While almost everything in the building has been meticulously restored, it’s a shame that the scope of this project did not extend to replacing the old windows. It’s sort of like sleeping on a trampoline but with very nice linens. The in-room barware is very sexy, so it would be a shame not to raid the minibar of its liquor. The 241 rooms are incredibly stylish, down to the old-fashioned brass light switches and retro-styled am/fm radios on which it would seem blasphemous to play anything other than jazz. That said, if you beat everyone else to the pool you might - might - be able to snag a cabana.

The rooftop’s umbrellas are woefully inadequate as the sun bounces off many of the surrounding skyscrapers, coming in hot at near horizontal direction when the sky lacks clouds. There is another bar on the rooftop, a super-casual indoor/outdoor cafe adjacent to a lovely pool. There’s not much room for hotel guests to mingle and gather with friends for a drink without making a reservation for lunch or dinner. The only drawback to a gorgeous restaurant that cannibalizes a hotel’s lobby is that, well, there’s not much of a lobby. Purple, lime green, magenta, royal blue… Garcia has never been one to shy away from bold colors. Velvet plays a big role here, in the drapes, on the wallpaper, on the sofas and chairs. The ground floor of the two-story space resembles a very expensive brothel. The highlight of the hotel is the lavishly restored lobby, which no longer serves as a lobby but has been repurposed as the hotel’s eponymously named restaurant and bar (run by acclaimed NYC chef Daniel Humm).

The gorgeous restoration and Italian-inspired design were overseen by legendary French designer Jacques Garcia (whose notable work includes La Mamounia, Marrakech Hotel Costes, Paris and The Holborn, London). It opened in January 2018 and occupies a 12-story building that was originally erected in the roaring 1920s as the American headquarters of The Bank of Italy. This is actually their second NoMad-branded hotel (the first is in New York). This is the uppermost tier of the burgeoning Sydell Group, which also operates The Line Hotel in Koreatown and The Sagauro in Palm Springs, among others. The NoMad Hotel in downtown Los Angeles is the younger (yet more grown up) sibling of the nearby Freehand.

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