A hotel is on this sheet when the building itself or the work inside it is the reason to look at it: a structure kept from an earlier use, an interior drawn by one hand, a collection hung through the rooms. Seven hotels are listed. A hotel with a few paintings in the lobby is not enough, and a new building styled to look artistic is not enough either.
R-01
Art Hotels
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Lloyd Hotel
An emigrant hostel that became a prison and then workshops, with every room rebuilt differently
Lloyd Hotel from the quay, Amsterdam
ON SITE
The building went up in 1921 on an eastern dock, raised to lodge emigrants waiting for a ship. Brick walls, tall windows and a symmetrical front face the water. Later decades turned it into a prison and then into workshops for artists, and each use left marks that were never fully erased. The present owners kept those marks visible instead of smoothing the interior into one finish.
IN USE
Guest rooms run from very small to very large, because designers reworked the old cells and halls one by one. Some hold a piano, some a bath in the open, some only a bed and a window. Ceiling heights change from floor to floor, and no corridor repeats.
AROUND IT
The hotel stands on Oostelijke Handelskade, a former shipping quay east of Amsterdam Centraal. Water runs along one side, and low bridges lead over to Java-eiland. Warehouses nearby carry new housing above their old frames. Trams and cycle lanes reach the older centre in a few minutes.
SORT OUT FIRST
A tram runs east along the quay from Amsterdam Centraal, and a bicycle covers the same distance, so no car is needed.
Revised · May 2026
R-02
Art Hotels
Paris, France
Molitor
A 1929 swimming complex kept as a shell, its painted cabins renewed by invited artists
The summer pool and its galleries, Paris
ON SITE
Two pools opened here in 1929 in an art deco design, with white railings, portholes and stacked cabin doors along the galleries. After the pools closed in 1989 the site stood empty for two decades and became a wall for street painters. The rebuilt complex holds the old proportions and the ranks of numbered cabins, and the painted panels are renewed by invited artists rather than left to fade.
IN USE
Hotel rooms look either onto the summer pool or out towards the street, and corridors run along the galleries above the water. The winter pool sits under glass. Painted cabin doors line the upper level, a spa fills the lower floors, and the two pools stay at the centre of the plan.
AROUND IT
The complex faces the Bois de Boulogne on one side and the edge of the sixteenth arrondissement on the other. Roland-Garros courts are a short walk away, and the Porte d'Auteuil metro entrance is close. The Seine lies further east, past a belt of sports grounds and wide avenues.
SORT OUT FIRST
The nearest metro is Porte d'Auteuil on line 10, and the tennis fortnight in late spring fills the whole quarter, so allow extra time.
Revised · May 2026
R-03
Art Hotels
Copenhagen, Denmark
Radisson Collection Royal Hotel
A 1960 tower drawn to the last door handle, with one room left in its first state
The tower on Hammerichsgade, Copenhagen
ON SITE
Arne Jacobsen drew this tower in 1960 down to the door handles, the cutlery and the chairs. Twenty storeys of green-grey curtain wall stand on a low base, thin mullions dividing the glass into a regular grid. It was the tallest building in the city when it opened. One room has been kept close to its first state, with the furniture, textiles and fittings of the original scheme.
IN USE
Guest rooms fill the tower floors, and the preserved room is shown as a single example of the 1960 interior. A spiral stair rises from the lobby without visible supports. Jacobsen chairs stand in the public areas at the base, and the floor plan repeats itself from level to level.
AROUND IT
The tower stands beside Vesterport station and the Tivoli gardens, a few minutes from Copenhagen Central. Hammerichsgade runs along its base, wide and busy with buses. City hall square lies to the east, and the lakes and the Vesterbro streets begin just behind the block.
SORT OUT FIRST
It is a short walk from Copenhagen Central station, and the preserved room is a single unit, so ask about it before counting on seeing it.
Revised · May 2026
R-04
Art Hotels
New York, USA
The Beekman
Nine storeys of iron railings look down into one covered court under a glass pyramid
The covered court and its tiers, New York
ON SITE
Dating from 1883, the building was raised as offices around a nine-storey court covered by a pyramidal skylight. Cast iron railings run around every tier, each level with its own pattern, so the well reads as nine stacked balconies. The upper floors were sealed off for decades while shops used the ground. Restoration reopened the court, and the ironwork and the skylight were repaired rather than replaced.
IN USE
Rooms sit on the floors around the court and in a newer tower alongside. Dark wood, patterned tile and heavy fabrics carry the Victorian scheme through the interior. Two restaurants and a bar occupy the base, where the atrium stands open to the glass ceiling nine floors above.
AROUND IT
Nassau and Beekman Streets meet at the door, in the older and narrower grid of Lower Manhattan. City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge ramp are a few blocks north, the financial district south. Subway lines converge at Fulton Street, one block away, under a newer transit hall.
SORT OUT FIRST
Several subway lines stop at Fulton Street one block away, while driving into this part of Manhattan is slow and parking is scarce.
Revised · May 2026
R-05
Art Hotels
Verona, Italy
Byblos Art Hotel Villa Amistà
A fifteenth-century villa outside Verona where new work is placed against frescoed vaults
The villa and its garden front, Verona
ON SITE
Fifteenth-century walls form the core of this villa, extended in later centuries and set behind formal gardens. Stone stairs, frescoed ceilings and vaulted halls survive from the earlier phases. The restoration left those historic surfaces in place and set contemporary works against them, so a painted vault can stand above a modern sculpture. Ochre render and a low tiled roof keep the villa close to the farmland around it.
IN USE
Guest rooms fill the upper floors of the villa, each fitted differently, with contemporary furniture placed among older detail. Art continues through the halls, the stair and the garden. A pool lies below the terrace, and dining rooms take the ground floor of the old house.
AROUND IT
The villa sits at Corrubbio di Negarine in the Valpolicella hills, north-west of Verona. Vineyards and low ridges surround it, with village roads running between them. Verona's arena and old centre are a short drive south-east, and Lake Garda lies further west beyond the hills.
SORT OUT FIRST
The villa is out among the vineyards rather than in the city, so a car or a taxi from Verona is needed and bus links are thin.
Revised · May 2026
R-06
Art Hotels
Tulum, Mexico
Casa Malca
A private beach house on the Caribbean coast, abandoned, then filled with contemporary art
Terraces towards the sea, Tulum
ON SITE
Built as a private house on the Caribbean shore, the building stood abandoned before it was bought and converted. White concrete volumes step down towards the sand, with wide terraces and open sides facing the water. Jungle presses against the back wall. The owner installed a collection of contemporary art through the house, so paintings and installations occupy corridors, stairs and rooms that were never designed to hold them.
IN USE
Rooms and suites are spread between the main house and lower buildings near the beach. Doors open onto terraces, and several rooms look straight out at the sea. Art hangs in the passages and around the pool deck. Restaurants and bars sit at ground level, open to the air.
AROUND IT
The house stands on the coastal road south of Tulum town, on the strip of land between the sea and the lagoon. Beach, mangrove and forest run along it. Ruins on the cliff lie to the north, and cenotes are inland, reached by side tracks through the trees.
SORT OUT FIRST
Airports at Tulum and Cancún both serve this coast, and the beach road is single-lane and slow, so allow time for the transfer.
Revised · May 2026
R-07
Art Hotels
Chicago, USA
The Robey
A wedge-shaped art deco tower on a junction of three streets, so no floor plan repeats
The wedge above the six corners, Chicago
ON SITE
Standing where Milwaukee, North and Damen meet, this 1929 tower fills a wedge-shaped plot, so its plan narrows to a point. Twelve storeys of pale terracotta rise in art deco setbacks, with vertical piers and a stepped crown. It was built for a bank and long held offices above. The narrow floor plates and corner windows come from the shape of the site rather than from any later design idea.
IN USE
Rooms follow the wedge, so few share a plan and many end in a corner window. A bar takes the upper floor, with views along all three streets, and the ground floor holds a café. A second, lower building next door adds simpler rooms around a courtyard.
AROUND IT
The six-corner junction below is the centre of Wicker Park, busy with bars, record shops and clothing stores. The Damen station on the Blue Line stands at the crossing. Rail tracks run behind, and residential streets of brick two-flats spread outwards from there.
SORT OUT FIRST
The Blue Line runs from O'Hare to Damen station at the door, which beats driving, and parking around the junction is limited.
Revised · May 2026
A record is short on purpose. We keep what published sources state plainly and leave out the rest rather than guess at it. The date under a record is the day we last went through those sources, not a date of any visit.
