Born in Chicago and influenced by the Mexican culture woven throughout his childhood in
Southern California, Daniel Pierce approaches his craft with a deep curiosity about people, places,
and the spaces that connect them. After graduating from the University of Arizona, he traveled
throughout Latin America and landed in Mexico City. There he worked alongside architect
Francisco Hanhausen on his first hospitality project, Live Aqua, a boutique resort in Cancún that
ignited an enduring passion for hospitality design. He returned to Chicago to join The Gettys
Group, where he met Nina Grondin, before co-founding Curioso together.
Today, Dan leads Curioso’s international team of designers, architects, and hospitality experts,
creating unforgettable experiences around the world – from award-winning boutique hotels and
luxury resorts to one-of-a-kind restaurants and experiential workplaces. At the heart of his
leadership is a “constellation mindset” – assembling teams whose distinct perspectives and lived
experiences come together to form something greater than any single vision. He favors contextual
design that responds to a building’s history or the character of its community, with a particular
passion for adaptive reuse projects that give new life to historic structures. This is exemplified in
Curioso’s recently completed Populus Seattle project, housed in the historic Westland Building in
the Emerald City’s Pioneer Square.
Dan lives and designs by his belief that poetry and pragmatism are beautifully symbiotic elements
of the creative process and that the best hospitality spaces are ones guests remember for a
lifetime. Named Hospitality Design’s 2026 Design Firm of the Year, Curioso and its studio are
shaping a future for the hospitality design industry that values timelessness and favors human connection.