Detailed Review
Ian Schrager's CLIFT Hotel is given grace and elegance by historic styling, accented by modern artistic flourishes. Guests enjoy preferential access to the legendary Redwood Room bar, where celebrity spotting is as popular as the designer martinis.
Asia de Cuba, the hotel restaurant, is popular for its nuevo Chino-Latino menu, extensive lists of specialty cocktails, rum, wine, and sake, and dramatic Philippe Starke design.
Doorstaff are on duty day and night, and concierge services and in-room dining are available. The hotel also has fitness facilities and a business centre that offers complimentary high-speed Internet access.
Independent Reviews
-
"Super-designer Ian Schrager offering where art deco meets Starck minimalism"
The Clift Hotel
By Hal Peat
With more than a few world-class hotels to choose from, why not base your stay at one which has become a centerpiece itself for San Francisco’s dynamic mix of traditional grandeur and contemporary techno-experimentation? Clift certainly expresses the spirit and reality of a city moving inventively into a new century in a way that leaves you feeling you’ve touched the surface and not just passed through another town. A nearly century-old building originally designed in Italian Renaissance style, with fittingly grand proportions and period detail, Clift was restored by international hotelier Ian Schrager to reflect his own interpretation of San Francisco’s sophisticated and old world aspect but also its cutting edge position at the center of a technological revolution. Today Clift retains its original stone and brick façade, but its interiors are a journey into Schrager’s balancing act between grand hotel detail and innovative design. Working with world-renowned designer Philippe Starck, he’s created public and private spaces at Clift that harmonize reality and fantasy in ways you don’t find in most big city properties. This begins in the lobby, which retains its original soaring ceilings and proportions but is now the backdrop to a provocative collection of furniture that includes pieces by twentieth-century masters such as Dali and Magritte. It continues in the Schrager-Starck reinvention of the hotel’s legendary bar, the Redwood Room, which retains its original redwood hues but restated in a variety of leather, fabric, wood and metal surfaces. This huge room is further animated by a series of flat screen televisions mounted vertically around the walls that play out endless moving images by some of the nation’s leading digital artists. The dreamy and mesmerizing feel of these main areas are repeated in the guest rooms, which feature high ceilings, muted colors, enormous English sycamore sleigh beds inspired by Man Ray, and equally large windows that afford you a panoramic view of the Golden Gate Bridge and other city landmarks. The extensive guest services include a full range of entertainment and business connectivity from each room; the hotel also has a 24-hour gymnasium with private trainers and classes, a full-service business center, and if you don’t want to go out to eat, then you can experience the fusion of Chino-Latino fusion cuisine downstairs at the Asia de Cuba restaurant right across from the Redwood Room.
© Travel Intelligence. All rights reserved
