Architectural Digest: These Are Los Angeles's Best New Hotels

From beach views in Santa Monica to garden terraces in Silver Lake, the City of Angels’ latest property openings are worthy of inspiring your next home makeover.

Four of Los Angeles’ newest bolt-holes, ranging in size from nine to 285 rooms, are aesthetically and energetically disparate, but one thing unites them: design that feels almost too good, too creative, and too special for a mere hotel room. A deluxe residential vibe pervades in environments littered with nothing generic and everything custom, crafted, and rediscovered. Designers responsible for these next-generation properties, including Kelly Wearstler, have embraced bold references and unique ideas for an enlightened approach to hospitality that feels especially refreshing this summer. Below, AD surveys four new hotels that have opened in L.A. just in time for summertime fun.

“I always look at architecture, location, and history as a starting point for telling the story,” says Kelly Wearstler, who conceived the earthy, timeless look of Santa Monica Proper Hotel based around two distinct buildings—a landmark Spanish Colonial Revival structure built in the 1920s and thoughtfully restored to highlight Moorish details, and a contemporary building “more monolithic in nature and a great canvas for layering with textures—natural materials, stone, wood, plaster.” This posed a challenge for conceiving one plan for the 271 guest rooms, and Wearstler ultimately went with a unique design for each building that includes overlapping elements—like the oversized upholstered half-sphere headboard—to bring synergy. “It encapsulates the night tables and reading lamps and is the visual centerpiece,” says the designer of the custom piece whose “series of curving seams echo the idea of a sunrise or sunset.” In keeping with this statement, the palette throughout is nature-inspired and raw, reflecting its environment that is also celebrated by the Westside’s only rooftop pool. Think grass cloth, light hardwoods, and sandy tones that look right at home against curved floor-to-ceiling windows. The art-filled lobby, serene 3,000-square-foot modern Ayurvedic Surya Spa, and forthcoming Onda restaurant (a collaboration between Sqirl’s Jessica Koslow and Contramar’s Gabriela Cámara) embrace a similar approach. “We intentionally worked with local artists and artisans to bring a true localized experience within the spaces,” says Wearstler, who had a hand in every spoon and light fixture inside as well as the original installations by L.A. artists, including Ben Medansky and Morgan Peck.

Photo: The Ingalls

2/8

Santa Monica Proper Hotel

Rates starting at $450 per night.

Photo: James Baigrie

3/8

1 Hotel West Hollywood

The 20th-century American Arts and Crafts movement loosely inspired the top-to-bottom reimagining of The Jeremy that opened in preview phase in May as 1 Hotel West Hollywood, a timber-heavy property of 285 rooms that feels effortlessly eco-aware. Sustainability is not a marketing line but the core design principle, evidenced in 100 percent organic bed linens, carpets made of recycled materials, untreated wood furniture, and zero-waste dishes in chef Chris Crary’s 1 Kitchen. “A sense of earthiness and nature can be felt throughout the entire guest room experience,” says Arash Azarbarzin, president of SH Hotels & Resorts, down to the armoires giving off warm, woody scents and breezy linen slipcovers on plush chairs. “We partnered with an amazing company called Angel City Lumber that recovers fallen trees from L.A. County, excess and ‘waste’ lumber from commercial projects, and other sources to create ‘urban lumber,’ used in 1 Hotel in a variety of ways”—for example, in massive outdoor planters for 100-year-old olive trees, the check-in desk, and the plank-lined ceiling in the Juniper Tree lobby bar. Los Angeles's J. Alexander Furniture crafted the furniture from reclaimed cedar, oak, and alder wood; another overwhelming design element is native greenery, such as blue gum eucalyptus and Canary Island pine, some planted in handmade pots by local artisan Match Stoneware, and designed by Rios Clementi Hale Studios. Spaces are designed around the enhancement of natural light, and the artificial light fixtures—all using mercury-free LED bulbs—are fashioned from repurposed pieces to evoke sunlight streaming through trees.

Photo: James Baigrie

4/8

Rates starting at $450 per night.

Photo: Courtesy of Palisociety

5/8

There’s plenty to discuss about the “inn” part of this forthcoming late-summer property by Palisociety and Timberlane Partners, but the pool portion expresses the vision perfectly. Most social spaces are outdoors, within a verdant, cascading terraced garden-like atmosphere tied together by exterior staircases—a reference to the 50-plus staircases knitting together the neighborhood’s hills. There are handmade Moroccan and Italian tiles in tree-covered courtyards, plaster and vintage stucco, a cactus garden, and a raised pool deck offering a rare view of Los Angeles. “Ultimately, you have a space that feels both private and expansive, grounded in the neighborhood, with views of the Griffith Observatory and Hollywood Hills,” says designer Lucia Bartholomew of Electric Bowery. “Our concept began with the warm, sunny climate and Silver Lake’s bohemian nature, and we built from there.” Rich and tranquil, it’s meant to encourage interaction between guests and locals, a core tenet of Palisociety’s design-forward neighborhood inn–style environments. Mexican Modernism pioneer Luis Barragán’s work is referenced in clean lines, sunset tones, and the use of light, while a nod to Old Hollywood glamour is evident in vintage-inspired neon signage and the custom marble and wood bar. The 54 spacious guest rooms transport you to another time, thanks to custom millwork, handmade Moroccan tiles, sun-kissed terrazzo nightstands and vanities commissioned by Concrete Collaborative, and vintage-inspired floor lamps and sconces by ANDlight. “Armchairs made of leather and wood, prints by Block Shop and Alexandra Berg, and Laure Joliet photography animate the spaces, while live plants and antique rugs, unique to each room, accomplished our desire for every guest to experience subtly distinct decorative elements,” says Bartholomew.

Photo: Courtesy of Palisociety

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Rates starting at $250 per night.

Photo: Aaron Haxton

7/8

A fictional story of a mother and daughter, Mable and Marta, who came to Los Angeles from Milan to open a boarding house incited the entire design scheme of this intimate nine-room bolt-hole in a 1927 firehouse with original wood-truss ceilings and pressed-tin panels. For its relatively small footprint, this space packs a serious punch. “Mable was eccentric, and she was the one who had the idea to ROYGBIV the rooms,” says designer Sally Breer of ETC.etera. To that end, each bedroom centers around a saturated shade. Yellow, for example, “has an elegance and simplicity to it that is really calming,” says Breer of the sculptural headboard and banquette cushion running similarly through the room. Green features Lee Jofa wallpaper and fabric in the dining nook “that’s so totally absurd it makes me smile,” she adds, especially against the multi-earth-tone-striped velvet bed and matching draped “bonkers” green glass bedside lights by Jason Koharik. Other rooms rethink relationships to patterns, color, and what a hotel can be. Take the black room, with its secret Murphy bed, very little natural light, leopard carpet, and checkered multicolored silk drapery. “The motto of this room was more,” says Breer. Local design luminaries like Clare V., Block Shop, and Robert Siegel contributed custom key fobs, textiles, and ceramics. Downstairs is the wildest design idea Breer has ever had: “the elephant—or big green worm—over the bar, anchoring the restaurant." She adds, "The interior restaurant space is long and narrow, with these big, beautiful old steel windows, so it needed something with some movement and curve, and also some funk.” A 1960s wall sconce inspired her to doodle a curving light installation fabricated by collaborator Simon LeComte, who welded exhaust pipes and powder-coated them mint green. Ultimately, says Breer, “This project was an exercise in bravery.”

Photo: Aaron Haxton

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Rates starting at $300 per night.

Kathryn Romeyn is an American writer, editor, and podcast host based in Bali, Indonesia. A journalist since 2006, much of her work is devoted to exploring culture, design and nature, typically with her two young daughters and architect husband in tow. After earning her BA in journalism at Northeastern University... Read more