The TWA Hotel — with the Erik Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center as its centerpiece — is beautiful. The lush red carpet in the hotel and concourse hallways is stunning. But — like Soylent Green — design is people. Good design reflects an awareness of how people behave, what people need, and what people want. It’s the entire reason I started 166Beds.com.
Read MoreThe Study at Yale is a 2-minute walk to the front door of the Yale University Art Gallery, a 10-minute walk to Vito’s Deli (where I encourage you to order The Godmother: ham, genoa salami, prosciutto, capocollo, sharp provolone, banana peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, and dressing on a grinder roll), and a 20-minute walk to Pepe’s (where I encourage you to order everything).
Read MoreGet a super high floor and take lots of pictures of the skyline at night. (I did.) I stayed here after a two week trip to Cuba to celebrate the indulgence of capitalism. I don’t think I ever left the room. Why would I? It was hot outside and my bed was cozy.
Read MoreThere are hotels — like Wythe, At the Chapel, the Beekman hotel in New York, the NoMad in LA — that are particularly beautiful and well-designed because it's clear that the designers recognized, revered — and likely studied — the material with which they had to work. They didn't destroy what came before them, they lured it out gently and brought it into a new era. Living in a city (Seattle) besieged by the destruction of older buildings to make way for giant, overpriced apartment buildings that look like dorms for spoiled rich kids, I've built up a keener appreciation for this approach.
Read MoreThe Hotel Granvia Hiroshima is not a cool hotel — the lobby looks like it should be filled with fussy grandmothers who insist you use a coaster — but it IS located within steps of the Hiroshima train station, which is a treat when — for example — you've landed in Japan about 24 hours earlier, have arrived (by bullet train) from Tokyo, and may not have what it takes to wheel (or lug) your suitcase much further than that. This is all about location.
Read MoreIt’s the difference you can feel when you arrived at a dinner party hosted by a family who loves and enjoys each other versus one that was fighting five minutes before you arrived and will likely pick it up again once you leave — and hopefully no sooner.
Read MoreEventually, taking a picture of every bed you sleep in does something to you. Or at least it did something to me. I felt driven to find new beds, pretty beds, remarkable beds. I resented hotels that looked like every other hotel — because so did their beds. (This does not make for a compelling Instagram stream.)
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