By Alexander Britell and Guy Britton
Stunning.
That’s the thought that stays in your head as you walk around this place.
At every corner, there’s some spectacular detail, an opulent touch, a design note you’ve never seen before.
There’s the Rolls Royce converted into a DJ station in the rooftop bar, or the first outdoor showers I’ve ever seen in an urban hotel.
This is a place that isn’t just design-forward; it’s in love with design.
And that’s the point.
This is the brainchild of the husband-and-wife team of Loisse Herger and Fernando Davila, who first gave us the celebrated O:live Boutique Hotel in San Juan’s endlessly hip Condado district.
Yes, this is the shower.
That hotel brought a new kind of boutique hotel design to the Caribbean, one that married the sorts of aesthetic you’d find in a boutique hotel on the Mediterranean with a Puerto Rican energy.
But their newest hotel, the OLV:55, just a block around the corner perched above the Condado Lagoon, has taken things to a rather different stratum.
The rooftop pool is joined by an upper-level club for guests that includes a rooftop hot tub.
The 26-room hotel is a boutique that has the kind of build quality, beauty and amenities you only get in a large luxury resort, from the breathtaking rooftop pool to what are almost certainly most expensive toilets you’ll find in any hotel room in the Caribbean.
And then there’s the food and beverage offering, with the rooftop lounge and club above (with a terrific breakfast and lunch) and leading local chef Mario Pagan’s newest eatery, Raya, down below, with a creative menu of shareable plates and a buzzy ambience.
This is a voluptuous hotel, a hotel oozing with sensuality, where beauty manifests itself in different ways on every corner, where the views inside are mirrored by jaw-dropping vistas of the very grand Condado Lagoon.
It’s a hotel that constantly changes your perception, that’s always making you stop and think and say, “wow, I’ve never seen that before.”
It’s a work of art, and it’s a hotel that has set a new design standard for Caribbean hospitality.
And right now, it’s the sexiest hotel in the Caribbean. And the competition isn’t really close.
For more, visit the OLV Fifty Five.
See more in the latest CJ Video.
— CJ
