Hotel Square

Hotel description

Paris, a city of historical architecture, has very few hotels that make an unequivocally modern design statement. Hôtel Square is one of them. The hotel is located in the 16th arrondissement, close to the Eiffel Tower, but also right in the midst of the media district, just opposite the Maison de la Radio, and is in fact something of a gathering place for radio and television professionals. The exterior is quite out of the ordinary, a low, roughly triangular building, faced in grey-green Indian granite with mirror windows.

The interiors are just as dramatically different from most Parisian hotel interiors. Open space is plentiful; sunlight pours into the lobby's atrium, and the central art gallery wall runs the height of the four-story hotel. Guest rooms, on the top two floors, are accessed by balconied walkways overlooking the gallery space, which is fully functional, featuring constantly changing six-week exhibitions by contemporary artists.

The décor is modern without seeming Scandinavian, subtly Oriental (Japanese artworks, wooden shuttered blinds) yet still distinctly French, with rich fabrics, in a palette of Provencale colors. Many of the room plans follow the curves of the exterior walls, and many have panoramic river views. It is a world away from the painstakingly restored Louis XIV and XV interiors of many Parisian luxury hotels.

Hôtel Square is owned by restaurateur Patrick Derderian, whose Zebra Square restaurant shares space with the hotel, and actually opened nearly two years in advance of the hotel. The restaurant is a covered terrace, open to the light, but with trees and flowers sheltering the patrons from the view of the street. This is the place to rub elbows with the local broadcast professionals — the Maison de la Radio, just opposite the hotel, is home to Radio France, and the Museum of the History of Radio and Television.