Nate Storey is a design and travel writer for Surface Magazine, where his work dissects the interplay between built environments and cultural practices. Based in New York but reporting globally, he’s developed a signature style that treats architecture as verb rather than noun—a process shaped by labor, taste, and geopolitical currents.
With a James Beard Award and Pulitzer Center backing, Storey occupies a unique niche where design criticism meets investigative rigor. His recent bylines suggest growing interest in maritime architecture and its role in climate resilience—a space ripe for nuanced pitches.
Storey’s early bylines for Surface focused on material innovation in architecture, but his 2018 pivot to travel writing marked a turning point. The Sonder & Tell interview reveals his philosophy: “The best travel writers are not only travel writers.” This ethos permeates his later work, where a restaurant review might dissect a chair’s ergonomics or a hotel profile could trace concrete sourcing to local geology.
This 2023 deep dive into Chef Shinichi Inoue’s pop-up at Florida’s Surf Club exemplifies Storey’s layered approach. Over 2,800 words, he reconstructs the space’s Art Deco origins while critiquing how the chef’s omakase menu responds to Miami’s cultural hybridity. The piece’s impact lies in its refusal to romanticize: Storey notes the tension between preservation and innovation when a Michelin-starred chef adapts to a historic venue. Industry analysts credit this article with influencing how legacy hotels approach culinary partnerships.
More than a pandemic comeback story, this 2022 profile dissects the economics of fine dining through Chef Inoue’s partnership with Kosaka. Storey traces the supply chain of bluefin tuna from Tsukiji Market to Harlem, contextualizing sustainability debates within post-COVID labor shortages. The article’s standout achievement: convincing the notoriously press-shy chef to share his cost breakdowns, revealing how omakase pricing reflects urban rental markets as much as culinary craft.
In this manifesto-like interview, Storey dismantles clichés about “undiscovered” destinations while advocating for transdisciplinary storytelling. His critique of bamboo’s sudden framing as an “innovative” material in architecture (years after its widespread use) became a rallying cry for design journalists combating trend-driven reporting. The piece remains required reading in J-schools from Columbia to UC Berkeley.
Storey’s Pulitzer Center-funded series on favela architecture demonstrates his preference for stories where design solutions emerge from cultural constraints. Successful pitches frame sustainability not as a buzzword but as a material negotiation—e.g., how Bogotá’s transit system influences street food cart design. Avoid generic “future of cities” angles unless tied to specific artisan communities or policy shifts.
His Kosaka piece shows that food stories must transcend the plate. Pitches should connect culinary trends to broader design ecosystems: How does a chef’s knife selection inform restaurant acoustics? Why are certain ceramics trending in Michelin kitchens? Storey rejects “best-of” lists but welcomes deep dives into single ingredients’ geopolitical journeys.
While Storey profiles starchitects like Shigeru Ban, he prioritizes their problem-solving process over stylistic analysis. A rejected pitch about Zaha Hadid’s curves was reportedly reframed into an investigation of gender bias in concrete sourcing—a published piece that won a 2021 ASME nomination. Pitches should identify design challenges before aesthetic outcomes.
At PressContact, we aim to help you discover the most relevant journalists for your PR efforts. If you're looking to pitch to more journalists who write on Design, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
