FIVE-STAR STYLE

With an impressive roster of ultra-high-net-worth clients, i design powerhouse Rigby Rigby is making waves Bei on the Riviera and beyond

- SI SI PENALOZA

When client expectations go beyond mere specs, aspiring to “aesthetic immortality” akin to iconic landmark hotels like Le Bristol or La Mamounia, there are only a handful of elite firms in contention. With the recent debut of The Maybourne Riviera, perched next to Monaco, award-winning multidisciplinary design and delivery studio Rigby & Rigby has shaken up this list of usual suspects. Poised on one of the most prized real estate parcels on the Côte d’Azur, this marks the first hotel in France for the Maybourne Hotel Group think Claridge’s, The Connaught, The Berkeley, and the Maybourne Beverly Hills.

This new ingénue of the Riviera swanned onto the World’s 50 Best Hotels List for 2023. The deep pockets behind the project are as blue chip as they come; the Louise Bourgeois sculpture suspended from the lobby ceiling is only the opening overture. The hotel’s expansive art collection is up there with Hotel Lungarno in Florence, with works by Clara Claus, Susan Elias, and Matt Jukes. The ambitious nouveau luxe of The Maybourne Riviera falls right into the multi-faceted wheelhouse of Rigby & Rigby, renown for their adventures in “ultra-prime” properties and superyacht styling.