CLOSE6 LGBTQ+ Designed Hotels and Resorts To Discover This Summer
The start of summer coincides with Pride Month, an annual celebration of queer culture. There is no better moment to highlight hotels and resorts designed and built by LGBTQ+ designers and architects than now, when travel is on many people's minds. This collection of properties demonstrates that it's not just about the actualized details—but also about broad, audacious notions. While all are appealing diversionary concepts, some have more understated design than others.
Luxury hospitality brands clamor for Martin Brudnizki's singular touch. Pendry West Hollywood is drenched in works of art so technicolor fabulous it includes actual glitter. For Wolfgang Puck's Merois restaurant, the designer created a ceiling draped in fabric and big cat-upholstered chairs.
Liz Lambert turned a 1930s motel in Austin, Texas, into a midcentury boutique hotel. The retro-chic Bodega has coin-operated Magic-Finger vibrating beds, lip phones and retro umbrellas around its kidney-shaped pool.
The Madrona Hotel was designed by residential designer Jay Jeffers. Each of the 24 rooms and suites has at least one “piece of history,” aka furniture original to the property. Jeffers sought out artists and designers he admired to create custom rugs and wallpapers.
Ken Fulk designed the South Beach Hotel in collaboration with Pharrell Williams, David Grutman and Imperial Companies. Surrealist wallpaper, vintage accessories and Deco plaster work create a good-time vibe. The interior of restaurant and bar Strawberry Moon references 1950s wooden Riva motorboats.
The Prospect Hotel was designed by Martyn Lawrence Bullard as a passionate love letter to Old Hollywood. The lobby is opulent in malachite, harlequin marble and gilded palm trees. The rooms are named for starlets and leading men with leopard, zebra and ornate wallpapers.
The vibe at the Hotel Paradox Palm Springs is signature Jonathan Adler. The bold designer is behind the hotel's vibrant public spaces and restaurants. In 2017, the hotel underwent a makeover that included a seven-foot bronze banana and nearly every shade in the color wheel.
