Yahoo Movies This New Japanese-Minimalist Hotel in DTLA Is the Perfect Base For Exploring the Arts District
Add Kodō Hotel to the list of the best and most unique places to stay in Los Angeles.
Modern, minimalist and boasting just nine rooms, the boutique hotel opened earlier this year in downtown L.A.’s Arts District along South Santa Fe Avenue just below 7th Street. Directly across the street from Warner Music Group’s L.A. offices, Kodō Hotel is tucked away on the second floor of a former Beaux Arts-style fire station that dates back to 1927.
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Travel aficionados may recall that this spot had a brief life as another boutique hotel, the aptly named Firehouse Hotel, which enjoyed a brief run after opening in 2019, not far from such hotspot restaurants as Bestia and Bavel.
Now the nearly 100-year-old Engine Co. No. 17 building has been renovated and reborn with a completely different vibe, trading in boho cool for a Japanese-ryokan-inspired aesthetic. Designed by M Royce Architecture in collaboration with gry space, the rooms feature polished concrete floors, low-to-the-ground king-sized and queen-sized beds and high loft-like ceilings. A study in grays, beiges and whites, the hotel is a spartan but serene respite from the urban-core streets of the Arts District.
The showpiece of each guest accommodation is the bathroom, which seems to float in the middle of each room, featuring a geometric freestanding sink in dark stone, a beautifully lit circular hanging mirror and a shower. The effect is both sculptural and sensuous.
Guests should be aware that the hotel does not have an elevator and the hotel rooms are reached only via a tall staircase. Rooms, starting at $218 a night, are available at kodohotel.com and booking.com.
For all the activity and openings happening in downtown L.A.’s Arts District in the last decade or so, there have been almost no appealing options for places to stay smack dab in the area. There is Soho Warehouse, which opened in 2019 with 48 rooms available, but it’s available only for Soho House members. Now, Kodō Hotel can put guests right in the center of all that the Arts District has to offer, from exploring galleries like Hauser & Wirth to eating at the Arts District’s plethora of restaurants — including one great café that’s right downstairs.
The property’s ground-floor Kodō restaurant serves everything from sushi rolls and omakase platters to salads and main dishes like Uni-mentaiko Cream Pasta with cured egg yolk. It features minimalist meets earthy design in keeping with the aesthetic of the hotel, as well as an outdoor patio and a private dining room that’s located in the fire station’s former handball court.
More dining options located nearby in the Arts District are Hauser & Wirth’s Manuela restaurant, Korean-American Yangban (right next door to the hotel), French restaurant Camphor (which has one of the best burgers in L.A.), Mexican hotspot La Cha Cha Chá, chef Enrique Olvera’s Damian, The Factory Kitchen and Baroo.
Kodō Hotel is the brainchild of Boulevard Hospitality Group, which also owns the historic Japanese restaurant Yamashiro overlooking Hollywood, as well as such spots as Durango Cantina on Melrose and the three-level Cork & Batter in Inglewood. Boulevard recently launched Nice & Sweet, a new bakery and coffee shop in Hollywood, located at 7061 W. Sunset Boulevard.
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