The Wall Street Hotel
New York, United StatesA 1920s office block at 88 Wall Street, reopened as a hotel with its limestone bones intact.
Downtown Manhattan built this address as offices. The 1920s block at 88 Wall Street carried the flat limestone confidence of the era, and the conversion into a hotel kept that bone structure intact. Nothing was smoothed away. Rooms sit high enough to catch the narrow canyon light that the Financial District gets for a few hours a day.
Art is handled as part of the building, not as decoration bolted on afterwards. Works appear in corridors, in the lobby, in the smaller sitting areas off the main floor. The district around it empties out after the trading day, which gives evenings here a quiet most Manhattan hotels never manage. Wall Street, Stone Street and the East River waterfront are all short walks.
1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn, United StatesReclaimed timber, raw concrete and heavy planting, on the East River inside Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Reclaimed timber, raw concrete and a great deal of planting. That is the material vocabulary here, and it runs from the entrance through to the guest floors. The hotel stands inside Brooklyn Bridge Park, on the East River, facing the lower Manhattan skyline across the water.
Sustainability drives the design here. It did not arrive late, as a retrofit. Salvaged wood, reclaimed brick and heavy greenery appear throughout, and the art programme leans towards natural materials and site-specific commissions. A rooftop bar and pool look straight at the bridge. DUMBO's warehouse streets start immediately behind the building, and the ferry and subway both run from a few minutes away.
COMO Uma Canggu
Bali, IndonesiaA low, open-sided beachfront hotel on Bali's south-west coast, built around courtyards and a long pool.
Canggu sits on Bali's south-west coast, where the beaches are dark volcanic sand and the surf breaks are the reason most people come. COMO Uma Canggu faces that stretch of water directly. The building is low, open-sided, and organised around courtyards and a long pool.
Balinese craft shows up in the stone, the textiles and the carved detail, used sparingly enough that the architecture stays contemporary. There is a COMO Shambhala wellness centre on site, a surf school, and kitchens that split between Italian cooking and Asian menus. Seminyak lies to the south; the rice terraces and temple country inland are an easy drive.