The Drifter Hotel — New Orleans, USA

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last updated
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Contemporary hotel architecture
(Image credit: Nicole Franzen)

Most visitors to New Orleans tend to gravitate towards the beloved, if touristy, French Quarter. Set along a straight drive out on Tulane Avenue towards Mid-City, the newly opened 20-room Drifter Hotel offers a quieter, but equally escapist, alternative. 

Starting with the original awning and restored neon road sign, Concordia Architecture and Nicole Cota Studio have preserved the silhouette and retro-vibe of the low-slung 1956 motel, while layering on nostalgic American-highway period references by way of white geometric lattices, mid-century furniture, concrete walls, palm-leaf wallpaper, floral-patterned breeze bricks and Oaxacan tile-work. A particularly surreal moment is the huge disco ball over the bijou swimming pool. 

Encased in slick grey concrete walls, the bedrooms are dressed in Frette and Aesop bath products, but the more entertaining diversions are to be found pool-side with frozen cocktails and sakes, while on-site food trucks dish up Mexican, Cuban and Trinidadian standards. 

Glasses are arranged on table

(Image credit: Nicole Franzen)

Sofasets are arranged in living room

(Image credit: Nicole Franzen)

Hotel interior designing

(Image credit: Nicole Franzen)

Swimming pool with umbrella

(Image credit: Nicole Franzen)

Double bed in the hotel

(Image credit: Nicole Franzen)

Double coat bedroom in hotel

(Image credit: Nicole Franzen)

Garden outside the hotel

(Image credit: Nicole Franzen)

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

3522 Tulane Avenue

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PHOTOGRAPHY

Nicole Franzen

Daven Wu

Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.