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Hotel Shangri-La Santa Monica

Published: 07-Apr-2009

A celebrated Art Deco Los Angeles landmark has been refurbished and given additional rooms overlooking the Pacific – the secret of eternal youth?

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Interior designer: Marc Smith

Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, California. What an address. And it’s here, perched high on the crumbling bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, that the Hotel Shangri-La sits in all its majestic white splendour. An iconic building since it opened in 1939, the hotel has played host to presidents, movie stars and travellers alike over the years.

For 20 years little was done to the building, but it has recently undergone an extensive $30m (£15m) refurbishment which saw the addition of 17 rooms (bringing the total accommodation up to 71) the majority of which have stunning ocean views, and the unveiling of a new lush courtyard, elevated pool and rooftop bar, Suite 700.

A sleek package of horizontal lines and smooth, curved forms, Hotel Shangri-La is a quintessential example of Streamline Moderne architecture, the late form of Art Deco popular in the late 1930s. From across the street it gleams seductively, beckoning people inside its doors and the interior more than lives up to the high standards set by the façade, its dazzling white simplicity injected with 21st-century styling.

Marc Smith took on the role of hotel and restaurant designer. Better known for restoring and reviving nightclubs, including The Edison in the Higgins Building, LA. Smith’s vision for the landmark hotel celebrates the Streamline Moderne aesthetic, the hotel’s location and the ocean views. ‘The building is a historical gem. Everyone in the city recognises it, and I want to do right by the architecture and location,’ says Smith.

While the rooms are packed with technology, they still maintain their original Art Deco elegance. The decor is still very much the main attraction, featuring stormy blue wallpaper, heavily patterned and upholstered headboards, and crisp white bed linen splashed with silky ice blue cushions. Dark wood bedside cabinets and furniture lend a note of sophistication. The bathroom, a mixture of icy white tiles and luxurious marble, is separated from the bedroom by an alternately glass and mirrored wall in a teasingly voyeuristic touch.

The new restaurant overlooks the impressive courtyard and pool, and Santa Monica’s Farmer’s Market, where the concept of ‘fresh, ample, and simple’ also nicely sums up the style of the hotel.

This article was first published in X2 Magazine

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