BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Kenneth Brown, the talent behind the successful HGTV show "reDesign," moves almost as fast as he talks. As he glides down the fourth-floor halls of the LSU Design Building, Brown can hardly contain his enthusiasm over the interior design projects that line the walls in a kaleidoscope of color, texture and shape.
"Aren't they great?" said Brown, as he zips around a corner and comes to a stop before one of the projects, a lush depiction of a small, upscale hotel, its palette of woody browns and earthy mushroom punctuated with splashes of orange, green and fuchsia.
Brown, along with Assistant Professor Jun Zou, has spent the fall semester encouraging 36 junior-level students to think beyond the provincial, to open their minds to the world beyond Baton Rouge.
After all, that's what Brown, 40, has done for the past 17 years. But now the Baton Rouge native has come home, and he's ready to share his knowledge and resources with the next generation of designers.
"It's not the same Baton Rouge I left," said Brown, dropping onto a sofa in a coffee shop in a shopping center that didn't exist when he left town after graduating from LSU in 1995.
His path ultimately led him to Los Angeles, where Brown has designed for celebrities and big-time developers, and hosted several television series, including "reDesign," which ran for eight years on HGTV.
Over the years, Brown always returned to Baton Rouge, where his family still lives. After the sudden death of his mother last year, family became even more important. Now the father of 3-year-old Harper and 5-month-old Sawyer, Brown said he wanted his children to become better acquainted with their Southern roots.
"I decided I was going to commute to Los Angeles. I still have my office and a house there," he said. For four weeks that's what he did. Then the proverbial light bulb lit.
"Before I knew it, I had fallen back in love with Baton Rouge," said Brown, laughing. "I completely did not expect that to happen."
So he bought a house two doors down from his sister and only minutes away from his dad and brother.
"I guess I've come full circle," said Brown. "I offered LSU my experience. The budget cuts to the interior design department have been horrendous. So when they offered me the junior class, I took it. I mean, that's the way we're brought up down here. You give back. That's an example I wanted to give my children. LSU put me on my career path and Baton Rouge supported me in my career. This was something I could do."
So every Monday and Wednesday for four hours, Brown and Zou impelled their students to come up with a design for a boutique hotel, one that would appeal to those looking for a home away from home for weeks at a time and who could afford top-of-the-line accommodations. Think, Brown said, of actors, directors and producers coming to town to film blockbuster movies.
But it's not just pie-in-the-sky planning.
Brown is actually working with Los Angeles developer Avi Brosh, frequently tapped as a hip hotelier, on a boutique hotel in L.A.
"I'm having every student send him a book of his or her project," said Brown. "I want to show him we've got talent and get him to invest in Baton Rouge."
To impress someone like Brosh, Brown said he pushed the students, and then pushed a little harder.
"We had 14 weeks total. So we (he and Zou) held their hands for the first seven weeks, then we pushed them off the cliff," said Brown.
The students went on field trips to hotels in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Then Brown, who still maintains his Los Angeles office, opened his library to them, allowing the budding designers unparalleled access to fabrics and materials.
Instead of printing out their design ideas on flat pieces of paper, the students were able to order samples of tile, carpeting, marble, wallpaper, upholstery fabrics and other finishes to give a complete picture of their vision. It's all there on the design boards, where each room is sketched and colored right down to the pillows on the sofa.
"Yes, even the pillows," said Brown. "I told them that they had to touch every surface in the design."
He even asked them to come up with the song that would play in the lobby and the smell that would waft in the air.
"I wanted for this to be as real world as possible," Brown said. "And clients ask for those kinds of things."
The experience of working with Brown has been invaluable said several of the students.
Madeline Drone, 20, of the first project Brown touted, said he helped her develop her own voice as a designer. Calling her hotel "Terrarium," Drone said she went for an "Alice in Wonderland" feel.
"It's like diving into the rabbit hole," she said of the plan that shows off a stunning lobby, indoor/outdoor lounge and a three-floor suite.
Cindy Tiek, a 50-year-old student who spent her first career as a chemical engineer, said she was a little intimidated when she found out the well-known designer would be their instructor.
"But, really, it's been great," said Tiek, who called her hotel Harper 1414, the actual address of Brosh's Los Angeles development. "He's very down to earth and fun to be around."
Tiek looked to California for inspiration, marrying the state's gold rush, Asian culture and mid-century modern esthetic in her project. In the lobby, there's the swank of a '50s' men's club, while the "Lucky Fools" lounge picks up on the Asian theme, with its gold-leafed fretwork and colorful furnishings.
Scanning the hall, where other projects with such fanciful names as "Evoke," ''Amaryllis," ''MetroVista" and "Mecure," play out across the walls, Brown can barely contain his pride over the students' accomplishments.
And while he'd like to continue teaching, he's not ready to make that commitment. He has other balls in the air, including a new television series for the Style network in development. There's his line of baby room furnishings that sells on Amazon, his four-times-a-year collections for QVC, and, of course, his design business.
"Right now I'm working on a hotel in Santa Monica, a celebrity's home in Maui, a ranch in Tucson, a large ad agency in Huntington Beach, and then offices in Brazil and New York," said Brown.
But, he added, he really sees no reason that can't all be done from here, where he plans to open a satellite office.
"I thought I would have to sacrifice things that I had in L.A. to be here," said Brown. "But, really, it's the same stuff. I mean, there's a Whole Foods here now, and parking to boot."
Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com