Four Seasons: a recent project by Intradesign in Los Angeles epitomizes a generation of small, super-luxury American hotels. (Hotels & Restaurants)

Interior Design, June, 1988 by Cooper, Jerry

FOUR SEASONS A recent project by Intradesign in Los Angeles epitomizes a generation of small, super-luxury American hotels.

About 20 years ago, the big noise in the hotel industry was the convention hotel. Vast in both size and ambition, the standard formula called for enormous public spaces, enough restaurants to accommodate the population of a small city and a mall's worth of shops. Reaching their zenith with the hyperglitzy atrium hotels designed by John Portman for Hyatt and several other operators, these monoliths of hospitality often turned a blank wall to the surrounding city; most of their interiors had a manufacturerd atmosphere more akin to the Las Vegas strip than to Dallas, Atlanta or Chicago. And like casinos, they were, at their best, big...