Hotels for Architecture Lovers

Off the Baja Peninsula’s tourist-trodden paths, Paradero Todos Santos feels simultaneously ancient and modern. Occupying 5.5 desert acres between the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains and Pacific coast, the 41-suite property’s curved concrete forms reflect a softer, organic approach to Brutalism, with architects Ruben Valdez and Yashar Yektajo taking inspiration from the cloisters Spanish Jesuits established in the area through the 17th and 18th centuries. A communal spirit permeates the place, supported by open areas with easy-to-rearrange seating and a group activity included daily, such as yoga, hiking or farming lessons.

Looking out over Lake Sarmiento and massifs of Torres del Paine, Tierra Patagonia is designed not to compete with its staggering landscape and instead feel formed by it. According to architect Cazú Zegers, the low-set building is inspired by how the wind in this area shapes things, and a fossil left where it last laid down. Its lenga wood exterior is meant to silver with time just like any old house would. Floor-to-ceiling glass throughout the spaces and walkways constantly lets in the surrounding natural splendor.

Known for symmetry and grandiosity, Beaux-Arts combines elements of Classical, Renaissance and Baroque. It was the dominant architectural style in the U.S. in the late 19^th century through early 20^th century, and The Knickerbocker Hotel is a prime example. Built in 1906 and one of several New York hotels financed by the famously wealthy Astor family, the hotel or “The 42nd Street Country Club” as it was also called, contributed to making Times Square a tourist destination, along with the subway and The New York Times. As the document designating it a landmark in 1988 reads, “It is executed in red brick, richly ornamented with French Renaissance detail, and crowned by a prominent copper mansard roof with corner pavilions and cresting.”

Completed in 1912, the Fairmont Copley Plaza building is the work of architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh who also built The Willard in Washington, D.C. and The Plaza Hotel in New York. Combining elements of French and Venetian Renaissance, the seven-floor limestone structure encompasses an entire block. Its interior boasts more pomp and circumstance, exemplified in the opulent lobby (pictured) which played a background role in 2013’s American Hustle and 1993’s The Firm.

There’s so much Art Deco in Miami that there’s a whole Art Deco Historic District comprising more than 800 structures built between 1923 and 1943. But there’s more beyond its boundaries, including Faena Hotel Miami Beach. Designed by architect Roy F. France, the building it occupies was once the Saxony Hotel, which opened in 1948 making it one of Miami Beach’s first luxury resorts. Its present-day interiors, by owner Alan Faena in collaboration with Baz Lurhmann and Catherine Martin, keep the Art Deco vibes flamboyantly alive with bold colors and ultra-luxurious materials throughout the rooms and communal spaces, such as the Saxony Bar (pictured) and cabaret-style Faena Theater.

Informed by the history of the small East Coast fishing community it lives within, Fogo Island Inn is the work of architect Todd Saunders, a Newfoundlander now based in Norway. When settlers first came to this island, they couldn’t build permanent structures—they were to fish here and eventually return to Europe—so wood rather than stone was used with foundations of stilts known as “shores.” In homage, these elements are incorporated into the Inn’s striking design.

Atop a cliff overlooking the St. Lawrence River, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac is one of the world’s most photographed hotels and a National Historic Site. Designed by architect Bruce Price and built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1893 to encourage tourism, it’s an exquisite example of Châteauesque architecture, as the name alludes to, typified by steeply pitched roofs and ornate gables and dormers. As the commanding landmark of its neighborhood, the UNESCO Heritage Site of Old Quebec, one truly can’t miss it.

Guests are spoiled for architectural choice at the Treehotel in Sweden’s Lapland. Seven different architects designed the eight unique tree suites. There’s Bird’s Nest and UFO, which look exactly as they sound, by Bertil Harström; Dragonfly by Sami Rintala and Dagur Eggertsson; Mirrorcube by Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård; 7^th Room by Snøhetta; Blue Cone by Thomas Sandell; Cabin by Mårten and Gustav Cyrén; and, Biosphere by Bjarke Ingels Group, which is the latest addition and features a façade of 350 birdhouses.

Erected during Napoleon III’s radical reimagining of the French capital, as realized by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the elegant stone façade of the Sofitel Le Scribe Paris Opera is quintessential Haussmannian architecture. Once home to the prestigious and private Jockey Club, the building’s gilded history is carried inside by designer Tristan Auer through a balance of timelessness and vivacity, as evidence in antique chairs recovered in eye-catching textiles.

On the shores of Lake Garda, Lido Palace cleverly blends Old World and new. Its base is a beautiful 124-year-old Liberty style villa which once hosted 20th-century aristocrats and royalty, including Gabriele D’Annunzio and King Vittorio Emanuele III. Creating a unique juxtaposition and differentiating it from all other classic Italian villas are glass and steel elements incorporated by architect Alberto Cecchetto in 2011, to optimize natural light and expand the views—and what views they are.

Banks, churches and even prisons have been converted into five-star accommodation, but perhaps one of the most surprising switcheroos is grain silo-turned-hotel and museum. With the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa below it, The Silo Hotel occupies six floors of the elevator tower of a grain silo that operated for 80 years in Cape Town, South Africa. The work of London’s Heatherwick Studios, the building features “pillowed” windows that bulge outwards as if inflated and serve up bird’s-eye views of the city. However, the full panorama is found on the rooftop where lunch, sunset cocktails and swims in the pool are served up.