Downtown Los Angeles Proper Hotel, a Member of Design Hotels ★★★★★

A 1920 Club, Returned to Broadway

The building went up in 1920 to designs by Curlett and Beelman, in the California Renaissance Revival manner, as a private club whose membership once included Cecil B. DeMille. It became a YWCA in the 1960s, and it carries Historic-Cultural Monument status today. What Kelly Wearstler did with it is less a conversion than a long conversation with the original: window casings and brickwork left where they were, and around them more than a hundred varieties of hand-painted and custom tile, stained glass commissioned from Judson Studios, ceramics by Morgan Peck. There is a basketball court. There is a suite with a full-size indoor pool.

Why It Works

We kept it for the coherence. Hotels of this ambition usually split into a lobby that performs and rooms that retreat; here the rooms hold the same register, charcoal and mauve, deeply residential, furnished piece by piece rather than specified by the floor. The second reason is the kitchen: Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, a James Beard winner and her long-time partner, run all three venues, so the food is not an amenity bolted on. The third is that the restoration stays legible. You can still read the 1920 club in the bones.

Why This Location

South Park sits at the southern edge of Downtown, with the Fashion District next door and the Broadway corridor running north from the door. That puts the arena and the concert halls within reach on foot or a very short ride, and MOCA, The Broad and Walt Disney Concert Hall a little further up Grand. Broadway itself is the point: the old theatre marquees, the tiled entrances and the ground-floor trade are the reason to book down here rather than on the west side.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Restored, tactile, downtown

• Rooms: rooms and suites in charcoal and mauve, up to the Proper Pool Suite with its own full-size indoor pool

• Best For: design travellers, culture weekends downtown, dog owners

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the Judson Studios stained glass, commissioned for this building rather than bought for it

• Dining: Caldo Verde on the lobby level, Portuguese and Spanish, three meals a day; Cara Cara on the roof beside the pool; Dalia for cocktails at ground level, all three under Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne

• Amenities: year-round rooftop pool with a pool bar and city views, fitness centre, basketball court, valet and on-site parking, more than 14,000 square feet of event space, pets welcome

• Attractions: Fashion District next door, the Broadway theatre corridor at the door, the arena and concert halls a short ride away, MOCA and The Broad up Grand

What Wearstler Kept, and What She Added

The brief drew on early California, the Spanish missions and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner building, and the evidence is in the surfaces rather than in a lobby statement. Tile does most of the talking, in more than a hundred patterns, hand-painted and custom. Site-specific work by Judson Studios and Morgan Peck was made for the rooms it sits in. Guest rooms run charcoal and mauve with furniture that looks collected rather than ordered, and the original casings and brick are left visible where they survived.

Caldo Verde, Cara Cara, Dalia

Caldo Verde occupies the lobby level and cooks Portuguese and Spanish, open for three meals, with a bar of its own. Cara Cara sits on the roof beside the pool and runs an all-day menu of sunny coastal cooking with the city laid out behind it. Dalia, at ground level, is the classic cocktail room of the three. All are the work of Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, which is why a guest can eat here three times in a day without repeating a register.

Practicalities Worth Knowing

Check-in is at three and check-out at noon, with express options at both ends. Parking is on site and valet is available, which counts downtown. Pets are welcome. The pool is open year round and has its own bar, so the roof stays useful outside summer. For groups there is more than 14,000 square feet of meeting and event space, which makes the house a credible base for a wedding or an offsite rather than just a room block.