After biding his time for 13 years, BLVD Hospitality founder and CEO Jon Blanchard was ecstatic when, in 2020, the longtime owners of the Georgian in Santa Monica, California were finally ready to sell. With its Art Deco architecture and iconic turquoise façade, the hotel had been turning heads for decades—but its interiors hadn’t kept pace, and Blanchard and his partner Nicolo Rusconi were determined to bring the building back to its former glory.
The eight-story building channels its past with a sumptuous turquoise façade and a new brass neon sign based on the 1930s original
“From 1933 to 1950, this was the premier hotel for Los Angeles and Santa Monica,” Blanchard says. Indeed, it had hosted the likes of A-listers from Charlie Chaplin to Marilyn Monroe and entertained notorious mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Al Capone in its sublevel restaurant, the Georgian Room, during Prohibition. Blanchard couldn’t resist the potential. “When I dove into the history of the building,” he says, “I wanted to press pause in 1960 and press play again in 2023.”
BLVD hired LA- and London-based Fettle to bring the vision to life. And while the building’s interior bones were good, “a lot of the details had been stripped away over the years,” says Tom Parker, Fettle’s cofounder and creative director. “It was basically death by beige. Of the good stuff that was there, we retained every single part we could.”
Surviving archways, coves, and crown details provided the outline upon which Parker and his team layered in custom furnishings, decorative elements, and rich textiles. Taking cues from a Latin American-informed Art Deco style, bright colors, eclectic patterns, and a sense of lightness complete the cinematic look.
But Parker was wary of taking the inspiration too literally. “The danger with buildings like this is that if you lean too much into the history, it’s very easy to end up creating a pastiche,” he says. “It’s important to have some kind of modern element. It’s a bit of a mix; you’re not just walking in and you’re inside The Great Gatsby.”
Awash in shades of pink and sunny yellow, the Ocean Avenue-facing Sunset Terrace is wrapped in abundant greenery
Updates to the property included reconfiguring the ground floor, where the previous layout all but ignored the hierarchy and structure suggested by three dramatic arches original to the building. “It didn’t relate to any of the architecture,” Parker says. They took the old elements out and put a bar with symmetrically placed furniture in the center under one of the archways as an ode to the Wes Anderson-esque aesthetic that pervades the hotel.
Beneath another archway is the Restaurant at the Georgian, resplendent in rust and aqua blue velvet sofas and accented by gold drapery. The reception area, meanwhile, was moved into its own dedicated room around the corner from the bustling Restaurant, creating more space for those checking in and allowing the main entry to focus on F&B.
The Restaurant at the Georgian mixes aqua-hued velvet seating with gold and rust accents
The team also breathed new life into the Georgian Room, which, after languishing for 50 years, has reopened to the public as a fine dining Italian steakhouse and piano bar. The restoration here was guided by historic photos and news clippings from the 1930s through 1950s to retain as much of its Old Hollywood glamour as possible. “All the booths are in the original locations, and we went with the red-painted walls and wood cladding, which is what we found,” says Blanchard. Juxtaposing the racing green leather booths and art-filled walls is a new rose marble-topped bar that wraps around a 1918 Steinway & Sons piano, played nightly by up-and-coming musicians and globally renowned artists alike.
In addition to the revitalized dining and bar offerings, the eight-story property houses 84 guestrooms, a gym, library, art gallery, and—coming next year—a pool deck overlooking the ocean. For Blanchard, the property represents the past and the future in a very personal way. “The vision is to own this hotel forever. It’s something I want to pass down to my children,” he says. “I want to continue the legacy and maintain its relevance for decades to come.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s October 2023 issue.
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