Amsterdam’s New-School Cool Luxury Hotels
Quaint canal houses, historic monuments and timeless old-world charm: That?s one side of Amsterdam. But it?s no longer the only side of hospitality there. There?s a high-concept hotel revolution under way. Major U.S. brands are shaking things up with contemporary, fantastical and utterly unexpected design.
Opened in May as Kimpton?s first hotel outside of North America, the De Witt occupies a collection of buildings, some from the 17th century and others from the 1980s, which have been smartly combined into a space that transcends time and place. It?s a modern labyrinth of contemporary millwork and rich layers.
Longtime Kimpton creative director Ave Bradley gave the hotel a playful personality with locally inspired touches and golden-age gravitas. Think mismatched blue-and-white Delft-ish tiles and a living plant wall in the lobby, a glass-walled ?indoor garden? with hanging nest chairs, and upper-floor rooms with original pitched ceilings, support beams and structural arches. The Kimpton De Witt
The 274 rooms have warm, elegant touches like Atelier Areti bird-shaped reading lamps, Pols Potten porcelain gold-dipped parrots and abstract plays on classic Dutch art. Many of them have inviting freestanding bathtubs. Along with the 15 special rooms that have extra historic touches, there?s a lavish three-story suite with two king bedrooms and a lounge, which the hotel bills as a house within a hotel. It is, in fact, that. Incorporated into the buildings around it, it was the 17...
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