Howard Hirsch; Interior Designer of Luxury Hotels

Howard Hirsch, 70, internationally known interior designer of luxury hotels. Hirsch, co-founder of the Hirsch/Bedner & Associates, based in Santa Monica, was responsible locally for the recent redesign of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Hirsch and his firm were also the first American designers to build a major hotel in the People’s Republic of China--the White Swan in Guangzhou, begun in 1983. His other projects include the Hyatt Regency Maui and the Kahala Mandarin in Hawaii, the Hyatt Carlton Tower in London, the Four Seasons in Singapore and several Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt Hotels. Born in Chicago, Hirsch studied at the Chicago Art Institute and in Paris at the Sorbonne and the Ecole de Louvre. He often likened hotel design to theater--creating dramatic backdrops for guests who become the actors in the hotel environment. On Saturday in Los Angeles of lymphoma.