Sailboats flank the 19th-century royal yacht Sírius at Lisbon’s Maritime Museum. Covers: The finish of hand-painted Portuguese tiles mimics ripples on the surface of the sea.
GLOBAL PROSPECTOR MICHAEL PHILLIPS TURNS OVERLOOKED POCKETS INTO DESTINATIONS OF GOLD.
Vignette illustrations by Manuel Santelices.
Planes, trains, automobiles. Highflying, high-cruising Michael Phillips is always on the move. As president of Jamestown, a far-reaching real estate investment company specializing in community-minded, design-driven projects in cities around the world, he is either checking on spots he’s already put on the map (Industry City in New York; Ponce City Market in Atlanta; Urban Electric’s very own neighborhood, the Navy Yard Charleston, to name a few) or figuring out where next to plant Jamestown’s flag.
Phillips is to placemaking what Leonard Bernstein was to music, a maestro with a sixth sense for his subject and a gift for orchestrating many moving parts. He has the talent, beyond identifying a locale, for recognizing that a hybrid of different sectors—residential, retail, hospitality, office—coupled with a focus on design is key to the vigor and staying power of a public place. And he has the budget to nurture their cross-pollination, to ensure
that design is not a superficial grammable gloss but a substantial factor. For Phillips, good design is essential.
As a child, seeing the James Rouse developments, big public-private partnerships in cities like Baltimore and New York, made him look at development differently, as the full ideation of a place. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, it was Ian Schrager’s hotels that demonstrated the value of design. Through them, he understood, as he says “what makes something transformational in the built environment. It made me consider development through the lens of brand building, of creating place through thematic pillars that engage a constituency.” As is so often the case, personal interest and recognition of something missing is the driver. “I have a huge interest in design because I ultimately want to be the consumer of everything I create.”
Phillips seeks out places that start with a strong narrative thread weaving together
location, community and history. Then, through the application of design and programming, he enriches the story, creating vibrant hubs that are fundamentally local, humble, layered, colorful, exciting, aspirational and inclusive. Put simply, the goal is to cultivate destinations where he and, as it turns out, many others want to be.
As an insatiable scout, what better spot for Phillips to drop anchor than Lisbon, the home port of Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan, intrepid explorers in an age of discovery that shrank the world, giving rise to the earliest globalism. “I was struck,” Phillips says, “by the similarity in climate, experience and energy between Lisbon and San Francisco,” where he has roots. “Portugal also is leading Europe in its desire to welcome new business and new ideas. That friendly business environment coupled with Lisbon’s strong cultural heritage and architectural traditions makes for an overall compelling opportunity.”
WITH A KEEN EYE, A SENSITIVE NOSE AND AN IMPRESSIVE TRACK RECORD, MICHAEL PHILLIPS IS MORE THAN A PLACEMAKER. HE’S A VISIONARY WHOSE SURE SENSE OF WHAT SHAPES A DYNAMIC LOCUS ALWAYS INVOLVES DESIGN.
All that remains after the devastating earthquake of 1755 of the nave of the Carmo Covenant serves as the heart of the Carmo Archaeological Museum.
Consider the Innovation & Design Building Lisbon, a 60,000-square-meter office building from the late 1960s, located at the edge of Parque das Nações, Lisbon’s newest business hub. As Phillips’ first foray in Lisbon, IDB is home to a range of commercial entities, from airlines and insurance companies to social services and a professional school, newly energized with art installations and happenings on its vast rooftop, providing a draw, San Francisco-style, for innovative companies. But the roof is equally designed to serve as a lively public square for the surrounding neighborhood, a vibrant example of Phillips’ savvy in deploying art and culture and local passions to create magnetic and enduring places.
For Phillips, “great buildings attract colorful stewards and great characters.” Palacio do Grilo embodies this–Phillips admires its imaginative reinvention in the hands of talented creatives. A 350-year-old estate on a steep rise just above the Tagus River, the palace and its gardens were in decline for years, but now have the benefit of being the only private palace in Lisbon in its original state. Enter Leonard Degoy, a chicly disheveled Frenchman with deep wells of style and a flair for the theatrical. With very little intervention, no big fixing up or paving over, he has brought the palace sympathetically and seductively back to life.
Virtually the whole palace is a stage set, with twice daily performances by dancers, actors
and musicians, many of whom double as waiters serving dishes from a limited but well-considered menu to diners seated throughout the soaring rooms. Custom-designed oak and eucalyptus tables and chairs in contemporary geometric shapes mingle with repurposed architectural fragments, all in smart contrast to the molting plaster walls. The antithesis of the typical “dinner theater,” this well-designed quirkiness appeals to Phillips’ love of bold reimagining.
Such spectacular stylized decrepitude ignites Phillips’ interest in diving deeper into Lisbon’s history and cultural heritage, which he does with Irish noble Hugo O’Neill and his Spanish wife Carmen. As former president of the National Association of
Historic Houses in Portugal and a descendant of Portuguese O’Neills who trace back to when brothers Shane, Felix and Carlos arrived in 1740, Hugo is a walking encyclopedia of Portuguese history and a sage cultural interpreter. “Inspiration and cultural understanding come from spending time with people who present a more nuanced side of communities,” Phillips says. “From Hugo and Carmen, I learned how connected we are to that arc of history, the values of the people and the celebration of what matters.”
As Phillips knows, places are soulless without people. His projects begin and end with the human element.
Palacio do Grilo
This spread: The interiors of Palacio do Grilo are an inspired admixture of Neoclassical architecture, Baroque gestures and theatrical interventions.
Creating a place that attracts all kinds and keeps them coming stems from a deep understanding of a locale, made possible by connecting with residents from the beginning, and in the end, by having a team of people as creative and skilled as they are knowledgeable. “I love all of it,” Phillips says, “but getting to work with really talented people and seeing the enjoyment and pleasure our work gives to the end consumer and user is especially rewarding. The ultimate is to see the places we create become self-generating and embedded in the community consciousness.”
Leonard Degoy and Michael Phillips in the yet-to-be restored gardens of the Palacio do Grilo.
“The ultimate is to see the places we create become self-generating and embedded in the community consciousness.”
The patron saint of the fishermen of Aveiro hovers over a ship model at the Maritime Museum.
