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Mondrian
Scottsdale Hotel
Think of Scottsdale and you probably think of retirees
in short pants, bland and stuffy golf resorts, kitschy
“Western” art and that inescapable pink stucco. These
days, though, Scottsdale has gone all hip on us: from
dull upscale Phoenix suburb to high desert cool, a bit
like Santa Monica without the ocean. And why not — it
worked for Palm Springs, after all.
Formerly the James, a sort of retro budget boutique, the Mondrian retains a few of its classic mid-century touches — stucco walls, a palm-lined arabesque central pool courtyard — but it’s under the Morgans umbrella now, and has been redesigned accordingly as a hyper-luxe Starck-style fantasy, Asia de Cuba and all. Rooms are exactly what you’d expect from today’s high-end boutiques, all Kubrick-minimal in design, but loaded with 42-inch plasma screens, iPod-docking sound systems, and extravagant mosaic-tile bathrooms. And the public spaces are nothing if not impressive: the Red Bar is overwhelmingly exactly that, and the open-air Skybar looks up into the starry night sky — try seeing that in Los Angeles.
This place has already become the destination of choice for the young and the hip, those who blanch at the thought of having to venture outside the New York/Miami/LA celebrity circuit — people who wouldn’t be caught dead (or at least not photographed) at one of Scottsdale’s more grown-up resorts. Yet, due in equal measure to lack of direct competition and some savvy penny-pinching on the part of the management, you don’t have to be on a Paris Hilton budget to stay at the Mondrian Scottsdale.
