Thierry Guy Despont (19 April 1948 – 13 August 2023) was a French architect, artist and designer who lived and worked in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. During the 1980s, he was the associate architect for the restoration of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

. He then went on to remodel the Herbert N. Straus House at 9 East 72nd Street on Manhattan's

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

for the billionaire Leslie Wexner of Limited Inc. fame (a home which later gained additional notoriety as the abode of

Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( , ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American financier and child sex offender. Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional career as a teacher at the Dalton School, despite lacking a col ...

). Among the high-profile buildings in Manhattan he had designed the interiors for are 220 Central Park South, 53W53 (the interiors of the condominiums), and the

Woolworth Building The Woolworth Building is a residential building and early skyscraper at 233 Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world f ...

. In the early 2000s, he designed the interiors for

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur, television presenter, and writer. His restaurant group, List of restaurants owned or operated by Gordon Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has ...

's restaurant, the eponymous Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In 2005 he did alterations to ''The Promenade'' restaurant at

the Dorchester The Dorchester is a five-star hotel located on Park Lane and Deanery Street in London, to the east of Hyde Park. It is one of the world's most prestigious hotels. The Dorchester opened on 18 April 1931, and it still retains its 1930s furnis ...

, including fitting it with an oval leather bar the length of

Nelson's Column Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, Central London, built to commemorate Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar over the combined French and Spanish navies, during whi ...

. Between 2007 and 2010, he renovated the Lambs Club's former clubhouse in New York City into the Chatwal New York hotel. In 2009, Despont redesigned the two restaurants and the bar ''Il Pricipe'' at the Hotel Principe di Savoia in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Italy. Despont worked on the physical conversion of a section of the

Battery Maritime Building The Battery Maritime Building is a building at South Ferry (Manhattan), South Ferry on the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City. Located at 10 South Street (Manhattan), South Street, near the intersection with Whitehall Street, it ...

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

, into the 47 suite luxury hotel Casa Cipriani, which opened in late 2021. Despont was known for being "the designer of choice for titans of industry," to cite his obituary in

Architectural Digest ''Architectural Digest'' (stylized in all caps) is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast ...

. His clients included

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer. In 1968, he launched the company that later became Calvin Klein. In addition to clothing, he has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewellery. ...

, Jayne Wrightsman, Annette and Oscar de la Renta,

Conrad Black Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-British writer and former politician, Publishing, newspaper publisher, Investor, financier, and Fraudster, convicted fraudster. Black's father was businessma ...

, Leslie Wexner, Peggy and Mickey Drexler, and Peter Morton. "To be successful at my job, one must be very good at understanding not only a client's needs, but also a client's dreams and memories," Despont told the journalist Nina Munk in 1999. "One must know where the client comes from and what they desire. Part of the craft is learning to read people, to see things they are sure about, the things they are unsure about; the things they don't convey verbally, but express through their surroundings." He graduated from

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in nor ...

and

Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urba ...

. Thierry Despont died on 13 August 2023, at the age of 75.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Despont, Thierry 1948 births 2023 deaths French architects French interior designers Officers of the Legion of Honour École des Beaux-Arts alumni Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni