Allison Owen's 1906 Italianate City Hall Annex on Carondelet Street was never designed with guests in mind — it was built to govern — which makes what EskewDumezRipple and Studio Shamshiri did with it all the more unexpected. Maison Métier, which joined Hyatt's Unbound Collection when it opened in 2019, preserved the cream-stone facade with its Ionic columns, cartouche-crowned balustrade, and black canopy entrance essentially intact, while gutting the civic interior to accommodate 67 rooms across six stories of adaptively reimagined space. The project earned a 2020 AIA New Orleans Honor Award, and the building's proportions — deep window reveals, high ceilings, paneled plasterwork — gave Studio Shamshiri exactly the kind of architectural bones that reward a maximalist hand. Inside, the contrast between container and contents is the whole point. The library lounge goes full crimson lacquer from floor to ceiling, zebra-print carpet running beneath a mix of chartreuse wingbacks, a tufted navy sofa, and a veined onyx cocktail table — the effect closer to a private Creole gentleman's club than any conventional hotel parlor. The bar carries the same sensibility: coral-red millwork, brass fittings, tiger-print barstools with fringe trim, and dark floral wallpaper climbing toward gilded shelving. Guest rooms, by contrast, breathe — pale grey paneling, amber patterned carpet, and those signature wave-crested navy velvet headboards grounding each space with just enough drama to remind you where you are.

No travel notes provided yet.

No description provided yet.