The Pure

"Fans of the austere contemporary design that forms the back-bone of the Design Hotel concept will love this new fifty room hipster tucked away in a non-descript side street near Frankfurt’s main train station. Like most design hotels, this place is mostly self-service—you carry your own bags and no one fusses over you when you arrive in the stream-lined all-white lobby,, which has sort of “Clockwork Orange” or Courreges gestalt right down to the rounded edges on most furniture and backlit bar which also serves as the reception desk. The Wenge parquet-floored rooms are high-ceilinged, decently sized and all-white with square accordion shades on over-head fixtures, white-leather-upholstered head boards, and wall-mounted media centers (TV, Musicbox). A small but well-equipped workout room, glass-walled sauna and steam shower form a wellness center in the basement, and if the hotel has no restaurant or room-service, Frankfurt’s best pizza place, 7 Bello is just a few doors down and does takeaway. If this place is comfortable and a good buy for Frankfurt, a few design idiosyncracies—the long back panel of the desk meant heavy-duty furniture shifting to plug in a lap top and a lack of insulation can mean undesired intimacy with one’s neighbors—should remind groovy architects and interior designers that style should never prevail over substance. Lots of welcome details, like free wireless internet access, great Thai herbal toiletries, and feather duvets, put this place a head or two above other center-city style contenders"