Arts Decoratifs (or Art Deco, as it was later known) is an arts and architecture movement from the 1920s and 1930s. Distinctive for its geometric features and lines of symmetry, the style became popular for the many hotels built during a golden age of hospitality in the US. Here we look at some of the most stunning hotels around America that ooze Art Deco features – all mirrors, rich hues, painted glass and bold shapes. Some are iconic institutions with storied histories, others are modern hotels housed in heritage buildings where retro touches take on a contemporary twist.
An Art Deco beauty inside and out, the Sunset Tower has been a West Hollywood landmark since 1929 when architect Leland A Bryant’s strikingly modern skyscraper shot up on Sunset Boulevard. The luxury apartment hotel was frequented by a who’s who of Hollywood, including John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. It also starred in various films including The Italian Job and Get Shorty. Now owned by hotelier Jeff Klein, the Sunset Tower Hotel underwent a major renovation that ensured the Art Deco skyscraper’s period character was retained and its reputation as one of the city’s A-list hotspots lives on.
Another iconic 1930s tower block home to a handsome boutique hotel can be found in Seattle’s University District. Designed by architect Robert Reamer in 1930, it first opened as the Edmond Meany Hotel with one its USPs being that every room boasted a corner view. Good news for the Graduate Seattle’s guests, who can gaze across the city to the Olympic Mountains as they recline on their beds, complete with scalloped headboards. For more views, the rooftop bar is a welcome modern addition. Elsewhere, the hotel charms with Art Deco flourishes including vividly patterned carpets, bold colours, elegant period lighting and original Terrazzo flooring in its marble-clad lobby.
The sultry Siren Hotel occupies Detroit’s Wurlitzer building, a then deeply modern skyscraper designed in 1926 by local Robert Finn. Abandoned for a time, the historic structure has a new lease of life as the Siren, which opened in 2018 after extensive restoration of its exterior and original features including the travertine floors, terracotta signs and plaster detailing (as pictured here in the Penthouse suite). Add to that vintage and replica furniture pieces and it’s quite the glam gem. Don’t ignore the siren call of the Candy Bar, a fabulously pink lounge with a huge dripping chandelier and plush pastel banquettes calling out for good times.
After it opened in Phoenix in 1929, the Arizona Biltmore soon became an exclusive desert playground for Hollywood royalty with everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Frank Sinatra gracing its guest book. Built by the McArthur brothers, early pioneers of Arizona tourism, the building has a strong Frank Lloyd Wright influence (an architect who had a great impact on the USA’s Art Deco movement). One of its most lavish features is the ballroom’s gold-leaf ceiling, the largest in the world after the Taj Mahal. Look out for the exquisite stained-glass display in its entrance too – it was designed by Wright and installed in the 1970s.
The Chatwal's elegant interiors hark back to the city’s hedonistic Jazz Age. Rooms and suites channel a 1930s ocean liner-aesthetic – think leather-wrapped wardrobes that resemble vintage trunks, backgammon sets and tinted-mirror clad bathrooms. Period glamour abounds in the Lambs Club restaurant too – there are red leather banquettes, dark wood panels and black-and-white photography paying homage to its theatrical origins. The building, designed by prominent architect Stanford White, was home to Lambs, America’s first professional theatrical club. It was restored and transformed into the luxurious boutique hotel in 2010.
A landmark oceanfront hotel constructed in the 1940s in what’s now known as the Art Deco District, the Raleigh was the work of local architect Lawrence Murray Dixon. It sadly closed in 2017 after it was damaged by Hurricane Irma. However, the historic property is set to bloom once again when it reopens as Rosewood The Raleigh in 2025 after an epic restoration. Overseen by US architect Peter Marino, the revitalised Raleigh will incorporate the neighbouring Richmond and South Seas hotels, whose stunning Art Deco façades will also be restored. Among the historic features being preserved are the Raleigh’s curvaceous swimming pool, said to have been Miami’s most iconic.
A landmark on Minneapolis’s skyline since 1929, the Rand Tower Hotel was the tallest building in the city when it first opened. The brainchild of Rufus R Rand, a World War I aviator and influential business leader, the 26-storey limestone and glass tower exhibited the clean lines and bas-relief decorative features that were typical of Art Deco design. In 2020, the office building was converted into a luxurious hotel after an £89 million ($110m) renovation. This involved the meticulous restoration of its exterior and interior period features including elevator finishes, Terrazzo floors, detailed enamelling and an original marble spiral staircase.
Another of Miami’s historic beachside playgrounds, Shelborne South Beach was the work of architect Igor Polevitsky. It has all the hallmarks of the era: an all-white facade, Terrazzo flooring, a centrepiece pool and a ballroom for lavish parties. It was used as a venue for the Miss USA Pageant in the 1940s. After a recent multi-million dollar remodel, the oceanfront landmark is back to its glory days with a fresh retro-chic feel. There's a new beach club, destination restaurants and an elegant pool area complete with the original diving dock.
Boasting a beautiful Beaux Arts exterior, The Evelyn is the very vision of Art Deco-inspired decor within. Striking geometric stained-glass windows grace the lobby, which has a marble-clad welcome desk and elegant horseshoe-shaped cocktail bar. Its deep green leather banquettes are the perfect spot for sipping a Prohibition-era inspired cocktail or two. Originally debuting as Hotel Broztell in 1905, the Evelyn opened in 2017 and is in NoMad (North of Madison Square Park). Known as Tin Pan Alley back in the day, the eclectic neighbourhood was intertwined with New York’s thriving music scene.
Steeped in century-old NYC glamour, The Plaza was built before the Art Deco movement in 1907. But the hotel’s history is intertwined with the Roaring Twenties, as it featured in F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda were regular guests at the Plaza, whose ornate Grand Ballroom, which opened in the 1920s, was a venue for lavish galas attended by New York’s high society. The Fitzgerald Suite King (pictured) opened in 2013, designed by Catherine Martin, production and costume designer for Baz Luhrmann’s movie Gatsby. Photos of the literary power couple adorn the walls and replica period pieces pepper the elegant rooms.
Pink, palatial and with a prime position by the sugar-white sand of St Pete Beach, the Don CeSar opened in 1928. It also played host to man of the moment F. Scott Fitzgerald along with other socialites of the age. Built by architect Henry H Dupont, its flamboyant exterior exhibited Spanish and British colonial influences while extravagant Art Deco features adorned its lobby and ballroom. After being used by the army in World War II, it became office space through to the Sixties when it fell into disrepair. It reopened as a hotel in 1973 and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Built in 1926 on the site of a 19th-century hotel, the remodelled New Bismarck Hotel included the construction of a 2,500-seat theatre, a venue for vaudeville acts and well-known bands. At the hub of Chicago’s entertainment area, the 600-room hotel featured a striking marble staircase with hand-wrought balustrade and lavish ballroom, the Walnut Room. Its latest incarnation as the Allegro Royal Sonesta has seen its period charm reinvigorated from the geometric patterned wallpaper, vintage desks and light fittings in its bedrooms to its elegant lobby adorned with flapper girl-inspired artwork, tasselled chandelier and large mural of the 1930s ocean liner SS Normandie.
A rare vintage gem in Silver City’s historic downtown, the Murray Hotel is a stunning example of Streamline Moderne, a subset of Art Deco characterised by its simplicity. Built after the Great Depression, the building dates from 1938 and was the city’s tallest building at the time. After a much-needed refresh decades later, the hotel reopened in 2012 and continues to charm guests with its period character that extends from the exterior's symmetrical lines and white curved frontage to its geometric patterned carpets and colour palette.
Another vintage beauty in Chicago's Loop neighbourhood, the Pendry packs in the retro charm. The large and luxurious hotel opened in 2021, bringing new life to a 1929 skyscraper. The striking 37-storey structure was built as the regional HQ of the Union Carbide & Carbon company. Now a historic landmark, the tower’s facade is clad in dark green terracotta with gold leaf accents. At street level it has polished black granite and marble with an elegant bronze trim.
A sleek 17-storey skyscraper, the Sinclair building was built in Fort Worth in 1929 at the behest of oil pioneer Richard O Dulaney. It was to be the HQ of Sinclair Oil Company, during the state’s early oil boom. The elaborate geometric ornamentation of its facade is typical of the period’s Zig-Zag Moderne design style. Converted to a hotel in 2019 and part of the Marriott Autograph collection, The Sinclair is peppered with exquisite features of the period, from its marble-clad lobby to its lifts with their original Art Deco facades beautifully restored.
Ace Hotel New Orleans occupies an Art Deco building in the city's Central Business District that dates from 1928. First built to house Barnett's Furniture, it was the work of Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth, the architects that designed Louisiana's State Capitol in Baton Rouge. The Ace Hotel opened in 2019 and pays tribute to the design aesthetic of the period and the city’s French heritage with its vintage-style furniture, rich colour palette and dark wood panelling. The high ceilinged and light-filled restaurant Josephine Estelle is the picture of period elegance with its green velvet banquettes, table lamps and huge glass windows.
Set in San Francisco’s Financial District, Galleria Park Hotel has brought a new lease of life to a 1911 building. Originally the Hotel Sutter, the building displays Art Nouveau and Art Deco features, many of which were restored in its stylish overhaul. It still has its original lift banks while its sleek lobby has retained its white marble staircase and decorative balustrades. Modern design flourishes such as geometric patterned wallpaper, statement chandeliers and heavy drapery are also a nod to the building's heritage. The dark and moody Parisian-style Gaspar Brasserie brims with period charm from the vintage posters and inviting leather banquettes to the dainty coupe glasses used for Champagne.
A delicious new boutique hotel with old bones, the Lyle has breathed new life into a stunning 1940s building in Washington DC's Dupont Circle neighbourhood. It’s a sensitive reimagining of the space that brings an understated Art Deco glamour to the former apartment block. Its original entrance canopy has been restored, while inside its intimate bar has striking geometric stained glass, leather seating and period pendant lamps. In a nod to its residential past, 56 of its 196 bedrooms have kitchenettes. Vintage burlwood headboards and rattan seating recall the building’s roots.
The high-rise Hotel Phillips was the tallest building in Kansas City when it appeared on the skyline in 1931. Still operating as a hotel, it’s now part of Hilton’s Curio Collection. While the bedrooms are contemporary in style, its public areas exude old-world elegance. The lobby retains much of its original splendour with its walnut panelling, chandeliers and striking staircase sculpture, the Goddess of Dawn. It’s easy to picture yourself sashaying back into the Jazz Age as you enter this historic hotel. Keep the feeling going by seeking out its basement speakeasy.
The Georgian has cut a striking figure on Santa Monica’s oceanside since 1933, when the neighbourhood was a sleepy seaside community. Known as Santa Monica’s “First Lady”, the hotel was the vision of Rosamond Borde, a hotelier who commissioned architect M Eugene Durfee to design a grand hotel to attract an affluent crowd. His bold design drew on both the Romanesque Revival and fashionable Art Deco movements. The Georgian was later an exclusive and illicit hangout as one of Los Angeles's first speakeasies. Its star appeal faded in the subsequent decades, but a recent restoration has seen the pastel-hued beauty restored to its former chi-chi self.
Designed in 1931, Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza is a treasure of a hotel with its exquisite French Art Deco design. A designated National Historic Landmark, it was constructed as part of Cincinnati’s Carew Tower, a multipurpose high-rise with shops, restaurants and office space. First known as St Netherland Plaza, the 800-room hotel had all the mod cons from baths in its bedrooms and fast lifts to multiple restaurants. The lavish tiered ballroom, the Caprice Pavilion was a hotspot of the age. In fact, local star Doris Day made her professional debut there in 1937. Now part of Hilton Hotels & Resorts, the hotel's historic integrity remains beautifully intact from its polished wood and mosaic marble finishings to its splendid Palm Court.
Signature white-and-red striped parasols, plush beach cabanas, a gold ceilinged lobby, cabaret theatre and lounges dripping with chandeliers. Everything about the Faena Hotel Miami Beach screams golden age glamour. Originally opening as the Saxony Hotel in 1948, it was one of the area’s first luxury resorts and designed by architect Roy F France. Architects Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaus were commissioned by Argentine hotelier Alan Faena to work on the hotel's meticulous restoration and redesign. The revived 1940s hotel reopened in 2020 with its distinct Art Deco-imbued interiors designed in collaboration with Baz Luhrmann and wife Catherine Martin.
An magnificent Art Deco tower turned contemporary boutique hotel in downtown Nashville, Holston House is bound to be a hit. The building, which is a fabulous showcase for the architecture and decor of the 1920s, was completed in 1929 by esteemed local architects Marr and Holman. It originally housed the James Robertson Hotel until it was used as war accommodation in the 1940s and then became apartments. In 2017 Holston House opened as part of the Hyatt group, retaining many period features from the geometric patterns on its limestone facade to its octagon windows and high-ceilinged lobby. Delightful modern additions include a rooftop bar and pool.
An Art Deco diamond on Times Square, Hotel Edison opened its doors in 1931 with its inventor namesake switching on the marquee lights himself. It was one of the first Art Deco hotels in the Theatre District and its Edison Ballroom swiftly became a hub for socialising. The handsome heritage building has since had star turns in films including The Godfather and Birdman. The Edison's connections to the Jazz Age are still palpable, especially in its The Rum House, a dark and moody joint where live jazz keeps the tradition going.
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