The shortlist of Best Urban Hotel 2018 has been announced last week with 7 North Americans finalists. The winners will be announced only in December 2018 meanwhile Design Contract leads the way and shows you the hotels that figure in the North American Shortlist.

The USA finalists

Ace Hotel – Chicago, USA

This nominated for the Best Urban Hotel 2018 is a 159-room property that had been designed by local firm GREC Architects. Its glass-and-concrete aesthetics nod to the New Bauhaus, while the preserved brick façade of a former cheese factory, on the building’s southern wing, helps anchor the new build in the listed neighborhood.

Once inside, the hotel’s fusion of past and present hits a sophisticated tone with interiors designed by Commune. The design firm used simple materials such as polished steel, brass, plywood, and linoleum as the grounding elements of the space enrichment the interior design project.

See Also: Best Urban Hotel 2018 – The Europe Shortlist

Freehand hotel – New York, USA

Freehand Hotel occupying the historic George Washington Hotel in the city’s Flatiron neighborhood, originally built in 1928, Freehand New York exudes the same vibrant textures and warmth that have made it a favorite in Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

This New York finalist for the Best Urban Hotels 2018, was designed by the Sydell Group that has reprised its long-standing collaboration with Roman and Williams, who has mixed restored original aspects of the building’s interior design with custom-made furniture and fixtures, found objects and accents that speak to the American craftsman aesthetic and site-specific artwork commissioned from Bard College’s Live Arts Program.

MADE hotel – New York, USA

Located in an 18-story building the 108-room finalist of Best Urban Hotel 2018 had been designed by LA-based Studio Mai that has furnished the spaces with almost exclusively handcrafted materials, including lashings of timber that provide an understated setting for exposed custom raw-bronze shelving, polished stainless steel mirrors, and rich hand-woven fabrics.

Moxy Times Square hotel – New York, USA

This finalist for Best Urban Hotel 2018 is proof that style doesn’t need to come at a luxury price. The hotel’s developer, Lightstone, roped in a host of big names to this end: architects Stonehill Taylor were charged with remaking the former New Mills Hotel, built in 1907, into rooms ranging from 150 to 350 square feet. Yabu Pushelberg designed the room interiors, which are filled with custom-designed, foldaway furniture, wood-frame beds with hidden storage and open pegboard closets.

See Also: New York City: 4 design hotels

NoMad hotel – Los Angeles, USA

Situated within a historic building, Giannini Place, formerly known as the Bank of Italy building, the hotel’s west coast outpost boasts 214 rooms, a rooftop pool, an Italian-inspired all-day café, and its signature library, two restaurants and a bar.

Designed by the French architect and interior designer Jacques Garcia. Nods to the building’s Italian heritage abound and range from the decorative gold and blue coffered ceiling in the lobby to elegant Doric columns and marble floors, which have all been preserved in the hotel’s design and immaculately restored. The rich Italianate palette continues in the rooms upstairs, which have been filled with custom-design furnishings and original artwork from the Anglo-French design studio be-poles.

The Canadians finalists

The Broadview Hotel – Toronto, Canada

This Canadian finalist of Best Urban Hotel 2018 is a 58-room hotel courtesy of local developers Streetcar Developments and design firm DesignAgency.

Housed within a 126-year old Romanesque Revival landmark, old meets new with a bold assortment of furniture, whimsical decorative pieces and eclectic wallpaper patterns that match the moods from eras long gone.

Hôtel Monville hotel – Montreal, Canada

This other finalist of the Best Urban Hotel 2018 is the example of what future of luxury hospitality might look like. Though billed as a four-star hotel, the 269-room property in Montréal’s Quartier International neighborhood is a savvy mix of DIY services including smart car charging docks, electronic check-in kiosks and, literally, robotic room service; and bespoke touches by way of all natural bathroom toiletries by Oneka, lobby artwork by the photographer Valérie Jodoin Keaton, and Frank and Oak-designed staff uniforms.

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