When visiting Egypt in the mid-1990s, at the starting point of six projects that Michael Graves Architecture & Design for the same client over several years, Michael Graves and Studio Head Patrick Burke were struck by the seemingly uncontrolled proliferation of generic hotels that could be anywhere in the world, devoid of ties to local cultural or context. They were also stuck by Egyptian rural vernacular architecture built of local brick and stucco, with vaults and domes and other building forms that could be used to create a distinctive and culturally stimulating hospitality environment. What ensued was a series of projects that all drew on the region's vernacular traditions, including the Miramar Hotel, the Steigenberger Golf Hotel, a golf clubhouse and a series of private golf villas sited on the Red Sea in El Gouna, and the Hyatt Taba Heights and Intercontinental Hotel on the Sinai Peninsula.