Kelly Wearstler's 2002 redesign of a seven-storey 1960s Ocean Avenue block gave Viceroy Santa Monica the visual identity that made her name — a collision of British Regency formality and California pop irreverence that no subsequent revision has entirely displaced. The building itself, with its flat concrete grid of balconied rooms and decorative breeze-block base facing the Pacific, is classic postwar California motel scaled upward, and Wearstler understood that the tension between that vernacular and something more theatrical was the whole point. Later renovations have softened her original black-and-white scheme toward the warmer register visible in the images today — linen-upholstered headboards, rattan-fronted nightstands, striped wool-blend rugs in ochre and coastal blue, and tripartite sconce lighting in matte bronze — but the rooms still carry a confident, sun-bleached ease that suits the beachside address. The pool deck, shaded by a dense canopy of mature palms, is lined with white-framed cabana structures whose open steel geometry borrows more from modernist California garden architecture than from resort convention. A geometric mosaic mural anchors one end of the terrace in saturated color, rhyming with the bold vertical artwork panel that punctuates the Ocean Avenue facade — both gestures consistent with the property's long habit of treating graphic art as structural to its identity. Inside, the all-day restaurant deploys polished concrete floors, exposed timber ceiling beams, and veined marble tabletops alongside curved grey shell chairs that keep the atmosphere closer to a well-edited Venice loft than a hotel dining room.

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Located steps from the Pacific Ocean, Viceroy Santa Monica is a beloved icon of the LA beach scene for 20 years. Whether you’re lounging poolside or letting your mind drift over a martini, it’s clear: This is the place for slow days and fast company. Just check out our poolside experience with expansive outdoor patio and open-air cabanas; a stylized lounge; inspired meeting spaces, a revamped fitness center; and our indoor-outdoor restaurant, Sugar Palm Santa Monica, with coastal flavors and a wraparound bar that extends outside.