Architect John Pawson’s design for developer Ian Schrager’s latest lodging, the West Hollywood Edition, takes a minimalist approach on an infamously glitzy boulevard.
By Claire Butwinick
Images courtesy West Hollywood EDITION
When real estate developer Ian Schrager first imagined theWest Hollywood Edition, his 10th hotel in partnership with Marriott, he envisioned a property evocative of the Sunset Strip’s golden age.
Yet what the project’s architect,John Pawson, gave him was the exact opposite: an Italian travertine–clad lobby, guest rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows and whitewashed wood headboards, and a lush restaurant atop a terraced deck with wood-bench seating. “I see my role at the West Hollywood Edition as creating spaces where the grit and the glamour of the Sunset Strip coexist and flourish,” Pawson says of the hotel, which opened in November. “When someone walks into one of my buildings, it’s not the details of the architecture I want them to register first—it’s the life the architecture is making possible.”
Located on Sunset Boulevard, the hotel is a pared-down retreat from streetside commotion, offering 190 guest rooms; 20 luxury residences; Ardor, restaurant by Michelin-starred chef John Fraser with partial outdoor seating; a spa with six treatment rooms; and a rooftop pool that commands sweeping views of the city skyline.
While Pawson’s design might seem atypical for its West Hollywood location, it subtly nods to its California setting—native flora is planted along the drive and at the front entrance, which is clad in western red cedar (a ubiquitous presence in the northern part of the state), and Los Angeles–based artist Sterling Ruby’s mobile installation Scale, topping off the lobby’s spare design, references the contradictions between lush hotel and the gritty West Hollywood street.