How hipster is this new Palm Springs hotel? You check in at the bar
Don’t bother looking for a traditional registration desk at Arrive, the new Palm Springs boutique hotel.
There isn’t one.
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FOR THE RECORD
April 21, 3:45 p.m.: An earlier version of this story mentioned real estate executive Wade Jorgenson and said he was a partner in the Arrive project. He is an employee.
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Designed with younger, socially connected consumers in mind, Arrive sends guests to the bar to check in. (The staff communicates with guests primarily via text. You request room service, housekeeping and valet via your smartphone too.)
Meanwhile, do look at the architecture.
Arrive draws heavily from Midcentury Modernism’s playbook but pushes the design vernacular into 2016.
A butterfly roof — that iconic Palm Springs silhouette, inverting the traditional roofline slope to let in more light — runs through the entire property. Clerestory windows running under that roofline bring in plenty of that natural light as well as dramatic views of the surrounding San Jacinto Mountains.
“We took Midcentury cues,” says Arrive designer and partner Chris Pardo. “We wanted to speak to the past but not replicate it.”
The resulting design sensibility is decidedly contemporary, mixing natural and industrial materials. The 32-room property makes ample use of Cor-Ten steel, used in the buildings’ siding and tree planters. The rusted patina of the Cor-Ten creates a visual contrast to the elaborately patterned tile backdrops used in the bar and restaurant, Reservoir.
Located on a 2-acre lot in uptown Palm Springs, the vast majority of the property is dedicated to social spaces, seamlessly moving between indoor and outdoor areas from the pool to the bocce court to the restaurant.
Pardo’s sense of playfulness can be found everywhere: marble ping-pong tables with metal dividers that spell “ping my pong” in lieu of a net, coat hooks that look like a hand giving a thumbs up and 514 vintage brass military buttons used to tuft the seating in the coffee shop. “It took 47 different sellers and four months,” says Pardo, who bought them on EBay.
The rooms are furnished with stylish yet affordable pieces from West Elm and CB2. They are also equipped with Apple TV, Malin + Goetz bath products and minibars at prices that compete with the local convenience store.
Pardo’s partners in the hotel combine Silicon Valley’s startup ethos with backgrounds in hospitality. Pardo and his partner, Peter Karpinski, met while both worked for Four Seasons, which sparked the idea of improving operational efficiency through technology. For Arrive Hotels, Pardo and Karpinski partnered with Ezra Callahan, who was Facebook’s sixth employee, software development engineer David Isen and attorney Matt Steinberg. They’ve launched Arrive in Palm Springs and intend to open more hotels nationally, setting their sights on downtown L.A.’s Arts District and Austin, Texas, next.
Pardo stresses that Arrive is intended to serve not just tourists but also locals. Customs Coffee shop serves Joshua Tree Coffee Co. brews. Both the coffee shop and ice cream shop are entered from the street rather than through the hotel, inviting locals to partake. The shops, with the restaurant, are key to appealing to residents. “They create a social atmosphere,” says Pardo. “It makes the hotel more ingrained in the community.”
MORE PALM SPRINGS HOMES:
This Palm Springs dream home is built to look like it’s ‘launching off the hillside’
In Palm Springs, a renovation to meld midcentury, modern, light and art
Inside a Palm Springs getaway that’s modern, hip -- and still kid-friendly
Photos: Inside our favorite desert homes and retreats
Living on the edge in a Midcentury Modern home in Palm Springs
Blue Sky in Palm Springs: Part-prefab house built in 4.5 months
Escena Palm Springs: SoCal’s first modern tract houses in decades
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