From the hotel’s origin in humble inns dotted along ancient trade routes, to today’s worldwide Hilton and Hyatt networks, the concept of the hotel has come a very long way indeed. We now talk about boutique hotels and resort hotels, places that connote a relatively new lifestyle of perpetual leisure and transience, and as the role of the hotel has expanded, so too have architects and interior designers risen to the challenge, producing ever more spectacular structures. Today, the largest hotel in the worldthe First World Hotel in Malaysiaboasts 6,118 rooms, and the tallest hotelthe Ritz-Carlton Hong Kongsits at the top of the 1,600-foot-high International Commerce Center. Grand Hotel is the most ambitious book on the subject yet published. Its scope is global and trans-historical: a tiny sampling of hotels featured includes the Dolder Grand Hotel and Curhaus in Zurich; SLS Bazaar in Beverly Hills; the Ace Hotel in New York; Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach; and the Lloyd Hotel and Cultural Embassy in Amsterdam. With 350 color illustrations, it includes extended blog entries, newly commissioned essays and interviews, plus reprints and excerpts from classic texts on the topic.
