Industry Mourns the Loss of Cliff Tuttle of ForrestPerkins

Photo by Holly Stewart.

Clifford R. Tuttle, award-winning interior designer and pioneer of sustainable hospitality design, died on May 20 in Houston, Texas. Tuttle was senior vice president in the San Francisco office of luxury hotel design firm

ForrestPerkins

, which he joined at the firm’s founding in 1998. He first served in the practice’s Dallas office, then as director of design for eight years in the firm’s Washington, DC outpost before launching the business in San Francisco in 2007. Prior to joining ForrestPerkins, Cliff was president of

Concept Design Group

in Honolulu and

Concept International Design Group

in Singapore.

Born in Amarillo, TX on in 1955, Tuttle went on to pursue a graduate in interior design at Texas Tech University. He was highly respected for his pioneering work with sustainable design in the hospitality industry. He served as director of

NEWH Sustainable Hospitality

, served on the Sustainable Design Council for ASID, and served on LEED’s technical advisory group for the hospitality sector.

Tuttle was known within the design community for his mentorship of young designers and his untiring volunteerism on behalf of the many organizations and charitable causes about which he was passionate. He was also an educator, teaching at the Interior Designers’ Guild in Los Angeles.

A scholarship has been created in Tuttle’s name, to be administered and awarded annually by NEWH.

Memorial donations can be made to the scholarship fund

. “Cliff was more than a colleague, he was my dear friend. He touched so many lives as he devoted his career to mentorship, design and sustainability,” says Deborah Lloyd Forrest, president of ForrestPerkins. “The Clifford R. Tuttle Scholarship is a fitting legacy that will allow him to continue to impact young designers for years to come.”

The family will hold a memorial service at the North Shore Church, 18501 West FM 1097, Montgomery TX 77356 on Saturday, 31 May at 2 PM.