Santa Monica Proper Hotel

Santa Monica Proper opened on 17 June 2019 at 700 Wilshire Boulevard, with its entrance on 7th Street, as two buildings joined together: a new block by Howard Laks Architects and the Santa Monica Professional Building, a 1928 Spanish Colonial Revival office building by Arthur E. Harvey. The City of Santa Monica designated the older building a landmark on 8 August 2005, and its rehabilitation won the Santa Monica Conservancy's 2020 President's Award, its top honour. Proper Hospitality runs the hotel, which has 262 rooms and suites and holds one MICHELIN Key in the 2026 selection.

The rooms follow the two buildings. The Deluxe King, the lowest tier of king room, is 355 to 375 sq ft (33 to 35 m²) and the Premier King 415 to 450 sq ft (39 to 42 m²), while the Landmark Grand King, in the 1928 building, is about 460 sq ft (43 m²). Bathrooms are travertine with walk-in showers and Aesop products. The hotel describes room outlooks as city, garden, pool and landmark scenery and sells no category on an ocean view, so the sea is chiefly a rooftop view. On a Tuesday in early December the cheapest rooms start around $585 a night before tax and the $55 nightly fee, and a balcony or a second-floor terrace costs from about $25 to $180 more.

What it is chosen for is the design, and it is Kelly Wearstler's work from the front door. The lobby's pewter-glazed ceramic columns recall dark oyster shells, rising from a geometric white oak floor. Palma, the lobby lounge, has sheer linen panels and alcove seating, and The Grotto, a small lobby library, has grasscloth walls, patinated cypress, books and art. In the 1928 building the original steel windows frame views of palms and the nightstands are cerused stained oak, while the new building takes its own approach. Upstairs, a heated pool, cabanas and a circular bar with a fireplace sit beside Calabra, the roof restaurant.

The trade is that this is a design hotel with a public roof. A $55 nightly destination fee plus tax is added to every stay, valet parking is $90.27 per vehicle with tax, and the sand is a 17 to 19 minute walk away because the hotel has no beach of its own. Calabra and Palma take non-guests, and club members and day-pass holders share the pool deck, so it can be crowded, and some guests mention traffic noise or slamming doors in rooms. Book it for a design-led first stay in Santa Monica, on foot to the Promenade and by car to the rest of Los Angeles; skip it for quiet evenings or sand at the door.