St Martins Lane London

From its dazzling location at the hub of Covent Garden, West End theatres and Trafalgar Square, St Martins Lane is a dramatic and daring reinvention of the urban resort. Smart, witty and sophisticated, Philippe Starck’s design is a brilliant collision of influences - from the modern to the baroque - that suffuses the hotel with energy, vitality and magic. Entered through improbably tall, luminescent yellow-glass revolving doors—the tallest in London—St Martins Lane’s lobby is a soaring and theatrical space that offers a provocative manipulation of dimension and proportion. Starck presents a visually stunning play on scale, with oversized columns and angled niches painted a deep fluorescent yellow, complemented by Portuguese limestone floors. From its acid-etched, double-height yellow glass facade to its unpredictable plays on vivid color to the dramatic series of columns that appear as shining towers, St Martins Lane’s lobby is a triumph of color and light.