In 1922, the Bank of Italy opened its Morgan, Walls & Clements–designed headquarters in Downtown L.A. Various owners spent time in the Neoclassical building over the next century, including, most recently, the NoMad. Now, the Hotel Per La calls it home, with interiors by Jaqui Seerman in collaboration with owners, HN Capital Partners, and operators, Sage Hospitality Group, that invests new ideas in the 10,000-square-foot property.
On the way to one of the 241 rooms and suites, each paying respect to the local art guests pass through in a series of Italianate mirrored archways and a reception area defined by a rippling plaster desk before a figurative mural by L.A. local Jessalyn Brooks. A game room in deep purple boasts furniture and artwork by local makers. Seerman seeded the double-height lobby with botanical-print seating and ample actual botanicals.
The main banking hall is now the sunny Per L’Ora restaurant, all with creamy millwork and palette-cleansing pastel marble; diners can sip on chef Courtney Van Dyke’s bucatini with Spam, egg yolk, and nori, and finish with ex-Jean-Georges restaurant pastry maestro Sohrob Esmaili’s chamoy zabaglione. The Venetian-style Café Ora, with its menu of espresso drinks and sweets, is the ideal start to the day. And up on the roof, a red-and-gold bar offers Coleen Morton’s group of on-tap spritzes—clink a pair as Saluti to the Bar Clara’s namesake, the first woman to serve on the board of the Bank of Italy.
