A former pharmacy on Austurstræti in the heart of Reykjavík, the neoclassical building that now houses Apotek Hotel carries the kind of civic authority you rarely see in a capital this size — arched windows marching along a pale rendered facade, the stonework and proportions belonging to an era when Icelandic institutions dressed for permanence. The conversion, completed in 2015, preserved the original early twentieth-century structure while fitting 45 rooms into its floors without disturbing the plasterwork cornices and ceiling mouldings that remain among the most intact in the city centre. The interior approach sets dark-stained oak headboard panels and charcoal woollen throws against those inherited white cornices, the contrast between new and old working in both directions — the period details feel grounded rather than precious, the contemporary furniture purposeful rather than cold. Herringbone oak parquet runs through the guest rooms, softened by abstract rugs in muted gold and grey. Downstairs, the Apotek Kitchen and Bar anchors itself around a floor-to-ceiling brass-framed wine rack and open kitchen, blown-glass pendants hanging from the original coffered ceiling above walnut-topped tables and bentwood chairs. The wellness facilities in the lower level take a warmer register — mosaic tile in bronze and copper tones cladding a plunge pool and steam room, teak loungers arranged on pale limestone flooring. Throughout, the building's pharmaceutical past functions less as a theme than as a quiet permission to treat the whole property with a kind of considered exactitude.

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