Biography

As President and Chief Creative Officer of Wynn Design & Development, Todd-Avery Lenahan is regarded as one of the hospitality design industry’s most progressive thought leaders, possessing a unique breadth and depth of expertise in hospitality and entertainment design.

Since the inception of his eponymous firm, TAL Studio, in 1999 and its subsequent merger with Wynn Design & Development in 2019, Mr. Lenahan has been commissioned by leading international hotel development and operating brands to design resorts and urban hotels around the globe, as well as author and direct the design guidelines and brand standards for multiple international hotel and resort portfolios. He is also frequently asked to address industry groups about the business and power of design and is a frequent contributing writer to a diverse range of international travel, leisure, and design publications. 

Prior to joining Wynn Design & Development, TAL was a key collaborator in the creation of each of Wynn Resorts’ international resort destinations, with more than 40 continuous commissions since Wynn Resorts’ inception in 2002. At the 2010 Hospitality Design Exposition, AD 100 designer and former WDD Executive Vice President of Design Roger Thomas described Mr. Lenahan as “the most exciting designer in the hospitality industry today.” 

For more than 20 years, Mr. Lenahan’s renown for being commissioned by preeminent international luxury hoteliers and developers attributed to his firm’s consistent ranking as one of ID Magazine’s esteemed “Design Giants,” which annually identifies the world’s top 50 international hospitality design companies. Mr. Lenahan’s repeat resort and hotel clients included Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Ritz Carlton Hotel & Resorts, Auberge Resorts, Nobu Hospitality, Viceroy Hotels, the Walt Disney Company, and Wynn Resorts. Mr. Lenahan also has completed multiple private commissions for yachts, jets, and estates from New York’s Fifth Ave to Singapore’s Orchard Road and from Aspen to Amsterdam. 

In 2008, Mr. Lenahan was Boutique Design magazine’s Designer of the Year, and in 2010 he became the youngest inductee of the prestigious HD Platinum Circle, which recognizes lifetime achievement and contributions to the industry at large. His work in hospitality and entertainment design has been recognized more than 60 times with the industry’s top awards and honors for its outstanding vision. 

His work also is widely published and has been covered by the international design and travel press ranging from Travel & Leisure, Centurion magazine, Departures magazine, Architectural Digest, Gotham, Robb Report, Sotheby’s, Ocean Drive, Aspen Peak, The Hollywood Reporter, Women’s Wear Daily, Vogue, The New York Times, and many others. 

Trained in architecture and focused on interior architecture and design for the past 30 years, Mr. Lenahan’s work is regarded for its extraordinary range, contextual sensitivity, and adept mastery of global and historical influences that imbue his creations with a hallmark “sense of place” frequently lauded as “the best versions of the storied world cities, slopes, islands, and coasts in which Lenahan’s signature remains long after he has completed a commission.” 

From classic to contemporary and bold to bespoke, his breadth and depth of work represents extraordinary vision realized on behalf of an esteemed manifold of discerning clientele, including business barons such as Larry Ellison, for whom Mr. Lenahan was the principal designer of all resort development on the island of Lanai, BMGI’s Cascade Development, and The Walt Disney Company, with whom he continued his collaborations from 1999 through 2020 on top of his decade of tenure that culminated in his role as the Principal of Interior Architecture and Design for Walt Disney Imagineering worldwide. 

Mr. Lenahan earned his five-year professional degree in Architecture from The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, where he graduated with multiple honors, including the J.M. West Corporate Fellowship. He was also named as Outstanding Graduate and was awarded the prestigious Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal in Architecture upon graduation. Mr. Lenahan also has completed specialized post-graduate studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in both Urban Planning and Resort Real-Estate Development. 

Continuing his passion for academics, he has been an adjunct professor at the UNLV School of Architecture, now serves on the UNLV President’s Foundation, and is a past Board Director for Communities in Schools. He also serves on the Board of Directors for The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, National Public Radio, and Nevada Ballet Theater. In 2010, Mr. Lenahan was chosen as one of the “Vegas Dozen” by the Nevada Cancer Institute and Vegas magazine for his philanthropic support and community involvement. Mr. Lenahan also served on the Advisory Boards of the annual BDNY exposition, as well as Contract magazine. 

Prior to founding TAL Studio, Mr. Lenahan was based in Los Angeles as Principal of Design and Interior Architecture for Walt Disney Imagineering worldwide, but he began his career in architecture with the Washington, D.C. office of Gensler. Originally from Washington, D.C., Mr. Lenahan now lives between Las Vegas and Vail, Colorado, with his partner, John Gorsuch, of the eponymous ski & resort lifestyle brand Gorsuch, Ltd.