By Becca Hensley / March 13, 2025 / TIME
The World’s Greatest Places of 2025 / Hôtel Swexan
The family-owned Harwood District stretches 19 blocks in Dallas’ Uptown, just four miles from the Arts District. Its undisputed pièce de résistance, the Kengo Kuma-designed Hôtel Swexan, opened last year, with a name that reflects the founders’ multi-generational Swiss-Texan heritage. The hotel’s ethos embodies a bold fusion of sophistication (Swiss) and bluster (Texan)—plus a welcome dose of whimsy. Kuma’s minimalist exterior belies the heart-quickening maximalism found inside, where every nook and corner offers a surprise (think astounding art pieces, rich fabrics, repurposed vintage fireplaces, retro chandeliers, and gleaming marble). On the basement floor, the speakeasy Babou’s is inspired by Salvador Dalí and named for his pet ocelot. Its adjunct-room, The Library at Babou’s, is lined with antique books. Isabelle’s, a martini bar on the lobby floor, has Parisian vibes. Upstairs, the Michelin-recommended Stillwell’s exudes mid-century steakhouse swagger, serving beef from the Harwoods’ own ranch. On the 20th floor, edging the moody Moroccan-styled pool, another restaurant, Léonie, awash in leafy motifs, might be a design maven’s treehouse. Each of the 134 rooms and suites flaunts over-sized bathrooms with design eye-poppers, such as faucets that flow from the ceiling into soaking tubs. Still, the marquee attraction is surely Hôtel Swexan’s 24 uniquely themed public bathrooms. Playful and hedonistic, they delight with details such as recycled French horns used as urinals in one and black-and-white Pierre Frey wallcoverings with a Texas cacti landscape pattern in another. Each restroom, like Hôtel Swexan itself, reigns as a work of art.
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