Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz grew up in a coastal town in northeast Puerto Rico surrounded by local music and had little exposure to the international scene. Little did he know that one day, he would be living in New York, designing the home of Lenny Kravitz—a singer he had never heard of. (Noriega-Ortiz caught Kravitz’s eye after designing the lobby and other spaces at the SoHo building that housed the rocker’s penthouse apartment.) “The celebrities in my town were the guy that sells the ice cream [or] the woman in the cafeteria in school that would give you extra milk,” he tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast.

Before he was landing famous clients and designing buildings in Manhattan, Noriega-Ortiz was urged by his father to pursue an education in math. He ultimately pivoted to architecture, eventually obtaining two master’s degrees. In 1983, he began working for the New York designer John Saladino until launching his own firm nine years later, and has gone on to design projects around the world, including boutique hotels for Studio 54 co-founder and real estate developer Ian Schrager.

During his years working for Saladino, Noriega-Ortiz learned a key lesson about accountability that has stuck with him. Working as a head designer, there were times when he needed to make a decision on the fly without consulting his boss. “One of the important things of becoming a designer is that I was eager to take the blame. And to take the blame is one of the most important things designers need to learn. Somebody has to make a decision,” he says. “A lot of these very powerful people are making decisions all the time, but they cannot decide between two shades of green, right? So you’re the one that has to decide. And like it or not, your decision can cost millions of dollars, but it’s your decision. You're the one that is paid to make a decision. If it’s going to be a mistake, try to make a little mistake.”

Crucial insight: Noriega-Ortiz trains his architects to think like designers, taking inspiration from Saladino’s mantra: “Put yourself in the room.” He explains, “I studied architecture for six years, and I know for a fact that most architects, unless [they’re] extremely talented, don’t put [themselves] in the room. You’re creating a sculpture, and you’re seeing the sculpture from the outside, then you see it from the inside out, but you’re not in it. You’re not having a martini and having to sit down and put it on the coffee table to make sure that the coffee table is at the right distance so that the martini doesn’t spill. Those are the things that I tell my staff, and I think they have learned to look at things like that.”

Key quote: “We design a story for [our projects] … There are visuals that we create. We have so many materials and so many choices, and we have so much available that we have to limit ourselves. We have to come up with something to restrict the project—otherwise, you will never end—and [that constraint] may as well be a beautiful story.”

This episode is sponsored by Ernesta and Hickory Chair. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

BOH executive editor Fred Nicolaus and host Dennis Scully discuss the biggest news in the industry, including the latest on tariffs, Instagram going vertical, and a look at the rising trend of cannabis-related decor. Later, designer Zoë Feldman joins the show to discuss Demi, her new venture for tackling smaller projects.

This episode is sponsored by Jaipur Living and Hector Finch. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.