The story behind Michael Jordan’s ultra-private, ultra-exclusive personal golf course hits the news
Our team’s insights on the design strategies behind the Michael Jordan’s Clubhouse is making the news once again. The article crafted by CNN was shared by AOL and WSVN today.
Here’s an excerpt:
“Compared to [Golf Design Specialist] Bobby Weed, Nichols Architects had considerably less experience in golf courses, but it did have one key advantage in its efforts to beat other bids to build The Grove XXIII’s clubhouse.
Specializing in hospitality, residential, and commercial design, the firm had worked on the W South Beach in Miami — the favorite hotel of Jordan’s wife Yvette Prieto.
The team pulled no punches with its pitch to Jordan. “You’re not going to confuse this clubhouse with a clubhouse down the road or anything like that, and that’s what we’re selling you,” planning and design partner Igor Reyes told CNN of the pitching process, likening it to that depicted in the “Air” movie, where Nike must lure a rookie Jordan away from a deal with Adidas.
“You’ve really got to make an architectural iconic shape, and a shape that you could almost immediately feel was swinging across the landscape. Hopefully you can almost read the concept without anybody having to tell you,” Reyes said.
The deal clincher — outlined to Jordan in a pitch video — was that clubhouse shape, inspired by the smooth, “almost machine-like” perfection of a golf swing.
Reyes said his team had heard of Jordan’s purported early struggles with his swing, and, in the video, set up a column grid to map the building’s structure onto Tiger Woods’ club trajectory. Jordan was captivated and told the firm there and then that it would get the contract.
[…]”
Read the in-depth article on the links:
AOL: The story behind Michael Jordan’s ultra-private, ultra-exclusive personal golf course (aol.com)
Grove XXIII by Nichols Architects