Art Deco Typography Inspires The Look of This Tile Collection

Fettle and BLVD Hospitality Update Historic Georgian Hotel

New in town? First-time visitors may inquire of the ocean-front turquoise gem just steps from Santa Monica’s acclaimed pier, but it’s hardly a fresh addition. The Georgian Hotel, female-founded by Rosamond Borde who commissioned its architect M. Eugene Durfee, opened its doors in 1933. First, it was a watering hole for a cast of A-listers. Then, World War Il saw it as a draw for servicemen plus engineers, designers, and workers from the nearby McDonnell Douglas aircraft factory. Years passed, as did sales, a remodel in the 1950s, and dimming of the hotel’s star. Until Jon Blanchard and Nicolo Rusconi of BLVD Hospitality, developers of Los Angels’s Ace and Hoxton hotels, and designer Tom Parker of Los Angeles-based Fettle stepped in. Their first-time collaboration, spanning nearly three years during Covid when the hotel closed for four months, yielded a property sui generis in charm and as quirky as a Wes Anderson film set.

The Georgian Hotel Features a Historic Facade and Updated Interiors 

Art Deco Accents and Amenities Abound 

Guests need to proceed further inside and ascend a few steps for check-in, at a discreet stand. Before proceeding to their rooms, they might want to explore such amenities as Gallery 33 whose opening exhibition showed paintings by Sharon Stone (yes, that Sharon Stone), the Writers Room, aka meeting room with an old-school typewriter and golf clubs for props, and the deep, crimson-colored library with shelves of curated reading available for check out.

Upstairs, are 12 guest rooms per floor, with a suite of about 650 square feet, in each corner giving city or ocean views. Rugs differ, but otherwise furnishings, including credenzas and beds with Deco-inspired headboards, are consistent. So are such perks as Polaroid cameras with film, Victrola record players for vinyl, and beachy art and photography. Best, however, is the bar. Hardly mini, it’s fully stocked complex cabinetry complemented by a room-service call box in case one’s favorite champagne is lacking.

The Hotel Design Nods to the Past With Glamorous Dining Options

Come late afternoon (or anytime really) the Sunset Terrace is an optimal spot for tea or cocktails. Newly furnished and elaborately planted, it has sliders to close off or open to ocean breezes for a capacity of 30.

For a real glam dinner that hints at a speakeasy supper club, guests and locals go sub-grade. The Georgian Room really is a music venue. Its massive bar, opposite a line of old-school-style curvilinear and tufted banquettes wraps around a Steinway and small platform stage. Given the décor and Italian-inflected menu, we can’t help but hear That’s Amore run through our head.

Inside the Georgian Hotel Renovated by Fettle and BLVD Hospitality

Carbone Interior Design Balances Art Deco and Modernist Influences at This Hotel in Zurich

Since 1935, the Neues Schloss Privat Hotel Zurich has charmed guests with its rational-yet-rounded façade, an expert blend of Art Deco and Modernism. Today, thanks to a rethink by the city’s Carbone Interior Design, the interiors live up to the building’s motto: “A place that brings together what usually doesn’t combine.”

A member of the Marriott Autograph Collection, the 57-key hotel mixes a jewel-tone palette of velvety textures with walls in natural plaster. Rooms contrast shadow—bathroom walls in deep purple, dark oak details—and natural light. Public areas and a meeting room take advantage of similar contradictions, finding unexpected balances of curvy furnishings and the clean lines of linear light fixtures. And the new restaurant, Castellan’s, ties it all together, serving Mediterranean cuisine among banquettes that lap the walls like waves, just steps from Lake Zurich itself. 

Eastlake Studio Looks to Art Deco and Art Commissions for a Grand Rapids Downtown Office

When a client approached Chicago’s Eastlake Studio to redesign its 160,000 square foot, seven-floor interdisciplinary office building, the firm embarked on a two-year collaboration with AMDG Architects resulting in a rethink of everything from the floor plan to the graphic exterior.

A monumental new staircase, rising between a glass wall to the east and a lush green wall, forms the spine of the office, connecting floors four through seven and their various shared outdoor spaces, flexible workspaces, and meeting and break rooms. The team looked to local manufactures like Haworth and Herman Miller for furnishings. But the heart of the project is a 90-piece art collection, developed in collaboration with Chicago’s DeGroot Fine Art, and an equally artful design for reception. 

“We developed the pattern for the wood feature walls by taking the organization’s logo and extrapolating it into minimalist geometry,” says senior designer Megan Stroud. “Then, we added dimension to it by rotating and alternating the wood grain direction in each panel.” The gesture was so successful that the team repeated it in the outside corridor of the top-floor boardroom, in the terrazzo floor pattern, and for graphics throughout the project. It’s a forward-thinking reference to the area’s Art Deco history, a blend of yesterday and tomorrow that suits the office culture perfectly. 

See the South Beach Lifeguard Towers in a New Light in Tommy Kwak’s Book 

It was 1995 when William Lane Architect was commissioned to design five lifeguard towers to replace the ones in South Beach that had been destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. The colorful, art deco–influenced structures were popular, yet it was another 20 years before the city came back to the Miami Beach–based firm to create six prototypes to replace most of the lifeguard towers serving the 8 1/2 mile stretch of Atlantic Ocean coastline.

It was 2019 when photographer Tommy Kwak traveled from his home in Montclair, New Jersey, to Miami Beach and first saw the pink tower on 17th Street—the aha moment that sparked his project to catalog all 38 towers and turn them into a book. “I was captivated by its electric palette and solitary form in the early morning light. I then photographed a few more towers and was hooked,” says Kwak, whose Palm series was available for the first time as NFTs at Art Basel in Switzerland last month. “My goal was to celebrate a kind of ephemeral beauty and, at the same time, transform the entities into more graphic forms,” he says of the images he took during three trips over three years, each shoot starting before 6AM and stretching into the evenings. “My ideal conditions were on days that were overcast and drizzly, so the backdrop of sea and sky were as minimal as possible for the towers to stand out. Plus there were less people around in light rain.”

On Kickstarter, Kwak raised the $16,000 needed to enable Brooklyn-based Blurring Books to publish the hardcover, due out this fall. In the meantime, limited-edition prints are available through Clic.

Agence DL-M Sets a Left Bank Paris Apartment on a Colorful New Course

In recent years, interior designer Damien Langlois-Meurinne has worked on a series of Paris apartments that enjoy mind-blowing views. The dining room of one flat close to Place du Trocadéro is in direct axis with the Eiffel Tower. Another sits atop a hill in the city’s 16th arrondissement and offers sweeping vistas of almost all the French capital’s monuments, extending to Notre-Dame in the distance. Yet none of them has such a direct link to the Seine as this 3,500-square-foot four-bedroom located right on the river’s Left Bank. Look through the trees to the right and you see the Louvre; to the left, the Place de la Concorde. On July 26, 2024, its fourth-floor windows will no doubt be a privileged perch: That is the day earmarked for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, when some 10,500 athletes will sail past on boats from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Pont d’Iéna.

The project stands out for another reason, too. Since setting up his own practice, Agence DL-M, back in 2003, Langlois-Meurinne has displayed a gift for reworking floor plans and spatial volumes. Often, he’ll gut an apartment and start things over completely from scratch. For a recent commission, he even had to remove a 215-square-foot swimming pool that had been installed, rather incongruously, on the fifth floor of a typical Haussmannian building.

There are, however, exceptions to every rule, and this project, for an art-collecting couple from the Middle East, was one of them. “For once, there was a natural balance to the existing layout,” Langlois-Meurinne recalls. “I didn’t really change much apart from connecting the primary bedroom to the adjoining bathroom.” The new birch-clad portal between the two is particularly deep. “It gives the space a sense of protection and intimacy,” Langlois-Meurinne notes. He also modified the shape of the walls in the kitchen, replacing jagged angles with enveloping curves.

What was lacking, though, was much in the way of architectural personality; the space was almost completely devoid of historical elements. So, Langlois-Meurinne designed new ones largely inspired by the Art Deco style of the 1920s and ’30s. He installed wainscoting and cornices in the large double sitting room as well as a host of elements in staff, a type of plaster he particularly loves working with. “It’s extremely supple and allows you to create rounded forms more easily than you can with wood or marble,” Langlois-Meurinne explains. The material was used to create the sculptural fireplace that anchors one end of the living space, the ribbed walls in the entry hall, and the domed ceiling in the dining room, among other details.

The rest of the decor is typical of Langlois-Meurinne’s style, from the strong axes to the integration of niches and alcoves to the bronze door frames that help structure the space. In many of his projects, the designer favors generously proportioned hallways. “For me, they’re essential,” he says. “They’re the backbone of a flat and need to be lively and have their very own personality.” Bestowing visual impact in the main hall, which serves as a gallery, is a mesmerizing moonlike work in bright red by Dutch artist Corine van Voorbergen. Langlois-Meurinne also created a rhythmic pattern on the floor below by insetting the Tundra Gray marble slabs with brass bands arranged in a syncopated fashion. “Their reflections help bring light to the heart of the apartment,” he says.

Light was a concern in the primary bathroom due to an absence of windows. The striking Panda White marble floor, which Langlois-Meurinne compares to a contemporary artwork, helps to distract attention from the fact. “The veining is very dynamic,” he says, “almost like an India ink drawing.” The designer also installed a plaster ceiling dome above the tub, into which he recessed indirect lighting. “When it’s switched on, it becomes quite immaterial and conjures the sensation of a light well or skylight,” he declares.

For aficionados of Langlois-Meurinne’s work, the color palette throughout the apartment may come as something of a surprise. He has long accustomed us to cooler tones, marked by a predilection for shades of blue. “I have a very strong attachment to the sea and the Mediterranean,” he says, explaining that he spent many a childhood vacation in the Cyclades of Greece. Here, however, he decided to play with warmer tones. The walls of the dining room were painted a pale salmon hue, and a monochromatic orange acrylic on canvas—Circus Peanut, by the art collective Henry Codax—dominates one end of the living room. “I don’t know where the inspiration came from,” Langlois-Meurinne admits. “I guess it’s a question of desire, of simply wanting to try out something a little different.”

Mark Alexander: straight sofa fabric (living room)

Lorenzo Castillo: armchair fabric, curved sofa fabric

Versmissen: side tables

Porta Romana: glass lamps (living room, entry, bedroom)

Barbara Lormelle: vases (living room)

Karen Swami: blue ceramics

Nicholas Haslam: chandelier (gallery), wall lights (powder room, bedroom)

TFA: bench fabric (gallery)

Creativ Light: pendant light (kitchen)

arteriors: table

Marc Uzan: ceramics

Graff: sink fittings (powder room, primary bathroom)

Schwung: pendant light (dining room)

Circa Lighting: lamp

Nobilis: chair fabric

HK Living: console (entrance)

Allied Maker: chandelier

Tom Kirk: chandelier (corridor)

Christophe Delcourt: nightstands (bedroom)

Lambert&Fils: pendant light (primary bathroom)

Chromatic: wall paint

Galerie Hussenot, Galerie Greta Meert, Galerie Filles du Calvaire, Galerie Scéne Ouverte, Galerie Maison Rapin: artwork

Hindley & Co. Update an Elegant Art Deco Gem in Melbourne

A house in the leafy Melbourne suburb of Balwyn had it all: graceful arches dating back to its construction in the 1930s, art deco terrazzo, four bedrooms and three bathrooms carved out from two floors and almost 3000 square feet. Its owners, a family of three engaged in finance and fashion, were relocating from Hong Kong to make the house their home. But first, they engaged the architecture design firm Hindley & Co. to renovate the residence, updating but not erasing its ample character.

“We concentrate on the experience of each space as a part of the greater whole,” says director and principal architect Anne Hindley, “so the openings between indoor rooms, and between indoors and outdoors, are carefully considered.” Interior arches connecting, say, a living room to a bar and library find reflection in the latter’s expansive windows. And, throughout, the colors of the original terrazzo inform finishes.

A few risks add personality. “In the kitchen,” Hindley says, “we amped up the scale of the edge of the Corian bench and the large round legs to see how far we could go!” Elsewhere, though, old and new balance with elegance. “We mixed contemporary and classic pieces of furniture,” she says, “all of which add to the resonant feeling of time passing.”

AMLgMATD invoke ‘Tropical Cubism’ for the Museum of Art and Design’s Education Lab in Miami

The Museum of Art and Design at Miami-Dade College’s new Education Lab, a 1,500-square-foot space housed in the Freedom Tower downtown, will offer the community a host of innovative lectures, workshops, and artmaking activities. The space needed to be as forward-thinking and flexible as its curricula, which is why MoAD approached local firm AMLgMATD to conceive its design.

Over the next few years, co-founders Laz Ojalde and Natalie Zlamalova refined not a space, but a style. “We searched for a commonality that would bridge our artistic approaches and principals and that would feel appropriate to exist within the walls of the 1920s-built landmark,” the pair say. “Natalie’s Czech background and admiration for early Czech Cubism & Functionalism and Laz’s love of industrial design and Art Deco, especially the overly stylized Tropical Art Deco found mainly throughout South Florida, were focal to the process. We discussed what if these two different yet somewhat similar styles of decor and function amalgamated and lived on today as a hybrid style called Tropical Cubism?”

The end result fuses bold colors and abstract geometries for a space with reconfigurable furnishings and intriguing finishes, organized into a quartet of arrangements including a main area, children’s area, reading zone, and build/work zone. “Every single piece had to be designed with modularity in mind so that it could be carried in and assembled on site by only a couple of people,” say the design duo. “Tropical Cubism gave us the ability to play creatively with bold angular line work and historic silhouettes. And it allowed us to artistically reinterpret the styles’ functionalities and purpose in this space.” Not to mention offering inspiration to future generations learning in the lab.

DesignAgency Conjures a Spirited and Idiosyncratic Addition to Toronto’s Drake Hotel

Toronto’s Drake Hotel opened 17 years ago with interiors by +tongtong and became an instant “art hotel classic”: playful, creative, and deeply contextual to its West Queen West neighborhood that’s rife with indie galleries, graffiti murals, and vintage stores. The new Modern Wing at the Drake—a five-story addition to the original nineteenth-century Classic Wing—is just as rooted in place. “Everyone came to the project with a deep knowledge of the brand, the fabric of the neighbourhood and the cultural momentum of the area and the city at large,” says Anwar Mekhayech, a founding partner at DesignAgency, which spearheaded the new interiors. “In fact, all our team both lives and works in the neighbourhood.” That stood the firm, which also has offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Barcelona, in good stead when ideating the hotel’s new lobby lounge and bar, meeting and event spaces, rooftop penthouse suite, and standard guest suites (32 additional rooms for a total of 51 overall). 

Working with original Drake hotel designer John Tong of +tongtong, the Drake’s in-house design team and building architect Diamond Schmitt Architects, DesignAgency drew inspiration from Art Deco, Hollywood glam, and Mid-Century Modern. “This intentional clashing is what gives a sense of fun and a luxuriously eclectic feeling,” says Mekhayech. In the lobby, which sits at the intersection of the new building with the old, a walnut tambour banquette juxtaposes the organic roughness of a white-painted brick fireplace. Vintage furniture and lighting, contemporary art (much of it site specific), and terrazzo flooring composed of sweeping swirls fosters a lively, curated sensibility. “An important goal for this project was to make the Modern Wing feel exciting and new yet also as though it had always been there—and will always be there,” the designer explains.

DesignAgency’s team consists of avid travelers who understand the elements of a great hotel stay, which informed the multi-year design of the guest suites. Bold colors, intriguing wallpapers ranging from traditional Arts and Crafts to geometrics, and featured artists and artisans change from floor to floor. In each guest room, a built-in bed-bench-desk plays tribute to the original railcar-inspired rooms in the Drake Classic Wing. Topping it all off, quite literally, is the two-bedroom 1,000-square-foot rooftop suite, with wall-to-wall glass doors overlooking a large terrace and sartorial finishes, like a silver-gray wallcovering, that recall classic men’s suiting fabrics.