Gastwerk Hotel Hamburg

Though it loses something in translation, Gastwerk is a pun on the building’s original function — a gaswerk, or gasworks — and on its new one, that of a ‘guest works,’ or a hotel. This is a textbook reclamation of a decaying heavy industrial site, a trend that takes Americans’ appetite for loft living one step further: while New York artists inhabit posh city lofts, German photographer Andreas Gursky lives in a converted power plant in Düsseldorf—and while it may seem edgy in England or the US to convert a warehouse or printing press into a hotel, it can’t be long before the Germans make a hotel from a nuclear plant or a drydock on the Baltic Sea.

Happily the hotel’s execution lives up to the novelty of the concept; the rooms are uncannily bright and airy, many with floor-to-ceiling windows, and the interior design is modern yet accessible — though a favorite of design junkies and architectural trainspotters, Gastwerk is a hotel first, and a comfortable one at that. From the humblest rooms to the most lavish suites the style is arresting, in exposed brick and muted colors, with classic high-design furniture alongside modern musts like iHome docking stations and high-speed internet.

Public amenities include extensive business and conference facilities as well as a spa and a guest-pass arrangement with a nearby gym, and the hotel's new restaurant serves a mix of the cuisines of five continents. The location is not quite downtown, though it’s just a short cab ride to the city center, and the creative industries are beginning to migrate toward the Gastwerk’s neighborhood, bringing the best in restaurants and nightlife with them.