We down the first time in 1987, when our first daughter was born. Alex’s mother was actually Uruguayan, but he had never been. So, his mother had moved to Norway as a teenager, where her father was the ambassador to Norway from Uruguay, and then she had three children very quickly and really just sort of stayed. She went back once in a while, but she didn’t take Alex. And so when we had this first child, his grandmother was still alive, living in Montevideo, aunts and uncles and cousins, his parents living in Europe and we said, “Okay, well, let’s go. Let’s go and see this country where your mother’s from. Let’s introduce our baby to its great-grandmother and the family,” and so we did. We rented a house for a month in Punta del Este and his family all came, his brothers, his parents and we just had a fabulous time. We just fell in love with the country of Uruguay.

We went out to a cousin’s estancia for a few days, we drove out in the middle of the countryside with his brothers and his father, and just fell in love with that whole culture of the estancia life. And so, then, every time we had a child, we used it as an excuse to go back to Uruguay. So, three years later, four years later, we kept going back. Our fourth child was born in 1998, and then we came back and then in 2000, we bought this little beach house in La Barra. And then we decided okay, every year, holidays, Christmas, New Year holidays, we were going to come to Uruguay, the same time his father bought a house in Punta del Este, so it became the family place for the Vik family to meet at Christmastime.

We loved the beach. The beaches here are fabulous. The whole coast of the country is one long sand dune beach. But we also had this idea of a ranch because of our experience, the very first time, coming to Uruguay and going out to this cousin’s ranch, so we started looking … In 2004, 2005, we started looking for a ranch property, but we wanted it to be close enough to the beach so that we wouldn’t lose the beach and that we could kind of go back and forth and have our beach house and then have the ranch. And Alex was very keen on it had to have a laguna on it because the lagunas on these lands are just incredibly spectacular. And so we found this land in José Ignacio, which was only 20 minutes from our then beach house in La Barra, so we bought the ranch here.

And then we’d met these real estate brokers, they started showing us property in the village of José Ignacio, which we visited a little bit here and there, but we then ended up buying the second property. So, then we had these two magnificent properties, one on the beach and one just five miles inland, with 4000 acres and we thought okay, well, we want to build houses for ourselves, and we had all these ideas and we’re kind of … We spend a fair amount of time talking about art, design and architecture and our love for those things, and so we had this very definite idea at the ranch to build a Spanish colonial style architecture structure and then at the beach, maybe doing something more contemporary. But, again, as Alex mentioned, we were living in the northern hemisphere, our kids, at this point, are going to school, so we had maybe three weeks a year where we could actually be in Uruguay during the summer, during the warm part of the year.

So we thought okay, well, we’d started to see foreigners coming in. Before that, it was really just the Argentinians and the Uruguayans and sometimes Brazilians, but we started to see North Americans coming and some Europeans coming and our friends wanted to come and visit, because we raved about this country and there were really no nice hotels to stay in. So, we thought okay, well, let’s do this. Let’s build them bigger than we would for ourselves and let’s offer them to this public of travelers who want to come and explore this new place. And we built them, obviously, bigger than we would’ve built them for ourselves, but we used all of our design and art and architectural ideas in them.

When we first came to Uruguay, we’d started buying art, so we went to galleries and we met artists and all the things we were doing in New York, we started doing here. We’d already started buying art and we had a group of artists that we really enjoyed and loved what they were doing, so it kind of all just came together in this moment, where we had this idea and we just ran with it and had so much fun and so much creative energy, and the team around us and the artists and the architect and the people of Uruguay just being very enthusiastic about what we were doing.

SSR: That’s amazing. And so tell us about creating the ranch, Playa Vik, that then turned into this amazing hotel. How did you merge design and architecture and how, because I know building something that really spoke to the landscape and spoke to where it was very important to you and it’s continued on throughout your other properties, what was building that first one like? And what did you want to create?

AV: Right. So the Estancia Vik, where I am now, it was an homage to Uruguay, so that’s why we wanted to build an estancia in the Spanish colonial style, like it has been here for 100 years or 200 years. And then really incorporating the nature around it because it’s super, super beautiful, between the rolling lands, the cattle, the horses, the laguna. So, when you’re driving here, in the driveway, you have to slow down because there are all these horses that are walking around and cows, and it’s very much like that. So we have the traditional Uruguayan design, the roofs are all tin roofs. And originally, all the tin roofs in Uruguay were sort of like a rust color red and the reason was because in England, the rustproof roofs that they bought, they all had that one color, it was sort of a rust color red, so we went for that with the white walls inside the rooms. All the artists we used here are Uruguayan, so 100 percent of the artists … Sort of the feel of it, so-

CV: Even the building materials are local. Uruguayan-built materials.

AV: So it was very much about that, about Uruguay. Then, when we went to the beach, which is Playa Vik in José Ignacio, there, we decided we’re going to bring the 21st century to the beach. And so the central building there is really a sculpture. There, we worked with Carlos Ott, who’s a very well-known Uruguayan architect, he works internationally. And so the building is anti-gravity, everything is cantilevered in at various degrees. Even the pool is just over the ground, so the pool itself is floating in space. And then around it, we have six little houses that have grass roofs. So very contemporary below that, but above, it’s very organic and, again, on the beach, but completely different feelings. And there, we brought some more international artists involved, like James Turrell or Anselm Kiefer.

CV: Zaha Hadid.

AV: Zaha Hadid. Little different. So, there, we blended the international design, art with the Uruguayan concept and radically different feelings and experiences, so, as I said before, you can ride your horse from Jackson Hole to Saint-Tropez.

SSR: Yes, I’m dying to travel and so all of this is making me very happy right now. What was this collaboration like for you all, as first time? I mean, I know you invest in other hotels, but actually developing something that was solely yours. What was it like working with local craftsmen and artists and the architect? I mean, did that bug get in you that helped you continue along? Because a lot of people just love the process.

AV: It was nice. Estancia Vik, we started with one architect, who we didn’t really—because we have very, very clear and strong ideas of what we want to do and, obviously, we’re not architects, so we need people to make the drawings to make it all work—the first architect, he didn’t really get what we were trying to do, so we changed to Marcelo Daglio, he’s a local Uruguayan architect, and he’s very good and he’s very much a partner of ours and really very good at expressing, in technical drawings, what we are trying to accomplish. So we did Estancia Vik with him, then we did another property, Bahia Vik, which was already started, in part, and then we used him as well, and we used him for La Susana and we did this amazing pavilion. And also, Vik Chile for the hotel, we brought him to Chile to work with him because he’s very good at collaborating with us.

So that’s just an all-around positive experience. And the artists, it’s tremendously engaging, but also time-consuming element because … For example, in Chile, we didn’t really have any contacts in the art world. We ended up meeting, maybe, 200 artists. First, we would go to art galleries, museums and sort of network with other artists, then we’d go visit them at their ateliers and see what they were doing. And we always want to find artists who are really open to collaborating because we’re not just buying art and hanging, it’s more a collaboration at site-specific installations. And there, we chose, in the end, 40 artists, 200 to 40, and then we worked with them over a couple year period to perfect it all. So, that’s very enjoyable and energetic experience.

CV: Yeah. I think it was extremely inspirational to work with all these artisans and artists, and these projects feed our passion. So, we have these passions for art, design and architecture and, I mean, we’ve been able to create these beautiful properties with all of our ideas. Some of them are pretty crazy, but it just fed our passions and fed this inspiration. And then you’re dealing with all these very creative people, so you feed off of each other and there just becomes this great collaboration, as Alex said, but in such a creative way. Everyone involved … I mean, if you ask any of the people that we’ve been involved with, doing these projects with, they’ve just been a really great moment for people and all of us. And it just bonded so many people in a very special way to be part of these projects.

SSR: And speaking of crazy ideas, can you talk a little bit about the building at Puro Vik? Because I know that was, I mean, it’s just architecturally stunning how it moves and shapes, but I know that was an undertaking, so can you talk a little bit about that for our listeners?

CV: Are you talking about Vik Chile with the undulating titanium roof?

SSR: Yes.

CV: So we had this idea. We wanted to build a glass hotel because the views, we wanted it to be like you were living in the nature and you were living in this amazing vineyard and 11,000 acres of land. And we had this site already chosen on the top of a hill, so you would have 360 degree views of this beautiful landscape and nature. And so the walls had to be glass. And then Alex and I, sitting at home one night, just debating okay, well, what are we going to do with the roof? Do you do a flat roof, many architects have done that in the past, or do we do something more interesting? And at Playa Vik, we had done this titanium roof and there, we thought okay, well, Alex is mad about Richard Serra and Frank Gehry architecture, and so we thought well, let’s do something where it’s really about the wind and the mountains that are around us. So, we went into this process of designing, with Marcelo Daglio, this undulating, beautiful titanium structure for the roof, which was quite an undertaking. Alex, you can comment on that.

AV: Yeah. So the vineyard is all about the terroir, we’re trying to make the terroir of Vik and Millahue, Chile, we’re trying to grow the perfect grape to make one of the greatest wines of the world, if not the greatest, so we’re very, very focused on the terroir of the place. That also led to why when we did architectural competition for the winery, we only invited Chilean architects, and Smiljan Radić won that competition. So for the roof, this undulating sculpted roof, originally, our idea was to do it in copper, which was-

CV: Copper.

AV: A very Chilean material, it’s very much about Chile, but, technically, it was very challenging. It’s unbelievably hot. And the local Chilean guys wanted to do a wooden structure to hold it. So, between the wooden structure and the incredibly hot copper, and it was uncertain of how it was going to behave over time, both in shape and color, so that’s when we switched to this idea of doing it in titanium. And Millahue means place of gold, so, instead, we decided to make it in the sort of golden-shaded titanium. And then we needed to find somebody who could actually build this, and we ended up in Spain. So the people who actually had built the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, using Frank Gehry’s shapes and titanium, they built the roof in Spain and then disassembled it and then shipped it to Chile-

CV: Millahue.

AV: And was assembled, so the whole structure was installed. And then on top of that, galvanized steel and then on top of that, the titanium surface panels, so that’s what creates the whole roof. And it needs to be incredibly precisely done, especially when the shapes are bending and are never straight, it makes it even … From a technical engineering point of view, much more challenging. That’s why the precision of the Spanish company was essential.

CV: It was remarkable to watch them install this roof.

SSR: I know. I was like, do you have a time lapse of how it all went?

CV: I wish.

SSR: Yeah. So amazing.

CV: We have lots of photographs.

SSR: I mean, I know you also put a lot of time and effort into the wine as well. I mean, was that another passion of yours that you wanted to explore or something you kind of fell into?

AV: I’ve always loved agriculture, working the land, growing vegetables, fruits, things like that, from childhood. And here in South America and in Uruguay, it’s so beautiful. And I’d spent a lot of time in France and was very interested in the concept of terroir. What is it? And in Bordeaux, for example, you have completely unknown vineyard and then a next one’s incredibly famous and the next one, unknown and then famous. So, it seemed very random. Why is it that this particular property produces this great wine and the one neighbor doesn’t? So, really started studying that. And then when we started spending a lot of time in South America, set out a challenge to find the best terroir for the best red wine. So, we put together a scientific team to spend two years analyzing the wine-growing region, so Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Southern Brazil, to find what they thought was the best place in South America to make the best red wine, something that could be on par with the great wines of the world.

And after two years, they found this area of Chile, which is in Millahue, which is two hours south of Santiago, a valley that didn’t have a vineyard. It was next to one with many, but itself didn’t really have vineyard. And we spent another year analyzing that, all kinds of scientific methods and then decided that okay, this is the place where we had a chance to make one of the world’s greatest wines. And so, in 2006, we purchased and started clearing and planning all from scratch. And it’s agriculture, so it takes time, but we’re seeing incredible progress. The oldest vines are 14 years old and the youngest are six years old, which is very young for wine, but we’re maybe most are already at a young, precocious age, they’re creating just amazing wines and I’m very confident that we can achieve this and make some of the best wines in the world.

SSR: Are those birds behind you?

CV: Yes.

AV: Yes. Yes, there are.

CV: They make a lot of noise here.

SSR: We are in nature, I love it. And so I know design is a huge part and architecture’s a huge part in the hotel experience, but, also, I mean, you guys have gotten many awards, too, just for the overall experience at your hotels. So, how do you think about that? Are these really extension of your homes, as people come in? Talk to me about your service and just creating experience.

CV: From the very inception of the idea of making these hotels, it was very important for us to create an experience for our guests that was like they were coming to stay in our homes. So, you’re coming to our home, you’re staying in this beautiful property with our aesthetic of art and design and architecture in terms of beautiful, elegant places, but you would have all the services of the best hotel in the world. But you would never really feel like you’re in a hotel. So, we went out in search of management, of a hotel person, who could actually bring that experience to fruition and we found Max Broquen. And Max joined us as we were opening Estancia Vik, so joined us very, very early and really has been able to … Believed in that concept and, also, then was able to build a team who really delivered that experience for our guests.

I’ve been very pleased and I’d say, at the beginning, a little bit surprised when you talk to guests … When we would come to visit, you talk to guests and they would say, “It feels like we’re staying in your home. Thank you for opening your home to us.” He was able to really build that idea and concept with our guests, so I think that’s been extremely important to what we tried to build from the very, very beginning.

AV: I would add to that by saying that we’ve created beautiful physical environments that are very nice, but you need the human warmth to make it all what it should be. And we try very much to have informal service. We have a lot of young people, and what I like about that is that they’re the ones. We try to find people who are very eager and positive. Even if they don’t have a long experience in hotel services, but they’re just so keen to please the guests and they become friends with the guests. It’s not a servant position, it’s more like a friend helping out your friend. Very respectful, but in an eager way to try to make them feel as good as possible. So, it’s very different from a, shall we say, Four Season type of experience, which is much more structured and formal and the same around the world. Here, we’re trying very much, we have super sophisticated, distinguished guests who end up embracing the staff when they leave.

CV: Or at the end of dinner.

AV: Yeah. And it’s a nice feeling, where it’s a, shall we say, collegial, reciprocal relationship with the guests.

SSR: I mean, this is where, I think, travel was headed or going way before COVID, but I think post-COVID, and I’m curious of your thoughts. I think meaningful travel or that personal travel will mean even more, right? Just because people haven’t been able to travel. So, I think you’ve done so well already, but I think places like yours will be even more sought out.

CV: Well, we hope so.

AV: We hope so.

SSR: I’m calling it now!

CV: Yeah. Well, I hope you’re right. I think you’re on something there because people do want that personalized service. I mean, it is a different world. I mean, it’ll go back, a lot of it will go back, but then some things have changed. And I think when you feel very comfortable where you’re going, with an environment that you feel you have some sort of a more controlled environment than a big hotel complex and real personalized experience, I think it probably feels better for a lot of people to come. We had a lot of people wanting to come this year, to Uruguay. Chile has opened, so that’s possible, but Uruguay has been really closed down, mostly, and we had so many people who wanted to come because they felt like they could come here and quarantine in their own way and they could feel safe in this environment knowing what we provide. Next year will be a new year for us and we’re looking forward to welcoming back our guests, our repeat guests, and welcoming a lot of new guests.

AV: No, an interesting thing in Chile, because the Chilean borders were closed for a long time, Chileans who traditionally travel abroad, they couldn’t go anywhere, so they started looking internally. So, as soon as we opened, we were full.

SSR: That’s great.

AV: With Chileans who suddenly discovered, “Oh my God, this is an amazing hotel, an amazing experience, two hour drive from Santiago.” So, on the weekends, it’s absolutely full. So that’s been a nice part of it, that the locals have had to focus a little bit more on what’s available locally, where, in the past, probably 70 percent or 80 percent of our guests were international.

SSR: Yeah. No, that’s a nice silver lining, because we talk a lot about drive-in destinations are, quote, unquote, booming, but doing well. So, it’s nice to hear that that’s also happening in Chile. And what has the last nine months been like for you all, or 10 months now, as hoteliers? What has been some of the greatest challenges throughout the COVID world?

CV: I’d say taking care of our team.

AV: Yes, that’s the biggest challenge.

CV: It’s been the hardest part.

AV: We have a huge team and many people, and no work and no revenues. That’s a big challenge.

CV: Super difficult.

SSR: Yeah. Well, hopefully, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel in 2021. So you have six hotels now in your portfolio. Do you have growth plans? Do you have things that you want to do next or is it kind of just this year’s been tough enough and you’re waiting to see what happens, or? Tell me about what’s next for you all.

CV: I mean, I would say the first thing is to get everybody up and running again, get us back on track and get our teams back working. At the same time, I mean, having a moment to kind of reflect on things is also a good thing for us. I mean, we’re always looking for new opportunities. Building Milan has been just a great experience for us, having our first city hotel in a great city like Milan.

SSR: Oh, yes. Can you talk about that a little bit? Because I love how, I mean, that really brings out your love for art. Not that the other hotels don’t, but just talk about how you [created it?] Each floor has it’s artist or look and feel. Can you kind of talk through that a bit?

CV: I mean, we found this amazing opportunity in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, which is in the heart of Milan.

AV: They call it the living room of Milan.

CV: And it joins the Scala Square to the Duomo Square, and it was built as the first shopping center in the world. It’s where the original and, still, the first Prada store is there and many, many others. And we had this opportunity to take a whole section of the galleria and create a hotel. We did a lot of work. Virtually, every bathroom is new. We created different spaces where they had some enormous—there had been a hotel there, and so we were recreating spaces, making rooms more to what we thought the market wanted, but really focusing on creating a real art and design hotel in the city of art and design. And I think that, for us, was just a huge challenge and just really inspirational. And then, again, we didn’t know many Italian artists, so we started meeting many, many, many, many. We were working with 100 Italian and international artists, who were mostly living in Italy at this point, but that just was a fantastic, eye-opening experience.

And then creating this hotel in this historic building, where, literally, as you said, every floor is a different architecture. So, you go from the first floor, where our restaurant is, these beautiful arches in the dining room and the restaurant area, and then you go to the second floor with these huge, double height ceilings, these fantastic, enormous four meter high windows by sort of French doors. And then the third floor has balconies, and then you go to the fifth floor, which is actually above the structure of these glass and iron structure of the galleria, and that structure was designed by the same architect that designed the Eiffel tower. So, you have all these beautiful Filagree work.

AV: Gustave Eiffel.

CV: Yeah, Eiffel. All these beautiful filagree and iron and glass. So, you’re up above that, so you actually get to see that amazing architecture from above. Many of the rooms have their own terraces. So, the architecture from floor to floor is very different, from room to room is very different, from 201 to 301 to 401 are all different. There was a big challenge because 89 rooms, and so we had to design 89 rooms and buy furniture for 89 rooms and come up with different concepts for 89 rooms, but it’s what we’ve been doing for the last more than 10 years.

And we find inspiration where we are and from people around us and from our experiences, so it just kind of feeds into that new project. I’d say it was hard, doing 89 rooms in the middle of a city in, Alex went nine months or something, was kind of completely crazy, and I broke my foot in the middle of it. I mean, it was just like, all this was, really, a pretty intense experience, but it’s fantastic and the results are, I’d say, just so different from anything we’ve done before because we’ve always built new construction, but really, really spectacular.

AV: And one of the fun things about the corridors on the second floor, we worked with a Uruguayan artist living in New York, who painted 3000 square feet of paintings. So, they’re usually six feet tall, so times…what is it?

CV: Yes, 150 meters.

AV: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s six feet tall-

CV: Like, 500 feet.

AV: By 450 feet. So the whole corridor, essentially, from beginning to end, is all of her artwork. Then, on the third floor, Carrie conceived of this flag art, essentially, messages on the wall using flags-

CV: Secret messages.

AV: Nautical flag signals in maybe 80 different paintings, and I did a conceptual art of roughly 80 different paintings in color-

CV: Color chart.

AV: Yeah. And then on the fifth floor, it’s a combination of various artists, many of them Uruguayan, but also a Norwegian artist friend of ours, who did this paintings all in nail polish and hairspray. They’re all in white and you can only see them under black light. So, when you go into the corridor, as you approach his section, the black lights come on and the paintings light up. It’s a very, very nice experience. Unique for hotels.

When you go in there and the reception we have a monumental sculpture of The Thinker, by Rodin, surrounded by contemporary mural frescoes. So, it’s all very different from what you would normally see in a hotel.

SSR: Yeah. How do you meet all these artists? And then how do you decide who you work with? I mean, is it just a feeling? Is it just how their art speaks to you? Is it a multitude of things?

AV: Yeah. I mean, I would say all of those, but an important component is that some artists just do their thing and that’s it, so we’re really looking for artists who are willing to collaborate, who really get into the whole idea of creating site-specific installations and working with us. Some of them come and paint on the wall. In addition to painting the paintings, they come on there and paint the walls. Some of them, all of the walls, some of them, part. So, we really want to engage with them, it’s not a passive, it’s a very active relationship, so that’s a critical part to the choice. But before that, their art has to, we have to like it, it has to mean something to us and something that can work for the guests. In Milan, we have 100 different artists.

SSR: Right.

AV: And not all guests are going to like the same thing, so, sometimes, you get people who don’t like it and they’re like “Oh, I want to switch to another room,” or sometimes, there are people who like it so much, they want to buy all the paintings in the room. So, you don’t know. But we’re challenging the, shall we say pushing the edge of the envelope in terms of experiences.

SSR: Right. And I love that you weren’t afraid to use color and pattern. I mean, it’s bold and daring, but exciting all at the same time, so I commend you for that.

CV: Yeah.

AV: Thank you.

CV: Thank you. I mean, it really is about pushing this envelope. When you stay in a Vik retreat, you’re really going into these environments that are not necessarily what you would live with, sometimes they are, but sometimes they are something different, but it is about the experience. It’s the human experience, but it’s also the physical experience of being there and sort of exploring your own likes and dislikes. Our websites, we try to show people the rooms because we know that there are some that people maybe would prefer to stay in and some that they would prefer not to stay in, so we really do encourage people to explore our websites to understand what they would like their experience to be, I should say.

AV: And it’s very nice because in Milan, you can come 89 times, see the 89 different things.

SSR: Exactly.

AV: And we notice now that as guests become repeat guests, they actually ask for particular rooms. It’s not like a type of room or suite, no, no, “I want room X,” and every room has a name for the artist. So, “I want to be in…” We were in Chile and the Hiroshige, we love Japanese design, and in Chile, we have not only artist, but also a conceptual theme for each room. Our daughter was staying in Hiroshige, but she had to move out because a particular guest arriving wanted that particular room, and that’s very nice to see that people engage.

CV: And then we had just a nice story. We were in Chile just recently and a couple were, they were coming for a long weekend from Brazil and he was going to ask to marry him at Vik Chile, and he asked, he had to stay in Letras, and I think that he had studied the website and he’d seen this glass house and he really responded to it and that’s where he asked his girlfriend to marry him. And all-weekend long, this lovely couple running around doing things together and just so excited about their new life together.

SSR: Oh, I love that.

AV: Already, this fall, we’ve had 12 marriage proposals at Vik Chile

CV: I know.

SSR: What?

CV: Yeah.

AV: 12 this fall.

SSR: That’s amazing.

CV: Yeah. Chileans and Brazilians.

SSR: That’s awesome. Speaks to your properties. How is it working together? How do you two work together? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

AV: Can you see all my bruises here?

CV: We met a long time ago. We were 20 years old when we met, so we’ve kind of grown up together. I’d say in the beginning, working together, we kind of started working together on some real estate projects before we started the hotels, so there were times where that was something I had to get used to, the separation between an emotional relationship with somebody and a more business relationship. I think these projects, because we both are so keen on the creative side and of the things we love, was just fun projects for us to be involved together and we kind of separated out. We both are very involved in all aspects of these projects, but we did separate out. Alex really focused a lot on the architecture with the architects and I always had my say in the architecture and the same when it came to the interior design, and I’ve took the lead on the interior design and the buying of all the furniture and things, but he definitely had input and always a right of refusal.

And then the art, we both would go to visit the artists together. Sometimes, he would go without me because I was working on something in the hotel or whatever, but we always both met the artists and kind of decided together whether we were going to use this particular artist or not. There’s always a lot of compromising in any relationship and, for sure, when you’re doing these projects together, you have to learn to decide what’s important to you and what’s not important. And sometimes, he gives and sometimes, I give on my feelings about something, but in general, we have, thankfully, I guess that’s why we’re still together. We’ve really enjoyed the process of working on these projects together.

SSR: Yeah. And is there a part of the process that you love? I find, with hoteliers or designers, that there’s one part that’s still, I mean, I know you love the entire process, but there’s one part that still gets them out of bed or most excited about.

CV: I mean, for me, I love buying furniture. I buy anything from antiques. I bought a ton of mid-century furniture from Italy and from the U.S. and various designers, so I’ve learned a lot about that whole field. Lots from auctions all over the world, literally all over the world, lot of Swedish furniture as well, Danish. I love fabrics, there’s so many beautiful fabrics in the world. I also really like to think about the human experience of what we’re creating, I really like to get involved with that. When we’re in the process of building, I have to focus on just the building because it’s just so intense and we try to do them in a very short period of time, so they become even more intense. And then once that starts to settle down, then I like to sort of really get involved with the team on the marketing and the human experience and what we want to offer to our guests.

SSR: Right.

AV: I would say that I’m most engaged in the aesthetics, so, shall we way, the emotional and mental actual experience of the aesthetic, so whether it’s the architecture, art, design, the proportions, that whole is really what probably motivates me the most.

SSR: Okay, so we always end this podcast on the title of the pod, What I’ve Learned. So, what have been, or what is, your greatest lesson learned along the way or greatest takeaway from building this amazing collection that you all have built?

CV: For me, it’s following your passion creates wonderful things. You see that in all aspects of life and business. When people put their passion towards what they do, they tend to create something really special.

SSR: Love it. And Alex?

AV: I would completely agree with that. If you’re working on something you love to do, you’ll do a good job. I would say one other thing is we didn’t set out to make this, we set out to make beautiful things, the best possible experience, it wasn’t…we didn’t do a return of investment calculation, like you might if it was strictly commercial. But if you create beautiful things, the commercial success follows because the client will respond to it. And one of the big dividends that I get is when I was in Chile and somebody, normally, I like to meet the guests and this time, because of COVID, everybody’s keeping their distance, including myself.

But I was sitting around, like, 7:00 AM, working in the living room and some gentleman comes up to me and says, “Oh, are you Mr. Vik?” “Yes.” “Oh, I’m Joel from São Paulo and I love…this is amazing. This is a gift. We come every time. The wine is great, everything’s great. Thank you so much for doing this, it has added so much to our life.” And I had one other guy who’s thanking me for contributing to mankind. So, you get tremendously good feeling. Every person you speak to is like, “Oh, wow, everything’s so great.” So, that is a big reward from all the work that we put into it.

SSR: Yeah. I could imagine. Well, and I think, too, just the way you’ve approached it, right? Like, sustainability matters, creating something that’s with the land, just the whole ethos of what you’ve created.

CV: Yeah.

AV: In Chile, it was early in the morning, we had this concept of the vineyard or the gardens and the rest is beautiful. And everything outside of the building is nature and that’s beautiful in of itself. And so we have an incredibly beautiful garden in the middle, but outside, we don’t do anything, it is nature. You hear guests walking around, “My God, these people really need to do some more landscaping. This is looking a little rough.” I feel like I want to go up to them and explain to them the idea, but sometimes it’s hard when you actually just take sustainability and nature to the limit and some people don’t really get it.

SSR: Looking back, did you ever think creating this one ranch-like property would turn into what it has turned into today?

AV: No.

CV: I mean, I guess, not really. We were starting the wine business at the same time we were starting Estancia Vik and we could kind of see that a way to sell the wine and to build the brand of Vik wines would be to get people to come and visit, so there was always this idea that maybe, someday, we would build a hotel there. But we didn’t really know where it was going to take us because, literally, we just did them as these projects for love and we didn’t really understand the response we would get from the public and from the media as well. We really didn’t understand that. And when we saw that, we were like wow, we’ve really got something here, we could really do something with this, and then we went from there. But, again, it was following our passions and the passions led to something pretty special.

SSR: For sure. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today. Just loved hearing your story and can’t wait till we can travel again to come see your properties in person.

CV: Yes. Please come.

AV: Come visit as soon as possible.

SSR: We will. We will. Well, thank you.

AV: Standing invitation.

CV: Thank you so much.

SSR: Thank you, I appreciate that.

CV: Enjoy the snow.

SSR: Bye-bye.

AV: Bye.