At the heart of Seville's El Arenal quarter, a nineteenth-century palace whose arcaded cortile once served as the headquarters of a prominent local institution was converted into Hotel Mercer Sevilla, opening in 2016 with 25 rooms across five floors. The conversion was led by Rafael de La-Hoz, whose approach preserved the building's neoclassical bone structure — white marble flooring, slender Roman columns supporting groin-vaulted arches, a glazed gallery running the upper perimeter — while threading contemporary furniture through the historic envelope with deliberate restraint. Gold velvet sofas and sage-green armchairs are arranged across the atrium floor beneath those original arches, the columns themselves set on illuminated dark stone plinths that give the space a quietly ceremonial atmosphere without tipping into pastiche. The guest rooms carry the same internal logic: original ornate plasterwork cornicing and tall panelled walls left intact, macassar ebony joinery used for room dividers and cabinetry to introduce a warm counterpoint, grey tonal rugs grounding the pale volumes beneath high ceilings. A brass-shaded desk lamp and an arc floor light in deep black suggest a considered eclecticism in the furniture selection — pieces chosen for weight and proportion rather than brand. On the rooftop, a long lap pool runs between white-rendered parapet walls, framing low-rise Seville across the horizon in a manner that feels more like a private urban terrace than a hotel amenity.

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