Ian Schrager's Admired, Imitated Designs

The Man Behind Studio 54 Has Revolutionized The Hotel Business

(CBS)  He still considers himself an outsider. At cocktail parties, he heads for the corner.

"And I enjoy when they have it at a place I built, more than being in the party and shaking hands and taking bows and smiling at everybody," he said. "That's the difference. I'm not sure that's the right way, by the way."

He has no formal architectural or design training, but architect Anda Andrei, who's worked with him for more than 20 years, says he has a natural instinct.

"It comes from the soul," Andrei said. "It's like an instant reaction. The way you look at a painting, you know you love it or you don't love it. And he has that instinct in him. It's amazing, actually."

"If I bring anything to the table, it's that sort of sensitivity to what's in the air," Schrager said. "I sort of feel and see things maybe other people can't see. It's a gift. It's not a logical thing. It's just instinctive. I have to trust my gut. It's served me well. I'm ready to rise and fall, you know, with my judgments based on my instincts."

But his name is now synonymous with style, and his brand of boutique hotels has been widely imitated.

"I find it annoying, not flattering. You know why? Because an idea to me is like a child," he said. "It's my idea, When I see somebody take it I really don't like it."

With the Gramercy Park Hotel, Schrager has reinvented himself yet again, rebelling against the sleek modern designs his competitors had copied, moving he says from minimalist to maximalist. Once again, critics and the public have approved.

"But I've never not had that," he said. I don't even know what I'd do if that happened to me. I would probably be devastated — matter of life and death."

At 60, divorced with two daughters, Schrager is as intense as ever. He's planning apartments in New York, hotels in Miami, and projects in Las Vegas: The home run hitter still swinging for the fences.