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Mondrian Hotel

Hollywood

Welcome to the Hotel Surreal

Designed by: Philippe Starck

Excerpts from article by:
Nicolai Ouroussoff, LA Times Architecture Critic

The doors to Wonderland are 30 feet high, made of polished mahogany, and stand open along a bend on the Sunset Strip.

The lobby is the main theatrical event, as you enter a thin bar of light projects an ornate faux carpet onto the floor. The elevator bank set square in the middle of the room, is encased in a glowing cube. Its walls are a tactile layering of glass, flowing white fabric and muted light. We are in an elusive, slippery world.

Everything is off balance: At the windows, pale white curtains reach on partway down to the floor like dwarfish stage props, and "game chairs" have chess or backgammon tables sprouting out of their arms. Bar stools are fashioned out of bicycle seats or molded plastic Eames chairs. To one side, a 60-foot illuminated marble table s set a a diagonal across the main bar room space where guests can lounge and eat late into the night in a chic pseudo-communal environment.

To reach the main eating and dining areas you have to slip back outside into a courtyard enclosed within the L-shaped building. In the garden's decor the theme of shifting scales is repeated: Two parallel rows of giant, five-foot tall pots separate the restaurant from the pool, leading into a play land where everything seems slightly out of whack.

What is striking is the glistening exhibitionism of the restaurant and outdoor space. Deep stairs leading to the pool are lined with pillows so guests can recline Moroccan-style. A giant mattressappears as if tossed under a tree. The pool itself is raised on a plinth-a vague ecco of Mexican architect Luis Barragan's work.

And what about the Mondrian's rooms? They are beside the point.

They have big windows, stuffed white couches, with the occasional polished apple balanced at the exact center of the table.

What is important from the public spaces below is only the vague sense that they are there somewhere up above when you need them.

In a city that thrives on fantasy, Starck's creation is a supple mix of illusion and cold reality that will hold its own.