First Person: Benedict Ku
Creative director of Buzz Management Group and part-time DJ Benedict Ku started his career as an architect in New York. Today, he owns some of the biggest clubs and restaurants in town—Volar, Fly, Halo, and Lily & Bloom. He sits down with Topaz Chan to talks about life as an entertainment guru and his plans for expansion.
I have loved buildings and design ever since I was a kid. I was just fascinated with the way buildings were put together.
Back in architecture school I was kind of the party guy.
Oftentimes we’d travel to Europe to take these small group courses. Everyone automatically looked to me once it was party time. I was always the guy to plan out the evening.
I should’ve known back then that this [being a club owner] was going to come, but I was so focused on architecture that I didn’t know that there was a career to be had in nightlife.
My father encouraged me to study architecture. But halfway through architecture school he realized that the family business was growing quite rapidly, so he asked me if I wanted to come back .
My family’s in manufacturing. We manufacture artificial flowers, artificial Christmas trees, Christmas ornaments, holiday wreaths, garlands and all sorts of fun stuff.
I was like, forget this, there’s no way in hell I’m going to go back!