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Places to Stay: The Standard Downtown LA

Written by Lucy Fennings: So, hotelier par excellence André Balazs’ edgy new mission base in New York might have been grabbing all the media limelight of late, but let’s not forget the two Los Angeles bolt holes that put the Standard brand on the map – and our favorite is the Standard Hollywood’s funky sibling site in Downtown LA.

This is still one of the coolest hangouts in the city. Giant foot sculptures in the bathrooms of rooms justifiably called ‘Wow’, an original 1950s lobby space, and genius flashes of canary yellow and scarlet send you into a 20th-century time warp. Here, in a plastic-fantastic playground, Bond’s groovy overnight mission bases meet the GPlan furnishings of suburban middle America – it’s an inspired, slightly psychedelic take on Hitchcock-era decor. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

The Standard Downtown LA occupies a 12-storey mid-1950s office block that has been skillfully brought back to modern life by the ever-entrepreneurial hotelier André Balazs. Interiors draw inspiration from their original business functions: multi-time-zone clocks set to represent past capitals of commerce Calcutta and Tehran silently mark the passing seconds, and tiny lightbulbs blink on a giant etched-metal world map that Dr No would have itched to park his giant leather swivel chair in front of.

Downtime is not disregarded, though, and everywhere you look there are references to the rather unique dynamic between poseur and voyeur that has been cultivated in California. The Standard’s enormous beds and showers call for partying in the Hefner style, and the view from pod-encased waterbeds on the roof takes in downtown, Flower Street and the surrounding rooftops. Helicopters buzz past like something from a futuristic cartoon, and the pool is surrounded by a carpet of vivid red astroturf. By night, LA’s most beautiful barflies are drawn to the hip rooftop cocktail bar. What’s not to like?