career has come to be defined by a profound knowledge of hospitality design on the Orient. As a St. Louis native, Bob – as he likes to


R


be known – is a typical Midwesterner from a state that has a long-standing reputation for producing friendly folk who never lock their doors. He is the quintessential hospitable gentleman. Little wonder then, that he chose to pursue interior architecture as a career, specialising in luxury hotels as his niche. And it just so happens that for the past three decades, most of those hotels have been in Greater China.


obert Bilkey is what is known as an old ‘China Hand’. The founder of Bilkey Llinas Design may hail from American soil, but his working


Bilkey ended up in Hong Kong, where he


now resides, via Las Vegas. After studying interior architecture in Colorado, he returned home and got a job with a local company that eventually relocated to San Francisco. He then interviewed with a firm that was owned by the late eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. “I worked on the architectural systems of new Vegas hotels like Frontier, Sands and Desert Inn,” Bilkey says, recalling those heady Casino days when The Strip was virtually non-existent. Hughes died in 1976 and Bilkey was advised to speak with Howard Hirsch, the late founder of Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA). “I started with HBA in 1978 and came to Hong Kong less than two months after getting a job there,” he explains. Here, Bilkey was faced with the daunting prospect of closing the Hong Kong office. But instead, he secured two hotel contracts in Macau and flew back to Los Angeles to explain to Hirsch that he needed to hire staff, not fire them. Bilkey also insisted that Oscar Llinas join him in Asia. The Colombian native worked


30 Sleeper China 2012


ABOVE: Bilkey Llinas recently completed the interiors of Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake OPPOSITE: Five Zen5es at The Westin Nanjing, where innovative décor reflects the authentic Chinese fare


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