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"View Slideshow\n\nThe lobby of the Huntley Santa Monica Beach offers the first clue that it's not your typical seaside hotel. Wanting guests to be immersed in the life aquatic the moment they step inside, designer Thomas Schoos knew he needed something special. And then it hit him: a wall of fish. But not just any fish\u2014lacquered white and lit by spotlights, hundreds of piranhas beckon visitors (and not just those under five) to reach out and touch them. \"Everyone talks about them,\" he says, smiling.\n\nThe California hotel's owner, Sohrab Sassounian, needed a little convincing before coming around to the idea. But in the end he agreed\u2014he'd hired Schoos to transform the midrange hotel into a boutique property precisely because of his strikingly modern sensibility and playful style.\n\n\"There are so many iconic hotels in Los Angeles; we knew we needed a dramatic design statement that would evolve over time,\" Sassounian explains. \"We approached Thomas after seeing his work and fell in love with his vision of a beachside escape that was both luxurious and chic but didn't sacrifice comfort.\"\n\nWith business partner Michael Berman, the German-born Schoos has created restaurants (Los Angeles's O-Bar and Koi, among them) and opened a \"lifestyle\" design studio in West Hollywood, but the Huntley was his first hotel. Undaunted, he sized up what he had to work with: an 18-story building several blocks from the ocean. He may have lacked hotel experience, but his history with restaurants had taught him about utilizing space, while his training as a painter had given him an understanding of color and light.\n\nAt the Huntley, Schoos has deftly delivered. The lobby is a coolly impressive starting point, where silvered sea fans are mounted behind a reception desk inlaid with shagreen. But there are more than marine references here. Schoos and project designer Yvonne Shaw have emphasized natural materials that are all about texture: carved African daybeds and drum tables, curving chairs of stack laminate, plush lamb's-wool rugs and pillows and soft, leather-covered benches and chairs.\n\nSchoos delights in what he describes as \"bringing together flavors that don't match. It begins a conversation, which is what design is all about. It's a language of the senses.\"\n\nFrom the lobby, one ascends to the remarkably airy guest rooms. On a clear day, they afford views that even seasoned Angelenos would gasp at. City zoning regulations prevented them from altering the 1966 structure, so Schoos and Shaw focused their attention on maximizing light and space without adding balconies or expanding the windows.\n\n\"People come to Santa Monica to experience the easy, breezy feeling of the beach,\" Schoos offers. \"I wanted to bring that free spirit to everything. These rooms have to suit a global personality glove.\"\n\nIndeed, there are pieces from Ivory Coast, South Africa, India, Central America, Java and Bali. But there are no artworks on the walls. \"Everyone does the picture over the bed,\" says Schoos. \"I wanted the rooms to be very simple and clean.\"\n\nThe suites fall into two categories: the north-facing Malibu suites and the south-facing Signature suites. But no matter what the orientation, Schoos's feeling for texture and his unique brand of simplicity are evident throughout. Against a sea of neutrals, the brick tone of the long banquettes echoes the red-tile roofs visible through the windows. The tactile again figures prominently: sandblasted-oak beams, rift-sawn-oak headboards and trim, barrel chairs covered in pigskin made to look like python, thick alpaca rugs.\n\nIn the Malibu suites, \"barn doors\"\u2014sliding panels of sandblasted oak\u2014divide sitting and sleeping areas, while upholstered alcoves are snug spots to relax or read. \"Hotel rooms traditionally have a big writing desk,\" Schoos notes. \"But today most people sit with their laptop on the bed.\"\n\nTo date, his firm has designed 15 suites in the hotel, in addition to the spacious 17th-floor Presidential Suite, where Venetian-plaster walls and gauzy sheers set off a palette of turquoise and silver. To capitalize on the light, Schoos designed three huge mirrors that rest against a wall.\n\nOne floor above, the 360-degree view from the popular Penthouse restaurant is dazzling. \"It had to work for all three meals, so we wanted a lighter feeling,\" explains Shaw, who worked closely with the firm's director of design, Gary Churukian, on the space. \"Being able to see the water gives you the sense of being outside.\" The banquettes in the central bar area, each with its own chandelier and hung with a sheer fabric, offer a witty take on the beach cabana. Guests can also have a drink beneath the retractable skylight in the fireside lounge, where Schoos designed leather-upholstered armchairs that seat two. Just over the fireplace, a wall shimmers with insets of mother-of-pearl. Oceanside luxury never looked so magical."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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