Check Into This Refreshed Mid-century Motel In Long Beach

Mid-century motel makeovers are certainly having a moment. Next-up on our radar is the 1962 City Center Motel, stretching over an entire block in Long Beach, California. Omgivning, with Richard Kassab at the helm, was a natural choice for the job. The DTLA-based firm specializes in urban adaptive reuse while including new construction and all types of mixed-use interiors in its portfolio. Catalyst came when the property’s new owner, developer Paloma Communities and operator, Sonder took over the site, 26,000 square feet of interiors on two floors in typical motel fashion. “It was vacant, but not dilapidated,” Kassab starts, citing Omgivning’s scope encompassing architecture and public space. The 50-room key count, however, remained constant, and new furnishings throughout came via the Sonder team.

In Swedish, the word omgivning means environment or ambience. In other words, the way a space feels. Kassab’s interpretation starts where hospitality begins, at the entry court. He created a welcoming presence by transforming the dominant parking lot into a central, pedestrian-friendly oasis graced with new landscaping and hardscape revolving around a restored pool. “The courtyard was the main idea,” says Kassab. “How to make it experiential itself.” No doubt about success. Now it’s a space folks flock to rather than flee from.

Step Into This Pedestrian-Friendly Oasis By Omgivning

As for the building’s exterior, it presents a newly vibrant painted face. Formerly dull beige and brown, the façade proclaims a cheerful vibe via pink and yellow tones while historic signage glows green at night. Existing fins and CMU panels sport fresh whitewashed coats.

Inside, accessed via a route of paired driveways, the arrival experience is altered as well. Erstwhile reception is now the restaurant Olive & Rose, presided over by the chef brother and sister team, Philip and Lauren Pretty, also owners of a Michelin-starred restaurant nearby. Omgivning was responsible for core and shell work along with transforming the adjacent carport into a secluded patio. Meanwhile, the altered configuration situates the lobby, with its wood check-in desk and paneled backdrop, at the end of the second driveway. A gym and guest quarters complete the first floor. The upper level is all guest rooms, more or less identical at 290 square feet.

Who goes there? “Mostly young couples,” Kassab notes. The draw? “Its mid-century vibe and standout by being something else for Long Beach.”

Stay A Night At The City Center Motel By Transformed By Omgivning

Discover Local Craftsmanship At This Cabo San Lucas Seaside Resort

Known for its vibrant sunsets, picturesque beaches, and surfable waves, Cabo San Lucas has become one of Mexico’s most popular upscale vacation destinations. Located at the southern tip of Baja California, its shores are, thus, saturated with glamorous hotels and resorts. While it can be hard to stand out in the crowd, a more discreet approach assures the recently opened Four Seasons Resort and Residences Cabo San Lucas at Cabo Del Sol feels different than the rest. 

With architecture by Robert C. Glazier and interiors by EDG and Meyer Davis, the 260,000-square-foot paradise has been created to resemble a low-slung hacienda-style village rather than a towering hotel block, with a series of casitas terraced down its sloping beachfront site. It quells another stereotype of hospitality projects in Mexico, too: Rather than a brash  fiesta of colors and patterns that might pervade less discerning resort designs, this one is rooted in true local flair with artworks, objects, and artisan craftsmanship sourced from across the country.

EDG & Meyer Davis Honor Traditions at Four Seasons Cabo San Lucas

“It was important to Four Seasons that even the whole arrival sequence feel authentic,” begins Jennifer Johanson, president and CEO of EDG, which handled the project’s four Richard Sandoval dining experiences, El Taller art studio, specialty grocery, surf shack–inspired adventure center, and two swimming pools, and ranks 120th among the Interior Design Rising Giants, up from 129 last year, counting such luxury resort brands as Camelback and Mii Amo as clients. “Visitors drive through a little arch and come into a sort of town square. That feeling helped inspire the cast of characters that would surround it.”

Those “characters” include Mediterranean restaurant Palmerio, its interior layering a retro European riviera vibe with Mexican accessories, like the vintage poncheras, or punch bowls, from Michoacán and elsewhere in the region that sit inside niches. Johanson sourced them at auction and worked with Jaliscan studio Laguna Mosaicos to create Majolica-look encaustic floor tiles. On the rooftop is Sora, a bar that overlooks the Sea of Cortez and features a statement driftwood table from Oaxaca that she found at a Mexico City gallery. Open to the elements, its conversation pit–style seating was constructed using sculptural plaster-covered concrete. With few walls, lighting, gentle and flattering, largely originates from the ground. “Even if the architectural profiles are modern and sleek, the textures are reminiscent of the locale,” adds Johanson, who traveled widely in Mexico to engage local artisans and source art for the project. The result, she notes, is “kind of like an encyclopedia of the country’s different regions.” Every eatery on the property embraces its water views and a seamless indoor-outdoor relationship.

Embrace The Indoor-Outdoor Life At Four Seasons Cabo San Lucas

The same spirit extends to Meyer Davis’s scope of the project, which encompassed the lobby and other public spaces, 96 guest rooms, spa, and La Casona Bar. “From the moment guests arrive, we really focused on the materials,” recalls Gray Davis, who, with Will Meyer, is firm cofounder and an Interior Design Hall of Fame member; Meyer Davis, which ranks 60th, up from 71, among the top 100 Giants, has a vibrant portfolio spanning residential, retail, workplace, and hospitality, its La Casa Dragones earning a 2024 Interior Design Best of Year Award. Indigenous ojinaga limestone, Mexican alder wood, and barrel-vaulted clay-tiled roofs complement contemporary steel-framed windows and doors, oak paneling and beams, and plaster walls across these spaces. But the concept also centers on “first impressions,” he continues—informing subtle decisions like depressing the lobby’s La Casona slightly to preserve a view to the sea or ensuring that terrace doors in the standard rooms, suites, and villas open fully to the horizon and entice visitors down meandering paths to the beach. (The property also hosts 46 branded residences designed by Meyer Davis.)

Wanting the resort to feel grounded in its environment, the firm strategically positioned the villas’ private pools and terraces atop natural rock outcroppings to offer vistas over the shore, while others feature lush planters and vibrant flowers. Stone-walled outdoor showers extend this feeling. 

Get An Enchanting View Of The Sea At Four Seasons Cabo San Lucas

The room interiors were inspired by the land, as well. “In Baja, the coast is so rugged and the terrain so dramatic, but it’s arid and dry,” Meyer adds. “That drove a lot of the materiality and color decisions, as reflected in a natural, sandy, soft palette with wood used in reserved but potent moves.” Whimsical touches like terra-cotta pendant fixtures with oversize shades, bold maritime-blue fabrics on armchairs and pillows, and hand-painted Mexican tiles break the scheme. And throughout the property, statement-making hues are often introduced through pieces by local artists. “I think Mexican design is too often lumped into one idea,” Meyer says. Both his studio and EDG used the resort’s thoughtfully edited aesthetic to work actively against this tendency and toward a celebration of the country’s diversity of art, craft, and even climate.

While much of the resort is set atop the natural topography, Tierra Mar Spa, its entrance marked by the calming sounds of a mosaic waterfall, is set into the landscape itself. Past the gable-roofed reception area, for which Meyer Davis chose an asymmetrical wood desk, is a serene garden with rambling streams. Continue toward the fitness areas and pool and the ocean comes back into view, beyond a smattering of the resort’s quaint tiled rooftops.

“With the sun setting over the sea and the waves crashing against large rocks, it’s almost like a movie set,” Davis concludes. “It’s cinematic,” notes Meyer. But despite Hollywood’s best tries, this place is the real deal.

Vacation At This Seaside Resort by EDG and Meyer Davis

Journey Into The New Mexico

This Resort Is Rooted In Artisan Craftsmanship Across Mexico

EDG: BROOKE TUMSAROCH; CINDY MOORE; JANE MCGOLDRICK; DAVE MAYNARD; VICTORIA DENNY; VARRUNA MITRA; KEVIN PEREIRA; BRIANNA SANCHEZ. ZOE PINFOLD; JENNIFER DANIELS; AMANDA DAVIS; TINA HU; LIZELLE FOOSE; PEDRO BARILLAS; SHIFRA BERG: MEYER DAVIS. GENSLER: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. LUX POPULI: LIGHTING DESIGN. VITA PLANNING AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. URIBE KRAYER: ART CONSULTANT. WARISAN: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP. BLACK PALM DEVELOPMENT: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT THROUGH BOMBOTI: DRIFTWOOD TABLE (SORA). SANDALVECI: DINING CHAIRS. TILE FEVER: CUSTOM FLOOR TILE. PALECEK: WOVEN SEATING (SORA, LOBBY), CHAIRS (PALMERIO). KETTAL: STACKABLE CHAIRS (PALMERIO). LAGUNA MOSAICO: CUSTOM FLOOR TILE. THROUGH MERCANTIL: SUNDIAL (PALMERIO), SMALL BLACK PLANTER (SORA). IWORKS: CUSTOM CHANDELIER (LOBBY). ROYAL CUSTOM DESIGNS: CUSTOM SOFA (LOBBY), CUSTOM HEADBOARD (SUITE). NATURAL URBAN: TABLES (LOBBY, VILLA TERRACE, SPA). ARTERIORS: PLANTER (LOBBY), SCONCES (VILLA). VIBIA: CUSTOM SCONCES (SORA). CLAYBROOK: TUB (BATHROOM). REMINGTON: PENDANT FIXTURE. ELECTRIC MIRROR: MIRRORS. BLOOM LIGHTING GROUP: CUSTOM PENDANT FIXTURES (PALMERIO, BOUTIQUE). STUDIO SOFA: PLANTERS (VILLA). DANAO: CHAISE LONGUES (VILLA TERRACE), CHAIRS, SOFA (VILLA). PERENNIALS AND SUTHERLAND: CUSHION FABRIC (SPA TERRACE); STOOLS, CHAIRS (BAR BRISAL). ZENITH: RUGS (VILLA, SPA). TARACEA: ROUND TABLE (VILLA), SIDE TABLES (SUITE). FANIMATION: FANS (VILLA, SUITE). ULA LIGHTING: LAMPS (SUITE). IAN LOVE DESIGN: CUSTOM VITRINES (SPA). GINGER AND JAGGER: RECEPTION DESK. HUDSON VALLEY LIGHTING: LAMPS. CALARGA MÉXICO: WALL HANGING (BOUTIQUE). CLÉ: TILE (ADVENTURE CENTER).

Rockwell Group Reimagines W Hollywood With Theatricality

Hollywood, the land of dreamers. A magnet for filmmakers, musicians, creatives, moguls, and tourists. The recently renovated W Hollywood hotel at the district’s heart attracts them all while expressing one of the first iterations of Marriott’s evolving luxury brand. Collabo­rating with W since 1998, David Rockwell and team’s latest endeavor encompasses 18,000 square feet of public space and more than 300 guest rooms. Pervasive are residential influences and the rich layering of materiality, texture, and light.

Magic begins at W Hollywood’s triple-height lobby. Frankly sexy, the cinematic lounge features lush deep-green conversation-pit seating that’s sinuously referential to nearby topography and, overhead, an artful assembly of bronze-mirror oval panels and acrylic rods. Spectacular 35-foot-tall concrete “curtains,” seemingly as fluid as fabric, bracket the fireplace. Meanwhile, a wall of bifold glass panels connects the lobby and bar to the garden patio.

Guest rooms, an intimate respite from revelry and scenesters, boast bespoke wraparound seating, wallcovering akin to Venetian plaster, and custom lighting. Ever attentive to the theatrical quality of light, Rockwell surrounded windows with a blue-glass box to pick up reflections of the Hollywood Hills.

Sculptural Columns Set The Scene For This Coastal Hotel Restaurant

2024 Best of Year Winner for Hotel Dining

An amalgamation of beaches across the globe, from Crete and Santorini in Greece to Positano and Capri, Italy, influenced Marelle, this 3,700-square-foot restaurant designed by Atelier Gulla Jonsdottir in Santa Monica, California, part of a broader revamp of the Sandbourne hotel, located mere steps from the Pacific shoreline. Hand-plastered walls, in a dusky terra-cotta hue that conjures the Mediterranean, backdrop the main room, where undulating plaster columns cordon off a more intimate dining alcove. Similarly sculptural are the custom pendant fixtures, handcrafted of ceramic in Oaxaca, Mexico, that form a shapely constellation above. Welcome cocktails are served at a grand bar, built of oak with a weathered-look concrete top and backed by sunny gold-tone wallcovering. This being SoCal, the restaurant naturally flows outside, where a lighthouse-like triple-height dining pavilion is enclosed by cream-colored drapery panels—allowing for cozy privacy or full-fledged access to million-dollar views.

PROJECT TEAM: GULLA JONSDOTTIR; ALINA IGARASHI; SASHA BELYAVSKAYA.

Kengo Kuma Unveils An Eco-Conscious Island Retreat

2024 Best of Year Winner For Country Getaway

Interior Design Hall of Fame member and architect Kengo Kuma has crafted St. Regis Red Sea Resort, an eco-conscious island retreat comprising 47 beach and 43 overwater villas, five dining venues, and extensive wellness facilities. To minimize the use of concrete, the structures employ prefabricated timber construction with roofs clad in natural cedar shingles and walls finished with clay plaster. The organic curves of the buildings blend seamlessly with the Ummahat Island, Saudi Arabia, landscape or appear to spiral gracefully from the sea. All villas incorporate private sundecks and pools, while designer Kristina Zanic’s characterful interiors feature a desert-inspired palette accented with coral and teal hues. Details include turtle shell–patterned floor tile, coral-shaped handles, hand-embellished art, and accessories crafted from natural materials.

PROJECT TEAM: KENGO KUMA; NICOLA MANIERO; DERIN KINACIGIL; JUAN FRANCO; HANNAH APPELGREN; TANIA UTOMO; LUDOVICA CIRILLO; ARIS KAFANTARIS; PAOLO DANESI; TRAN HUY VU NGUYEN; CARMEN KONG; SATOSHI ADACHI; RITA TOPA; PAVEL SIPKIN; AIGERIM SZYZDYKOVA; JANET CHOY (KENGO KUMA & ASSOCIATES); KRISTINA ZANIC; SEJAL PATEL (KRISTINA ZANIC CONSULTANTS).

Quirky Accents Meet Local Flair In Hotel Bardo Savannah

2024 Best of Year Winner for Boutique Hotel

Working with Left Lane hospitality and LS3P architecture, Atelier Pond embraced the city’s quirky charm in this chic renovation of Hotel Bardo Savannah, a 19th-century Southern Gothic structure on Forsyth Park. Elements bring together old and new in a riotous mix of styles, creating a feeling that the 149-key, 115,000-square-foot property was built over time. The turreted red-brick exterior conceals a palm-lined interior courtyard with a lap pool, cabanas, and bar that evoke an Italian lido. Other spaces are moodier, like the clubby lobby bar and Victorian main restaurant, its wood paneling and opulent chandeliers feeling straight out of the original mansion’s drawing rooms. Though transporting, Hotel Bardo is still rooted in the community. Furnishings incorporate such vernacular elements as fiber caning, oak construction, and brass details, and rooms highlight work by local artists, including the regional flora stenciled by muralist Vanessa Platacis on the peach walls of the private members’ club.

PROJECT TEAM: PHILIP POND. 

Chill Out At The Icehotel In Sweden

Think you’ve had a cold winter? Try visiting the Icehotel—a frosty hotel hugging the Torne River in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, 124 miles above the Arctic Circle—for esoteric bragging rights. Icehotel is just that, a venue built of massive blocks of ice harvested from the Torne River when its water flow slows during winter months. The first iteration was conceived by Yngver Bergvist in 1989 and Icehotel has been celebrated ever since as a multi-hyphenated art gallery, events space, and lodging location. Come spring, the structure melts. But in the meantime, temperatures may drop to 23 degrees Fahrenheit, but the hospitality is extraordinarily warm.

This year, the international coterie of guests entered a structure built from 550 tons of ice by 76 people in six weeks. Interiors include a ceremony hall, meeting rooms, a cinema, a trio of restaurants, specialty bar, swimming pools, and an array of accommodations including 12 art suites. As if Icehotel as a whole weren’t already sui generis, these new features add a different kind of uniqueness. Each room exhibits an ice sculpture by artists who, under the guidance of creative director Luca Roncoroni, all hail from all points of the globe: Ukraine, South Korea, Spain, France, South Africa, Bulgaria, Canada, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia. Imagine, for example, guest quarters defined by zig-zag walls or sleeping in the company of a rhinoceros, soaring birds or a grandmother figure knitting. Sleep, by the way, comes when snuggled warmly in a thermal sleeping bag covered by reindeer skins.

Explore Design Details In The Icehotel 

Interested in more experiences? Icehotel offers a slew of them. Try snowmobiling, the sauna ritual, dog sledding, or a tour of the Northern Lights to heighten the immersion exercise. As for dining, restaurants introduce a whole new culinary repertoire with several of the courses served on ice.

Still more options exist to make this a year-round property. During spring, when the winter’s hotel has melted back into the river, part of it remains so visitors can get a taste of the ice and snow. Icehotel 365 is a permanent structure with an ice hall, ice bar, and experience room enabling a deep dive into the hotel’s storied history.

Those with cold feet craving a room or suite with temperatures above the freezing mark can check into any one of 44 traditional hotel rooms, each furnished with traditional materials and a calming white, gray, ecru palette, an apartment-like “Arctic Cabin” that is Scandinavian inspired with whitewashed wood paneling and birch details, or even some outdoor tents. Whatever the choice, this inimitable site gives new meaning to the phrase: four seasons.

Discover Icehotel Theme Rooms

Not A Fan Of The Cold? Check Out These Alternative Options

Inside An Artful Hotel in Fort Worth By Rottet Studio

2024 Best of Year Winner for Chain Hotel

With the Kimbell Art Museum, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas, has become a cultural destination, and the 200-key, 216,000-square-foot Crescent Hotel by Rottet Studio reflects that. The lobby forges the strongest connection with its artful neighbors. Gallery-esque white walls are ample enough to accommodate large-scale canvases—by Madeline Peckenpaugh, Carolyn Salas, and Mònica Subidé, from the hotel’s impressive contemporary collection—which provide much of the color. Envelope materials include limestone, faceted plaster, Calacatta Vision marble, and white oak. F&B spaces are critical, too, as the Crescent is centered around private functions; among the standouts is the Circle Bar and the Blue Room. In guest rooms, the size of closets and built-in storage was maximized, all of it and headboards faced in sophisticated Koto veneer. 

PROJECT TEAM: LAUREN ROTTET; ANJA MAJKIC; TAYLOR MOCK; HANNAH RAE.

Discover A Grand Budapest Hotel Imbued With Modern Ambience

2024 Best of Year Winner for Large Hotel Transformation

The 216-key Dorothea Hotel in Budapest, Hungary, spans three adjacent buildings of varying dates and styles—1873 Neo-Renaissance, 1913 Art Nouveau, and 1937 Modernist. The project team restored the historic facades and also created a unified 355,000-square-foot interior that harmoniously blends heritage and modern elements, including a new glass-enclosed penthouse floor. The public spaces in the oldest building exemplify Lissoni Casal Ribeiro’s approach, preserving the grandeur of the volumes while imbuing them with a distinctly 21st-century and, at times, ironic ambience. This is achieved through witty touches like juxtaposing the entry’s monumental Doric columns with a series of contemporary photographic portraits by Zoltán Tombor that playfully reinterpret traditional styles and customs.

PROJECT TEAM: PIERO LISSONI; MIGUEL CASAL RIBEIRO; MATTIA SUSANI; RICARDO HERNANDEZ; FRANCESCO DE MATTEIS; FRANCESCO SCHIAVARIELLO; TANIA ZANEBONI; RODRIGO TELLEZ ACOSTA; ROBERTO BERTICELLI; GRETA ANDREONI; ALEJANDRA CORREDOR; RICCARDO ACCETTA; ILIA D’EMILIO; MARCO GOTTARDI; DAVID POULIOT; ALESSANDRO MASSI MAURI; ALBERTO MASSI MAURI; ALESSANDRO GRASSO; MATTEO CANDIANI; LORENZO VOLPATO.