NoMad hotel - Los Angeles, USA

Sydell Group, the style-driven mavericks behind The Line, Freehand and The Ned hotels, has brought its elegant NoMad brand out west to Downtown Los Angeles. Situated within a historic building, Giannini Place, formerly known as the Bank of Italy building, the hotel’s west coast outpost boasts 214 rooms, a rooftop pool, an Italian-inspired all-day café, and of course, its signature library, two restaurants and a bar. 

Designed by the French architect and interior designer Jacques Garcia, NoMad Los Angeles brings with it some of the neo-classical flavour that characterises its New York original. However, nods to the building’s Italian heritage abound and range from the decorative gold and blue coffered ceiling in the lobby to elegant Doric columns and marble floors, which have all been preserved in the hotel’s design and immaculately restored. The rich Italianate palette continues in the rooms upstairs, which have been filled with custom-design furnishings and original artwork from the Anglo-French design studio be-poles. 

To cap it all off, the hotel’s food and beverage offerings are being overseen by chef Daniel Humm and restauranteur Will Guidara of Eleven Madison Park, marking the duo’s first enterprise outside of New York. Guests can first enjoy pastries, light fare and coffee in the hotel’s Coffee Bar, which then offers aperitivo and a full cocktail bar in the evening. Signature cocktails can also be enjoyed in the Giannini Bar, named after the Bank of Italy’s founder, Amadeo Giannini, who commissioned the building to begin with, and in the Library, which has been filled with an eclectic reading collection and stuffed peacock and pheasant by local taxidermist Allis Markham. For sustenance, diners can partake in Humm’s spin on New American cuisine amongst an array of sumptuous textiles in the Lobby restaurant, or on the Mezzanine, which looks over the ground floor. For the best views however, the outdoor café and cocktail bar on the rooftop by the pool makes the most of Los Angeles’ skyline.