American Gothic

edited by Craig Kellogg -- Interior Design, 11/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

The colorful buildings that Deborah Berke & Partners Architects designed for the James Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona, are being painted white. "It had looked very Luis Barragán," says Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz—hired by the Morgans Hotel Group, the new owner of the property, to reinvent it as a brand extension of the Mondrian in Los Angeles. Opening this winter, the Mondrian Scottsdale will have a dark side, too. Fallen-angel touches include black feather pendant fixtures and the Skybar's tar-splattered chair sculpture by Mattia Biagi.