The Curation: Volume 64
In Residence with Robert Khederian on historic hotels, a huge hotel New(s) dispatch (largely large developments in Italy), and all my thoughts on using AI on Substack.
Today’s Agenda
In Residence with
, a true expert in historic buildings and a human with outstanding taste. We talk historic hotels and those that could or should be! It’s one of my favorite features.A big, huge edition of the New(s), especially in Italy. Notably, incredibly exciting new names in Florence, Venice, Umbria, and the Dolomites (among so many others, there are 20 names to know in Italy alone. Then, an exciting opening from the most important hospitality players in Corsica, and big developments in Comporta, Portugal.
All my thoughts on AI, specifically as it relates to Substack, in response to the latest report, of which I was a respondent.
For Consideration
I read Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild this week and really, truly enjoyed it. Wonderfully written, incredibly unique – do as everyone says and go into it blind. Don’t even read the synopsis!
I thought this was the best luxury brand content on Instagram this week, by far. Loewe gets that summer is a feeling and that they’re selling that, and this is proof. We don’t want studio shoots, we don’t want people just constantly reclining – we want this!
Astronomer wins the viral moment, this is epic.
In a report out of the Hospitality Forum hosted in Milan this year, in 2024, 7% of hotels in the country were part of a chain, a TEN PERCENT increase from 2023. But still, 7% is a number to be proud of, especially as the whole world wants to come to Italy. This is why I’m so tough on chain hotels in Italy, and so proud of sharing independent ones.
For Consumption
The only thing that I don’t need that I neeeeeed.
A very cool choker and the statement necklace I can’t stop thinking about.
Because it’s the time of year where you start to want to shop pieces you can wear into fall, or even better, year-round – may I present these wonderfully weird loafers?
Very good subtly-alternating striped pajamas, affordable!
I’m on the hunt for a fabulous vintage beaded belt to wear with shirtdresses, just like this and this.
It’s so tacky I love it, and the closest I would ever get to having a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
Happy Hoteling!
P.S. Today’s edition is very long, with many photos, so you may need to read it in its entirety on web or the Substack app. And while I have you, if you enjoy what you read, I’d love to have your like.
In Residence with Robert Khederian
It’s about time we have someone In Residence, isn’t it? Someone with really, truly wonderful taste? Yes! It is. For this edition, I had one particular man in mind, as I really wanted to discuss historic hotels.
Robert Khederian is someone I first came across on Instagram and was thrilled he had a Substack. Across platform, his point of view is singular, and I respect that immensely – he describes himself as a “professional old house and history nerd.” While he is a realtor in New York, I would argue he’s also an arbiter of historic buildings that have decidedly not been ruined by time nor humans. But also, he’s able to weave this expertise and point of view into pop culture seamlessly and delivers it in a way you only can with true knowledge. This analysis of Carrie Bradshaw’s Gramercy townhouse is a fantastic example.
It should come as no surprise that I’m not only incredibly interested in the content Robert creates but had so many questions to ask at the intersection of history and hotels. He said yes! And delivered, deeply.
Before we get to said questions, please do yourself a favor and subscribe to his Substack
, and follow him on Instagram. If you’re looking for somewhere to start, I particularly love this interview with one of my favorite interior designers (who is winning the current hotel design game), Martin Brudnizki, and this interview with one of my favorite authors, Riley Sager.Robert has FANTASTIC TASTE and is one of the only humans on the internet with whom I have never disagreed with an opinion. I will now present you with the Happy Hoteling evidence.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Where did you first get the love for history and such a wonderful eye for old buildings, specifically?
I would ask my dad to drive to middle school a certain way so we'd pass a particular Victorian house, so I guess you could say that I was always interested in old houses! But I focused more seriously when I was an art history major in college. By the time I graduated, I was taking mostly courses about residential architecture—I love to understand how architecture can express and support lifestyle. After I moved to NYC, I began to write about homes when I was working at Departures Magazine (RIP) and then more seriously when I was engagement editor of Curbed. From there, I got into real estate, because my love of houses became too much to ignore!
Have you ever stayed at either a historic hotel or a hotel that's set in a historic building that you find to be particularly well done?
I love the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, MA and The Griswold Inn in Essex, CT, both of which are just so charmingly shabby in a way that could only be accomplished in New England.
It was also a dream to stay at the Four Seasons in Florence. Those gardens and frescoes! But I feel like that hotel extends beyond the original footprint of the central palazzo, so maybe it doesn't count.
Maaaan, I feel the same about a great, old inn. If you’re ever in the San Francisco area, The Pelican Inn is right up your alley. And yes, the Four Seasons Firenze totally counts, and I agree.
Before I pick your brain in your alley, are there any historic hotels that you would love to stay at, places that you feel retain the legacy of the building especially well?
Hands down, Ballyfin Demesne, which I consider to be the platonic ideal of a historic house hotel. A very careful restoration and top-notch service designed to recall the heyday of grand country homes. What more could you want? I would also love to stay at The Point in Lake Placid, which transforms a former Rockefeller Adirondack camp into your own private lakeside retreat, complete with nightly dinner parties, some of which are black tie.
YESSS!!! BIG YES!
New York has so many fantastic historic buildings, and that’s your main turf I know. If there was no red tape, do any addresses come to mind that would make a fantastic hotel?
I'd love if The Metropolitan Club became a hotel. It's a fabulous location (right on Central Park, across from The Plaza), and the main club rooms are so outlandish and over-the-top—as they were designed to be—even the most cash-flush hotel magnate couldn't recreate them if they tried today.
I’m writing about this soon! Human hands are just not being used like they used to.
Now, what about properties on the market. Is there anything out there right now, wherever in the world, that you think would be great for a hotel buyer?
I might be biased since my partner John and I have a house near Seneca Lake, but the former neo-Gothic Trinity Church (originally designed to be a cathedral) with the neighboring Greek Revival rectory on South Main Street in Geneva, NY are on the market for $1.65M, and that would be a very interesting hotel walkable to town and the lake. Neighboring Canandaigua Lake has The Lake House, and Cayuga Lake has the fabulous Inns of Aurora. Seneca Lake, which is central to the Finger Lakes wine region, needs a truly destination-worthy hotel!
I am so (theoretically) sold. And my Finger Lakes curiosity could not be more piqued.
More high level, how do you think historic buildings should be treated when getting a new lease on life?
The moment choices are made that don't prioritize the architecture and materials of the original structure, I get nervous. There's this one very interesting building I know (I won't name names to save them the embarrassment!) that was transformed into a restaurant. The building has a beautiful, century-old slate roof, and the owners extended the roofline with unfortunate asphalt tiles that aren't complementary to the original material at all. If extending with slate wasn't an option, then maybe metal would have been better!
You get a call saying you are able to spend the weekend in any non-residential occupied historic building in the world. It could be a former noble home, a museum, anything – what would you choose?
I mean, if there were really no limits, then I would say that I would time travel to experience old Pennsylvania Station, by Charles McKim — and then figure out a way to thwart its demolition!
A modern day superhero with very good taste. I’m so thrilled to have had you, please consider this digital door always open and Hotel People, really do follow, like, do all the nice things, Robert just delivered so very hard.
New(s)
All the hotel news and new developments that deserve to be on your radar. Today is the biggest download to date, I smell a lot of future Special1 hotels.
Let’s start in Italy, where there’s a shocking amount of exciting potential.
The hotel news I care about most has finally landed. Pellicano Hotels news, that is. Marie-Louise Sciò is such an inspiration to me, just like everyone else. BoF got the exclusive, a testament to the under-utilized link between fashion and hotels (why can we never get beyond the beach club?) and it gave the two names that will be future It Hotels – La Badia Estate outside Orvieto in Umbria, and La Suvera outside Siena. The latter was procured last year and is said to open next year, which would be thrilling. Especially because this was a hotel I’ve long had on my radar as having so much potential. And it is utterly perfectly Pellicano. But the bigger news was what Marie-Louise has been cooking up on the border of Tuscia, La Badia Estate. First, it should be stated that it was where Vanderpump Villa was filmed, which maybe now I want to watch. But more interestingly, it’s a former Benedictine Abbey dating to the 6th century and has a striking medieval tower that will one day be all over the right Instagram tags. We’re looking towards a 2027 opening for this, which seems like a lifetime to wait. I loved this quote from Sciò in the BoF article, “This is what differentiates us from bigger groups, and people want to travel in that manner in the luxury space — they’re looking for places that aren’t cookie cutter…we have to be consistent about finding properties that have that uniqueness, then bringing the way we do hospitality to the table. I have to spend a lot of time there, in the hotels, because I know exactly how I want people to feel in the space.” And that, my dear Hotel People, is why she wins. Feeling always wins.
