Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills

Where Wilshire Boulevard crosses Santa Monica Boulevard, at the western gateway to Beverly Hills, a cream-coloured tower of twelve storeys rises beside the Beverly Hilton. The Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills opened there in June 2017, the first new hotel of its rank in the city for many years, and it carries a name that Hilton has reserved for its grandest houses since Conrad Hilton bought the New York original in 1949.

History

The land belonged to the Beverly Hilton, the hotel Conrad Hilton opened in 1955 and the long-time home of the Golden Globe Awards. Its owner, the businessman Beny Alagem, set aside part of the site for a second, smaller hotel aimed at a different guest, and Hilton gave it the Waldorf Astoria name. The original Waldorf-Astoria opened on Park Avenue in 1931, successor to a Fifth Avenue hotel of the 1890s whose site went to the Empire State Building, and the name came to stand for formal, old-school New York service. In Beverly Hills it was adapted to a smaller scale and a West Coast pace.

Architecture and design

The French designer Pierre-Yves Rochon, whose studio has worked on the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris and the Savoy in London, drew the interiors in a modern Art Deco manner, a nod to the Park Avenue original. Geometric marble floors, lacquered surfaces, gilt detail and pale upholstery set the tone in the lobby, and the light is soft and warm. The exterior is restrained, a pale tower with balconies that reads as residential among the office buildings of Wilshire.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 170 rooms and suites, many with balconies. The views run north to the Hollywood Hills and south and west over Century City, and on clear days towards the ocean. Bathrooms are finished in marble, and the larger suites on the upper floors are laid out as apartments.

Dining

The hotel opened with two restaurants by the chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten: Jean-Georges Beverly Hills on the ground floor, with a terrace on the Santa Monica Boulevard side, and The Rooftop by JG beside the pool on the top floor, which serves lunch and evening drinks with views over the city.

Wellness

The spa is run in partnership with the Swiss skincare house La Prairie, with treatment rooms and a fitness centre. The rooftop pool, ringed by cabanas, is the hotel's principal outdoor space and one of the few rooftop pools in Beverly Hills.

Weddings and events

The hotel holds weddings, private dinners and meetings in its event rooms and on the rooftop, and its size suits gatherings that would be lost in the larger ballrooms of the city's convention hotels.

Location

The hotel sits at 9850 Wilshire Boulevard, at the western end of the Beverly Hills business district. Rodeo Drive and the shops of the Golden Triangle lie about a kilometre to the east along Wilshire, and Century City is just to the south. Beverly Gardens Park, the ribbon of lawns and cactus gardens that runs along Santa Monica Boulevard through the city, begins a short walk to the east, with the Beverly Hills sign and its lily pond further along. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, in the city's former post office, lies on the same boulevard. Among the luxury hotels in Beverly Hills, it is the newest of the large names. Los Angeles International Airport is about 30 to 45 minutes by car, depending on the traffic on the 405.