Yeah yeah, Los Angeles is all about entertainment – particularly now, with the 2019 Oscars right around the corner on 25 February. Everything about it is too brash. And it’s definitely not walkable... right?
Not so in West Hollywood Design District, a compact bohemian neighbourhood that includes sections of Melrose Avenue, Robertson Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard, where residents pray at the altar of Poggenpohl and Helmut Lang rather than that of the Kardashian clan. This artsy neighbourhood is home to the highest concentration of furniture shops on the American west coast, and it’s walkable: not something you usually say about Los Angeles. Plus, it got a zingy new hotel earlier this year – Kimpton La Peer – which has already held some high-profile parties.
Here are 10 essential things to do in and around the design district.
Check into Kimpton La Peer
Kimpton hotels are known for their playful, design-focused character: and Kimpton La Peer, which opened early this year, is no different. The property (although not a boutique, it feels like one) looks like a whitewashed adobe house from the outside, and an Icelandic landscape inside, thanks to the interior design skills of Los Angeles-based designer Gulla Jónsdóttir. Rooms have subtle artistic touches, think Jeff Koons-esque gold abbits on side tables and huge white freestanding bathtubs, while ground-level restaurant Viale dei Romani does criminally good things with truffle. The hotel is the ideal starting point to explore West Hollywood Design District, not least because of the gorgeous illustrated maps available at the front desk. Don’t go exploring the streets without one.
Cycle along the Sunset Strip
The 1.6 mile portion of Sunset Boulevard that runs through West Hollywood is the most storied, which is also why it has the best name: the Sunset Strip. It’s usually dripping in celebs (for the best spotting opportunities, visit The Tower Bar at the Sunset Tower Hotel), who come here to catch live music at The Viper Room, brunch at upscale cafes, or drink cocktails around the pool at all-out glamorous Chateau Marmont. If you can’t afford to do any of that, you can cycle along the Strip and leer at the famous people having coffee at the many pavement cafes.
Have a drink at Craig’s
Although it looks like a dreary sports bar, Craig’s is West Hollywood’s premier sizzling celeb hotspot (think big-hitters such as Mariah Carey and Kris Jenner, although on my visit the tally was somewhere near zero. Helpfully, the oval tables are organised in front-facing rows to maximise people-watching opportunities, and the menu... well, no idea. But you’re not here for the food, are you?
Visit the Pacific Design Centre
Formerly the West Hollywood railyard, the more than one-million-square-foot large Pacific Design Centre is made up of three angular glass blocks in green, red and blue. Within it is a branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art, a network of designer showrooms and a whole host of intelligent programming, from talks and workshops to screenings and exhibitions. The bright blue building, designed by starchitect Cesar Pelli, is known affectionately as the Blue Whale – not hard to see why.
Nose around Restoration Hardware
Palm tree-studded Melrose Avenue is the street where you’ll find top fashion chains, quirky homeware boutiques and cool shopping concepts. Start at Restoration Hardware (RH for short): a three-level furniture emporium that is anecdotally known as “Ikea for rich people”. Above the three levels of gorgeous sofas and rugs is a vast roof terrace with squashy sofas and blockbuster views over the surrounding Hollywood hills. It’s a public space, which means it’s perfectly OK to come up here and enjoy a bottle of wine as the sun sets, peering down at the stars eating at pavement Urth Caffe.
Shop at Melrose’s quirky boutiques
Elsewhere on Melrose, there’s Instagram-famous beauty brand Glossier, American apparel store Rag & Bone, and an intelligent Nike pop-up store – a concept stocked entirely according to big data. The sportswear brand analysed the purchases of West Hollywood residents and only stocks what it knows they want to buy. Further up the road there’s the frightening high fashion of Maxfield, which advertises itself as “a state of mind” rather than a shopping destination. It’s the kind of shop that stocks razor-thin sunglasses and tops that would pass for a perspex wine jacket.
Visit West Hollywood’s design studios
The design district got its name from a revolutionary estate agent called Ron Kates (he still has an office on Robertson Boulevard), who rented space to designers and architects half a century ago. They still congregate here today. Of the many architects’ studios, galleries and designers in the district, there’s one that definitely warrants a nose around: the studio of Martyn Lawrence Bullard, the British designer who decked out the Kardashians’ mansions. Come to gawp at the bulbous light fittings, zany rugs and sheep-shaped footstools.
Ogle some street art
No creative neighbourhood would be complete without some scratchy graffiti mural on the side of a building. West Hollywood has plenty: there’s the butterflies outside John and Pete’s Fine Wine and Spirits on La Cienega Boulevard, or the Paul Smith pink wall. Some lesser-appreciated spots include the monochrome mural by street artist Retna, right outside slebby restaurant Craig’s, or the spectacled bulldog outside the VCA TLC Animal Hospital on the corner of Robertson and Melrose.
Visit Shape House
The name doesn’t begin to hint at how weird this health studio is, but if you believe the marketing it’s a West Hollywood institution. A typical Shape House treatment involves you sliding into a heated blanket, wrapped up like a burrito, for 55 minutes, during which you can watch Netflix or scroll Instagram. The only catch is: it’s heated to 70C, which means you sweat... a lot. Shape House claims a session can burn between 800 and 1,600 calories per session.
Look down from Runyon Canyon
OK, technically this isn’t in the design district, but hiking up Los Angeles’ most well-trodden path gives you a bloody good look at it. Plus, a two hour zap up the canyon is a) great for celebrity house spotting, b) a very good cure for jetlag and c) the best opportunity you’ll have to get a feel for the sheer scale of this city. Book with Hikes and Bikes LA for an uptempo instructor who will come in handy to warn off the rattlesnakes that live in these hills.
Travel essentials
Getting there
Virgin Atlantic, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Norwegian and American Airlines fly from the UK to Los Angeles from around £340 return.
Staying there
Rooms at Kimpton La Peer start from $425 a night. Kimpton Fitzroy, the first Kimpton property in Europe, is now open in London’s Bloomsbury.
