• One of THE places in Santa Monica to kick back with drinks poolside or eat in the popular Whist restaurant.
• Only 1 block from the beach and within walking distance of Santa Monica’s nightlife, avant-garde restaurants and the pedestrian shopping mecca of downtown.
• Soak up the so-cal lifestyle, stroll 1 block along the beach past the original site of muscle beach to the famous Santa Monica pier or the Ocean front boulevard stretches the half mile to Venice Beach.
The Whole Story
Art-wise, architecture-wise, design-wise, and restaurant-wise, this beachside suburb of Los Angeles has been getting more and more street-wise. Frank Gehry's 1991 headquarters for ad agency Chi at/Day is here, fronted by a pair of giant binoculars by Claes Oldenburg; celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck opened his Montana restaurant here; and Dennis Hopper moved his home and art collection here. Santa Monica is also possibly the first place in LA to introduce a traffic-free pedestrian zone. The only thing it didn't have was a hotel in step with its increasingly avant-garde personality.
So the opening of Viceroy in July 2002 was perfectly timed. This was the first new hotel to open in Santa Monica in three years, the result of a complete refurbishment of a boxy, office-like 1969 hotel building located on the corner of Pico Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, just a block away from the sea. It only took a few months for Viceroy to become the hangout of choice in Santa Monica, The design scheme, courtesy of kwid (Kelly Wearstler Interior Design), manages to appeal to the older set that used to have tea at Shutters as well as the cutting-edge art world and the actors and directors who choose to live near the beach. According to Wearstler, the inspiration for the color scheme came from the huts and shacks at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where she spent summer vacations as a child.
The objective was to create something fresh, and in that respect Viceroy has succeeded. But at the same time, the ambience, particularly around the pools and in the gardens surrounding the restaurant, is of a poolside cabana from another age. In fact it's an atmosphere straight out of the movies. Among the poolside palms, guests can recline in Moroccan-inspired cabanas elegantly appointed in shades of gray with green accents, or, for those who prefer to be out in the open, tall chairs upholstered in white vinyl sit under swaying palms. Most effective of all arc the two perfectly symmetrical, and identical, pools...so much more chic than just one. Apparently, the dual pool came about by accident – often the case with design innovations. It was to have been just one, but in the middle of the excavation the builders came across a water main beneath the very center of the proposed pool site.
Also spilling outdoors, where even more plates adorn the gun-metal gray walls, is the Whist Restaurant. Since opening this has become one of the most sought-after reservations in Santa Monica.
So there you have it – glamour, innovation, style – this hotel is all you could want in Los Angeles...
The Rooms
Viceroy Rooms are expansive guest rooms (320 Sq Ft.) with custom designed bedding with king or two doubles, sitting areas and writing desks. The Sitting area has full and partial ocean views, or city and pool views.