Nowadays, hospitality design is increasingly moving in the opposite direction, toward localism and biophilia, which are often combined to achieve a stunning effect. “Guests have a strong desire to connect with the local vernacular,” said David McCullough, principal landscape architect at McCullough Landscape Architecture. To accomplish this, hotel design is pushing back on the heavy-handed branding of the past when hotels of a certain brand looked and operated exactly the same, he said. Bisnow spoke with McCullough about the design trends rippling across the industry and how landscape design contributes to the changing aesthetic of hotel interiors. The area around Las Vegas specifically is probably one of the most pristine desert environments in the world.