"The Eden au Lac has been a Zürich institution since 1909—a fine figure of a lakeside hotel. But now, having had some serious work done and reopened as part of Michel Reybier’s La Réserve portfolio, it has been reimagined completely. The ground floor is almost entirely devoted to the bright main restaurant and bar. There is a DJ booth and a sneaky little fumoir off to one side behind an unmarked door. The bathrooms are in a hall of mirrors of which Stanley Kubrick might have been jealous: half Versailles, half Studio 54. Indeed, the overall aesthetic is difficult to characterize—approximately mid-century modern but with a woody, chromey, nautical twist—designer Philippe Starck claims to have been inspired by “an imaginary yacht club.” The only significant difference between the 40 rooms is size. Splash out on one of the larger lake-facing ones, where the light bounces in off the water, and from which, if you step onto the balcony, you can admire the rippling silhouette of the not-too-distant Alps." - Steve King
