hotel deluxe

with david hill design and hennebery eddy architects

Like the original crystal chandeliers that had lost their glimmer and were looking a bit grimy, the Hotel deLuxe was a diamond in the rough. With some dismantling, intensive cleaning and small intervening upgrades, the building again began to shine. Still the early twentieth century romantic fabrication needed a new context to further its story. The imagery of Golden Age film when grouped by the auteurs that created them adds another romantic layer to the experience of the hotel.

Hollywood has always been more of a mindset than place. Especially up until the mid-twentieth century, Hollywood as cinema portrays idealized settings that emphasize the stories it tells. The Hotel deLuxe similarly is detached from the world outside creating a grand sense of living. Mimicking the reflective qualities of the chandeliers, mirrored surfaces are added at key points to broaden openings and dissolve borders. The memory provoking scene from an old movie on the far wall of the lobby is suddenly transformed to another set of characters when next you look up.

After extensive research in the influential foreign and domestic cinema, the curator, Tessa Papas, collected images representative of the film’s milestones. In looking at the black and white movie stills on each guestroom floor, the hotel visitor realizes that they represent a different school of film directors. The stories of these directors and their influence is displayed in signage conceived by Ditroën that further evokes the formal romantic qualities of Hollywood.