|
Sunset Strip is where the Hollywood
legend began. All the scandal and intrigue that has so captivated the
popular press for the past seventy-odd years started in the bars, clubs and
hotels on Sunset. In the thirties and forties, it was the Mocambo and the
Tropicana that pulled the stars and kickstarted the celebrity cult. The
fifties brought Sinatra and his Rat Pack, who were regulars at Ciro’s, along
with the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. Over the years
places closed and places opened, but the Strip endured as the place for
the famous and the would-be famous to hang out. Even the total change of
the sixties – with new attitudes, new freedoms and new fashions – did not derail
the Strip. Quite the opposite. Jim Morrison and the Doors, Sonny and
Cher, Frank Zappa, and Mammas and the Papas were all discovered at a hot new
club on Sunset called the Whisky.
The Mocambo and the Tropicana are long defunct, but the Strip is as relevant as
it always was. These days the places to hang out and been seen are
hotels. At one end of Sunset Boulevard near the corner of La Cienega is
the Mondrian, an all-white favourite with the music crowd – the
established music crowd. At the other end there is the legendary Chateau Marmont, firm favourite with
the film crowd – the established film crowd. In between the two is
the brash new upstart, the Standard.
The name is ironic, for it is anything but. The crowd that jam the bar
every night is from he world of music and film, but they are younger and
hungrier, less set in their ways. The Standard is perfect for them and vice
versa. It was created for precisely this young clientele, sophisticated in
taste but limited in means. This was a niche specifically identified by Andre Balazs, hotel
entrepreneur and proprietor of successful Hip Hotels like Chateau Marmont down the road and the
Mercer in New
York.
The Standard was not, however,
simply a matter of scaling down the ingredients of his other properties.
It is a project driven more by attitude than by design concept. It turns
convention on its head at every possible opportunity (including the upside-down
logo). The only shop in the lobby is Ed’s Barber Shop, with the slogan:
“no nicks or cheap cuts’ (they also do the odd tattoo). The lobby contains
a glass vitrine where a nightly work of performance art is staged in the form of
a scantily clad girl reading a book or sleeping in full view of those checking
in or out.
|
 |
The shag-pile carpet in the lobby runs up the wall an onto the ceiling, and the
pool deck is surfaced in blue astroturf. The controls for the
air-conditioning irreverently read ‘blow hard’ and ‘blow harder’. The bar
features a wall-to-wall desertscape mural of a kind last seen (some might say
thankfully) in the seventies. The matches – especially the matches sum it
all up. In four surfer fluorescent shades they promote ‘Hollywood Bail
Bonds’, unashamedly proclaiming ‘you’re only one call away from freedom –
anyone, any jail, any time’. If you happen to be a part of a new band
intent on having a good time, this place is it, and the matches might provide
more than a laugh.
But do not be misled by all the irreverence. Behind the Standard’s bag of tricks there are very
sound foundations. The beds are identical to those in the Chateau Marmont, the pillows are
down-filled, and each room is equipped with a personal stereo system and a
squillion channels on a widescreen sate-of-the-art TV. The phone jacks are
for internet access and offer high-speed ISDN connections, and the hotel is
fully equipped with business facilities, including a funk conference room (even
if most guests don’t know it). On the design front too, there’s plenty of
pedigree. The arched lamps in the lobby are Italian classics by Achille
Castiglioni, lamps in the diner-restaurant are by Alvar Aalto and the overall
scheme was inspired by Gio Ponti. The curtain fabric is an Andy Warhol
print, for which the hotel has to seek special permission from his estate.
Even the orange bathroom tiles are a re-edition of an American classic, and the
loos themselves are – well of course – by American Standard. None of the
ingredients, however, were meant to be viewed separately. It’s the mixing
of all these funky details and design classics that makes the Standard such an unusual hotel
experience. Originally built in 1963, this hotel used to be called the
Thunderbird. The slogan of the Thunderbirds TV series was ‘Thunderbirds
are go’. Add another ‘go’ and the slogan works perfectly for the Standard.
|
