Washington - Boring background music and mediocre art, move over.
Instead, how about sharing that lift ride with the creation of the universe or a Chinese New Year celebration or even a photo booth complete with props?
Some boutique hotels, always eager to put in-vogue stamps on any bland piece of real estate, have decided that the utilitarian lift is a fine place to have a bit of fun. And now even one of the world’s largest hotel companies is getting into the act.
Here’s where to go if you think listening to Kenny G and staring at mahogany panels is no way to start a holiday in Las Vegas:
Las Vegas
Head to the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas’s lifts for video presentations set on six-foot-tall high-def screens. The last theme in the 52-floor lift was “Little Winter” featuring five whimsical vignettes about ice-skating, Alpine skiing and Arctic ice-fishing, only Vegas-style (think champagne being poured on a mountain peak).
Miami
Casa Claridge’s Faena, Miami Beach, a 50-room, five-floor historic property developed by Argentine real estate mogul Alan Faena, has launched an entire concept around its lone lift. Elevate’s lofty purpose is to serve as “a vertical platform, an ascending gallery for artistic intervention”. An installation by Cuban-born artist Consuelo Castaeda used repurposed photos to turn the lift into a replica of Mexico’s Santo Domingo Church. The most recent is by Miami-born artist Typoe: The black walls are filled with magnetised neon letters and decals, encouraging passengers to “play and stay a while”.
New York City
The Standard, High Line was one of the first to envision the artistic promise of lifts when it opened in 2009. Guests ascending its 18 floors were sent from hell to heaven and descending guests back to hell in its “Civilisation” installation by video artist Marco Brambilla. The work featured everything from a white-garbed mob in Hades to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. The work has since been replaced with the similarly themed “Creation”, also by Brambilla, a fantastical spiralling journeying from the Garden of Eden to a burning apocalypse and back again.
Sydney
The two-building QT Sydney, with its historic exteriors and quirky-chic interiors, has taken the lift experience to a different level (no pun intended), offering art for the eyes and ears. A music sensor notes the number of passengers. A single passenger may hear Elvis Presley’s Are You Lonesome Tonight? while a couple may be serenaded by Bill Withers’ Just the Two of Us. A video art installation by Aboriginal artist Daniel Boyd also changes based on who is riding.
Tempe and New Orleans
Moxy, Marriott’s new hotel brand aimed at attracting millennials, is incorporating a retro concept that saw its first resurgence at hipster weddings: photo booths. Passengers will have to use their own cameras, but the mirror, red curtain and hard metal stool will all look authentic. Props that reflect the hotel’s location will also be provided, such as cacti and moustaches for the property in Tempe. Eight Moxy hotels are scheduled to open this year in Europe and the US.
The Washington Post