This week’s DMTV Milkshake guest is David Shove-Brown, partner of //3877, the Washington, DC architecture and design firm he runs with his best friend of 30 years, David Tracz.
With a bevy of completed projects for Marriott up and down the Eastern Seaboard and across the country, Shove-Brown is an expert in the dynamics of the architecture of hospitality — and thus the perfect person to ask how the field will evolve, post-pandemic. “When the pandemic is over, people are going to want to sing and dance and hug and sit close to each other — they’re going to want to sit on each other’s laps,” he says. “The lack of human interaction over the last year has really taken a toll on people, physically and emotionally, and I certainly think that once this is all beyond behind us, people are really going to be excited to eat together and travel together — and quite frankly just have that human contact.”
In this Milkshake, Shove-Brown shares how he runs his business — specifically, how he manages the social currents within his award-winning firm, both in how he’s navigated working with his best friend and how they interview potential hires to ensure a solid fit: “We certainly don’t agree on things all the time, but you focus on what’s propelling us forward,” he says. He also takes us into his living room to answer our question about his top choice for wall art — sharing a striking family collection that might serve as home deco inspo for design-minded families. “These rotating photos that you see behind me talk about our family, our friends, our adventures, our travels — all the good times we’ve had,” he says. “This is the wall that people comment on in our house, which is really cool.”
Some of //3877’s work:
12 Stories Restaurant \ Collaborating Design Parties: //3877 + SLDesign
Boqueria \ Architect & Interior Designer: Lesley Golenor \ Photo: Rey Lopez
Cranes Restaurant \ Photo: Rey Lopez
Junction Bakery \ Photo: Clarence Butts
Diana Ostrom, who has written for Wallpaper, Interior Design, ID, The Wall Street Journal, and other outlets, is also the author of Faraway Places, a newsletter about travel.
Milkshake, DMTV (Design Milk TV)’s first regular series, shakes up the traditional interview format by asking designers, creatives, educators and industry professionals to select interview questions at random from their favorite bowl or vessel. During their candid discussions, you’ll not only gain a peek into their personal homeware collections, but also valuable insights into their work, life and passions.
