This Art Deco Gem Was Reborn as Argentina’s Latest Luxury Hotel
If you live in Buenos Aires, the lighthouse-inspired top of the 1920s-era Nicolás Mihanovich Building is a familiar jewel on the skyline even if it has lost its edge in the past few decades. Now the 20-story grande dame (at one point in time the tallest building in Latin America) has been given a new life as Hotel Casa Lucía.
The building was originally commissioned by shipping magnate Nicolás Mihanovich, providing a perch for commercial ships to be observed sailing in and out of the port. It housed wealthy immigrants from the Old World before passing through several owners and falling into disrepair. From 2003 to 2017, it landed in the hands of French hotel chain Sofitel, before Pau Guardans i Cambó, founder of the Spanish lifestyle brand Único Hotels, chose this site as its debut in Argentina and took up the side of the towers that reach seven stories. With the help of Torrado Architects and interior designer Fernanda Schuch, Hotel Casa Lucía made its debut in February.
Upon stepping onto the sycamore-lined Arroyo Street, one is transported to an Art Deco–inspired lobby of checkered flooring, gilded light fixtures, and velvet-upholstered furnishings. Further in, the hotel’s 142 rooms are a minimalist melange of bouclé-covered chairs, wicker light fixtures, and soft textiles in various shades of beige and brown.
Harnessing the city’s lively past, the hotel’s on-site restaurant is designed to look like an authentic polo house, with walls decorated with horse riding equipment and classic French bistro flooring. The building’s 16-meter pool is surrounded by mirrors and adorned with photography by Marc Zimmerman.
“The hotel’s interiors are inspired by the golden age of Argentina,” Schuch tells ELLE DECOR. “The 1880s and the 1940s in Buenos Aires were a time of extreme sophistication and elegance, which the Mihanovich Building reminds us of daily.”
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