LEGACY

As a nod to the region in which the magazine was founded, GRAY presents this year’s Legacy Award, a recognition of a respected and influential member of the Pacific Northwest design community.

By Rachel Gallaher

SUSAN MARINELLO

Twenty-five years ago—after modeling professionally in Europe and working at the studio of famed, New York–based interior designer Victoria Hagan—Susan Marinello moved home to Seattle. It was the late 1990s, and the Northwest hadn’t yet become the nationally recognized hub for design talent that it is today, but the young Marinello was determined to establish herself with a refined, internationally informed approach to interiors.

Inspired by her time abroad, Marinello launched her namesake studio, Susan Marinello Interiors, in 1996. Her first project was the renovation of a home owned by the parents of a high-school friend. The house was published in Better Homes & Gardens, and from there, the commissions started rolling in.

“I had an early sense of how our physical environments can impact, shape, and even improve our wellbeing,” Marinello says, “but it was living in Europe and having that exposure to design at a higher level that really opened my mind. The history, architecture, art, and design I encountered showed me so many examples of thoughtful approaches to design, and I knew pretty quickly that that was something I had to pursue.”

Over the years, Marinello has created an influential portfolio of residential and commercial work (projects in Seattle include the Hotel Theodore and the Fourth Avenue Espresso Bar at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel), and although her style has evolved, there is a common thread of sophisticated restraint and quiet elegance.

“My style is very edited, and always balances classic and modern [aesthetics],” she says. “The overarching context is always the architecture—and creating a sense of place for the people who will use it.”

Celebrating her firm’s 25th anniversary this year, Marinello says that she has more work than ever outside of the Northwest. Currently on the docket are projects in Florida, Mexico, Hawaii, and New York. But Marinello isn’t leaving the Pacific Northwest behind. With personal and professional roots here, she has spent the past two decades pushing the regional design scene toward a higher bar, by crafting interiors that have shaped the way the rest of the world views the upper left coast—as a wellspring of creative inspiration and exceptional talent.

“This is my home,” she says. “I am so connected to this area and to everyone working here because we’re all in it together. Each year I get older, the more I feel deeply committed to the Northwest and to Seattle.” h

Schumacher’s Otti, part of the Patterson Flynn collection, available through The Dixon Group showroom. OPPOSITE: Move rocking chair designed for Giorgetti by Rossella Pugliatti, available through the Trammell-Gagné showroom.