Hotels where the collection, the commission or the building itself is the reason to stay.
Hôtel Providence Paris
Paris, France
Providence occupies a narrow nineteenth-century building on a quiet street in the 10th arrondissement, a few minutes' walk from the Canal Saint-Martin. The interior leans hard into pattern: papered walls, deep colour, velvet and brass, assembled with the density of a private apartment rather than the restraint of a contemporary hotel. Rooms are small by design, and the building's original proportions have been kept rather than opened up. A ground-floor bar serves both guests and the neighbourhood, which gives the place a steady evening rhythm.
Setting · 10th arrondissement
Building · Nineteenth-century townhouse
Character · Dense, patterned interiors
Ground floor · Bar open to the street
Freehand New York
New York, United States
Freehand New York sits in a 1928 building on Lexington Avenue, north of Gramercy Park, and mixes conventional hotel rooms with shared bunk accommodation in the same house. Much of the artwork on the walls was commissioned rather than bought in, and the public rooms — lobby, restaurant, rooftop bar — carry more of the design intent than the bedrooms do. The result is a hotel that functions partly as a social building, busiest in its ground-floor and top-floor spaces.
Setting · Lexington Avenue, Manhattan
Building · 1928 tower
Rooms · Private and shared formats
Public rooms · Lobby, restaurant, rooftop
Hotel Kabuki San Francisco
San Francisco, United States
Kabuki stands in Japantown, attached to the Japan Center complex, and takes its design cues from Japanese domestic architecture without turning them into pastiche. Screens, timber and a muted palette run through the rooms; some include deep soaking tubs. The hotel's position makes it a practical base for the neighbourhood's cinemas, restaurants and the Peace Plaza, and the building's mid-century bones are still legible beneath the more recent refurbishment.