Molly Egan here! I travel, ski, design and collaborate on hospitality construction.
I specialize in hospitality construction, whether it be traditional or modular construction. Modular? Think about assembling an IKEA furniture piece and apply that logic to construction. Wild, right? I have built a career, or life, of traveling around the globe, creating spaces for local citizens, staff, leisure travelers, and business travelers – which means everyone!
The onset
Growing up, my family took me to several different places, states, and countries. This led to a great curiosity and desire to explore and travel! A few of my favorite things were a camera, colored pencils, and skis. It all makes sense today, keep reading.
I grew up in seven houses, which often led to drawing floor plans and better designs for our current homes. This also led to exploring a couple of suburban neighborhood construction sites and building tree forts with scraps. The irony is that years later I would be walking new hotel construction sites!
Step 1: Transition from pencil to camera
Exploring different cultures, and cities and having new experiences, led to a curiosity about design, architecture, and spatial organization. This was all captured on camera – documenting it all. There are places and people in life that leave such an imprint on our lives and a photograph can bring it all back to the surface in an instant, it’s a both powerful and wonderful phenomenon.
Step 2: Hobbies to education
Design and Photography evolved from a hobby to educational focuses in the classroom. My love of design led to a Bachelors of Architecture from The University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. Then I became a Registered Architect and LEED-certified. An element of travel of course was incorporated into studies. This included Krakow Polytechnic, in Krakow, Poland. The experience solidified the desire to explore other cultures – grateful for living and socializing with many cultures simultaneously.
Step 3: Traveling the globe with camera in tow
Combining the two passions, I headed to Florence, Italy to study photography and art history at SACI. This was an amazing experience that left me enraptured in capturing the moment, history, beautiful landscapes, architecture, and seeking the gorgeous light. You can find that in my travel photography today.
Step 4: For the love of design
I practiced architecture in Atlanta, then headed to New York City. This move was filled with exposure to infinite cultures, unrivaled design projects, and cheap plane tickets around the globe, with colleagues eager to join! Group trips often had gaps for solo travel and exploration.
A design element inspired by Eileen Gray’s screen for a private project in New York City. A collaboration while with RAMSA.
Solo International Travel
Witnessing Dementia and Alzheimer’s impact my family members, was traumatic and provided a moment of reflection. A moment where I was reminded life is short and precious. I decided to travel to South East Asia and adjacent areas (Philippines, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Indonesia) for a few weeks. This break was a gift that left me re-focused, re-energized, and full steam ahead in Hospitality development and construction back in New York.
Combining Passions
Collaboration with amazingly talented people and clients provided unparalleled project exposure. This included embassies, museums, hotels, modular hotels, high-end residential, BIM, restaurants, and renovations. I had the pleasure of combining design and travel while working for a European hotel company; which led to China, and Holland travels for modular hospitality construction.
This included visits to suppliers, reviewing prototype mock-ups, converting metric to imperial, and ensuring code requirements for local jurisdictions were met. Lastly, ensuring the brand ethos of art was properly coordinated. This company led to travels all over the globe including Holland, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, and China.
Today!
Today you’ll find me in Colorful Colorado! In January of 2020 pre-Covid restrictions, I moved from Brooklyn to Denver, where I have access to the world’s greatest skiing, another life passion! The joy of ski racing in my youth, pushing myself to overcome a fear of heights, skiing through the trees, hiking to bowls and fresh powder, etc. is now accessible outside my door.
A positive of 2020’s historic events, was the exploration of the Wild West! And yes, I now own a road bike, tent, and go camping! This has led to a new type of travel and exploration – finding glacial lakes is a new favorite find.
Design Ethos
Whether it be a seamless building detail, modular construction, ensuring coordination, capturing architectural design elements in a photograph, or construction – it’s the fuel to my fire. If you are a brand, consultant, or in need of design, check out my past work here, and don’t hesitate to reach out. Design is around you wherever you may be around the globe and at every moment, how do you embrace it?
Need Travel Advice?
In the last couple of years, my travels have been more domestic than International, yet include Canada and Mexico. This female solo international traveler still stays in hotels, yet now camping and glamping. Always happy to share tips for females to travel solo, or anyone traveling, internationally or Stateside. As well as, where to find great skiing, both enjoyable and easily obtainable hiking and campsites. Where are you going next?
Outdoor Activities
Ski Ethos: Go Big or Go Home! A secret for all ski enthusiasts, the first chair is not always the best choice. For where to find fresh snow tracks and more – let’s talk! For road bike trips, well, I have a few. Much more tips for hiking, camping, and skiing for the novice, intermediate, or expert.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story.
Are you ready to collaborate, create or go explore? Contact me here.