Save | Email | Print | Most Popular | Reprints | 
RSS
"[Thompson Hotels co-founder] Jason [Pomeranc] and I were looking to bring the edgy, more sexy and gritty feel of downtown New York City to the well-manicured lawns and respectable streets of Beverly Hills," says designer Christian Schulz, of the new Thompson Beverly Hills. "We wanted to inject it with a shot of adrenaline, attitude, and a younger, fresher perspective on California living for the urban traveler."
With their imaginary live-in guest, Steven McQueen circa 1968, who Schulz says, "embodied the new All American early '70s version of James Dean cool," they created a variety of overlapping indoor and outdoor public spaces—from the breezy garage with its flowing curtains and leather sofas to the covered and lushly planted patio of BondSt
(the hotel's imported sushi restaurant from Manhattan and restaurateur Jonathan Morr) complete with indoor-outdoor fireplace to the expansive private bi-level rooftop garden, bar, and pool terrace. "All of these spaces have unique identities, custom furnishings, and custom details and finishes that make them feel less like a commercial public space and more like a private residence," says Schulz, who headed up the project while at Dodd Mitchell Design in Los Angeles (he is now with SBE Entertainment Group). "It's as if you were visiting your cool cousin's or friend's parents' home in the Hollywood Hills.”
Dark herringbone patterned floors and black and white modern furniture decorate the lobby; slatted screens and brown leather banquettes dot the restaurant; and the 107 guestrooms are outfitted with ebonized white oak hardwood floors, stark white walls, dark wood and glass dressers and desks, and platform beds with custom leather headboards with embedded rectangular mirror strips and cantilevering mirrored dark wood beams. And for a true Hollywood feel, art installations by fashion photographer Steven Klein are hung throughout and hotel staffers don uniforms created by local designer Jenni Kayne and stylist to the stars Rachel Zoe.
But the hotel—Thompson Hotels' second in Los Angeles, with other openings recently in Washington DC, and Columbus Circle and Wall Street in Manhattan, with more planned for Toronto and New York City's Lower East Side (also a Dodd Mitchell Design) and Tribeca—didn't come without its challenges. "We kept discovering the unknowns of a 50-year-old hotel which has undergone at least three major renovations," explains Schulz. "It lent itself to making the easy seem impossible at times." For more information, see www.doddmitchell.com or www.thompsonhotels.com.
Save | Email | Print | Most Popular | Reprints | RSS
RSS
Hotel California
July 9, 2008"[Thompson Hotels co-founder] Jason [Pomeranc] and I were looking to bring the edgy, more sexy and gritty feel of downtown New York City to the well-manicured lawns and respectable streets of Beverly Hills," says designer Christian Schulz, of the new Thompson Beverly Hills. "We wanted to inject it with a shot of adrenaline, attitude, and a younger, fresher perspective on California living for the urban traveler."With their imaginary live-in guest, Steven McQueen circa 1968, who Schulz says, "embodied the new All American early '70s version of James Dean cool," they created a variety of overlapping indoor and outdoor public spaces—from the breezy garage with its flowing curtains and leather sofas to the covered and lushly planted patio of BondSt
(the hotel's imported sushi restaurant from Manhattan and restaurateur Jonathan Morr) complete with indoor-outdoor fireplace to the expansive private bi-level rooftop garden, bar, and pool terrace. "All of these spaces have unique identities, custom furnishings, and custom details and finishes that make them feel less like a commercial public space and more like a private residence," says Schulz, who headed up the project while at Dodd Mitchell Design in Los Angeles (he is now with SBE Entertainment Group). "It's as if you were visiting your cool cousin's or friend's parents' home in the Hollywood Hills.” Dark herringbone patterned floors and black and white modern furniture decorate the lobby; slatted screens and brown leather banquettes dot the restaurant; and the 107 guestrooms are outfitted with ebonized white oak hardwood floors, stark white walls, dark wood and glass dressers and desks, and platform beds with custom leather headboards with embedded rectangular mirror strips and cantilevering mirrored dark wood beams. And for a true Hollywood feel, art installations by fashion photographer Steven Klein are hung throughout and hotel staffers don uniforms created by local designer Jenni Kayne and stylist to the stars Rachel Zoe. But the hotel—Thompson Hotels' second in Los Angeles, with other openings recently in Washington DC, and Columbus Circle and Wall Street in Manhattan, with more planned for Toronto and New York City's Lower East Side (also a Dodd Mitchell Design) and Tribeca—didn't come without its challenges. "We kept discovering the unknowns of a 50-year-old hotel which has undergone at least three major renovations," explains Schulz. "It lent itself to making the easy seem impossible at times." For more information, see www.doddmitchell.com or www.thompsonhotels.com.
Save | Email | Print | Most Popular | Reprints |
RSS
