CATEGORY: Hotel Picks

The Olive, Namibia

I’ve been sick on and off ever since I got back from New York so all work has been at a complete standstill at my house – unless you count getting through all my DVR’d episodes of Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis, Million Dollar Listing New York and Bethenny Ever After. (Don’t judge. She’s renovating a condo. How can I not watch?)

Not only is no work getting done but you should see the state of my house! It’s a horror and I’m longing for daily housekeeping, turndown and room service. Which brings me to the latest Hotel Pick FROM THE RIGHT BANK: the Olive Boutique Hotel in Windhoek, Namibia. You’re going to flip. I did.

What did I tell you? Great hotel design, to me, is current while paying homage to the surroundings and local heritage and I think the Olive just knocked it out of the park.

I’m feeling almost human today so I’m hoping this means I’ll be able to make up for lost time this weekend and tackle a bunch of neglected projects. Enjoy yours and I’ll see you Monday!

Don’t forget to enter the Paris, My Sweet book giveaway!

(Photos: The Olive)

A Lot More Than Design at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai

Hi, guys, how was your weekend? I wandered all over Shanghai and ended the day yesterday taking a walk along the Bund. That’s the stretch along the river that you see in all the postcards with all the beautiful Art Deco buildings.

On my walk I saw a sign on one of the buildings that read Swatch Art Peace Hotel. I was kind of confused because it’s right next door to the landmark Peace Hotel.

So I did a little research and it turns out that it has nothing to do with the original Peace Hotel, rather it is a new design hotel with something really unique going on inside.

Aside from the hotel, boutiques and restaurants, it offers an artist residency program in which artists from around the world are invited to live in workshop-apartments within the hotel.

At the end of their residency, the artists donate one of their works which the hotel then exhibits in its gallery.

Check out these digs for the visiting artists:

Can you imagine being invited to live there and do nothing but make art? What an unbelievable opportunity!

As you can guess from the name, the hotel is a project of the Swatch watch company and here’s what they have to say about the program:

This exciting project is based on a shared love of the universal nature of the arts in all their forms and a desire to promote cross cultural exchanges so as to enrich personal experience and creativity.

So. Freaking. Cool. What a great concept and so beautifully designed too.

Discovering things like this is one of the many reasons I love to travel.

The Waterhouse, Shanghai

At first glance, I thought the Waterhouse was just another cool, minimalist hotel which abound in Shanghai. But when I looked a little closer, I saw how wrong I was.


It is a completely modern hotel but it retains all the character of the 1930′s building that houses it.

In fact, I almost walked right by it because its rough and tumble exterior doesn’t look anything like the sleek or grand entrances of most hotels.

It’s all about the old and new here. The existing concrete building was restored, an additional floor built on top and the interior furnished with mostly Scandinavian classics by Arne Jacobsen, Finn Juhl, Hans Wegner and others.

In a city that has seen so much new construction, the Waterhouse is a pretty special spot and I’d love to see more hotels like it.

My trip is going great so far. Having done all the tourist things on prior trips, I’m mostly visiting galleries and checking out a few new areas. I’ll share design notes from them soon. And here’s an interesting/kind of freaky thing that’s happening: I can’t access Twitter or Facebook here. I think I knew that about Twitter but I didn’t think Facebook was blocked too. With Facebook, it could be my internet connection (which has been kind of dodgy) but I’m not sure. The one thing I can do is post photos on Instagram, which are posting automatically to Twitter. I guess that’s the way I’ll have to update Facebook too. These days, because we’re all so connected, I sometimes forget where I am when I’m traveling. But this is a pretty strong reminder!

(Photos: The Waterhouse)

NoMad Hotel by Jacques Garcia

Jacques Garcia wows me with every project he does and he’s done it again with the newly opened NoMad Hotel in New York.

He says the design was inspired by the Paris apartment he lived in when he was younger.

It feels so classic and grand, like the Beaux Arts building it’s housed in:

I’ve already booked another hotel for my trip in April but after seeing these pics, I may have to change my plans…..

(Photos: New York Times)

Rustic & Romantic Locanda Rosa Rosae

I am completely taken with Locanda Rosa Rosae, a tiny inn in the Venetian countryside near Treviso. Originally a mill dating back to the 16th century, it was lovingly restored, keeping much of the existing features intact by its architect owner.

Look at the vaulted ceilings, exposed beams, brick and stone, the doors, the windows, the floors ….. everything!

You can see more Hotel Picks FROM THE RIGHT BANK here.

(Photos: Locanda Rosa Rosae)

Rustic Sophistication in Mexico

There was an article in the New York Times two weeks ago about how all the fashion people are trading in St. Barts for Tulum, Mexico. Mexico is one of my favorite places (and I always thought Tulum was one of its jewels) so I started browsing the web for some of the places mentioned in the article and I came across this spread in the Selby. That Todd Selby is always up on these things. He apparently shot Nicolas Malleville and Francesca Bonato’s place/hotel/spa/shop in Tulum a while back. Have a look:

They created a really sophisticated but relaxed atmosphere while retaining all the local flavor. That’s not a combination easy to achieve and they totally nailed it.

(Photos: the Selby)

Hotel The Exchange, Amsterdam

Fashion and interior design go hand in hand and runway to room type features are pretty common in magazines and blogs. But what happens when interiors are actually “dressed” like models on a runway?

That’s the concept behind Hotel the Exchange in Amsterdam. Students and graduates of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute treated the rooms as if for a fashion show and the result is like nothing I’ve ever seen in any hotel.


I just love the out-of-the box thinking. To make it even better, the hotel is housed in buildings dating back to the 1600′s and is also part of an urban renewal project. Fabulous all around.

(Photos: Hotel the Exchange)