W Aspen ★★★★

A Modern Chalet Raised on the Bones of the Sky Hotel

South Spring Street ends at the mountain, and the building that closes it is deliberately double-coded. Rowland and Broughton gave it the grammar of the 1940s ski chalets that once stood around here, low-pitched roofs, deep overhangs, continuous balconies, then built it in Flint Hills grey limestone, thick-plank Montana timber and black steel. Painted railroad rails stand in front of the lobby storefront, a reference to the rail yard that occupied the plot in the silver years. The result is not a mountain pastiche and not a city hotel dropped in the Rockies: it is a piece of Aspen argued in stone.

Why It Works

Two of Aspen’s best rooms are in this building, and neither of them is a bedroom. The WET Deck, heated pool and fire pits on the roof, works in January and in July, which almost no pool in town manages. Hidalgo, the agave lounge that carries forward the 39 Degrees name from the Sky Hotel, brings the town in rather than serving guests alone. Add a hotel of only 88 rooms behind that scale of public life, and the arithmetic favours anyone staying: the party is downstairs, the corridor is quiet.

Why This Location

The address puts you at the foot of Aspen Mountain, on the quiet eastern edge of the ski base, with the Silver Queen Gondola a short walk along Durant Avenue and the restaurants of the core three or four minutes further. It is close enough to ski down to and far enough from the mall to sleep through a Saturday night. The hotel stores skis and boards and runs a complimentary shuttle to the airport, a little over four miles away, so a winter week here needs no car. In summer the same street opens onto the trails up Ute Avenue.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: design-led, social, Aspen in the seventies re-read for now

• Rooms: 88 guest rooms, four studio suites and a presidential suite, plus eleven Sky Residences of two and three bedrooms above

• Best For: design-minded couples, skiers who want après in the building, travellers arriving with a dog

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the black railroad rails set in front of the lobby glass, the one detail that tells you what stood on this ground before the hotel did

• Dining: 39 Degrees for breakfast, Hidalgo agave cocktail lounge and tequileria with DJs at weekends, rooftop bar service, all-day in-room dining

• Amenities: WET Deck rooftop with heated pool, hot tub and fire pits, cabanas, FIT fitness centre, ski and snowboard storage, airport shuttle, two pets welcome per room

• Attractions: Aspen Mountain and the Silver Queen Gondola a few minutes on foot, the Hyman Avenue mall and Wheeler Opera House within ten, Ute Avenue trailheads at the end of the street, Maroon Bells by bus from town

Rooms, Suites and the Residences Upstairs

The interiors run warmer than the W name suggests: timber, deep colour and a seventies palette borrowed from the era when Aspen filled with people who had left somewhere else. Most rooms open onto the continuous balconies that wrap the facade, which is where the mountain view actually lives. The four studio suites and the presidential suite take the corners. Above them sit the eleven Sky Residences, two and three bedrooms with full kitchens, aimed at families and groups who want hotel service without hotel scale.

39 Degrees, Hidalgo and the Deck Above Them

39 Degrees was an institution in the Sky Hotel and the name was kept rather than retired. Today it serves breakfast, while the evening belongs to Hidalgo, a low-lit agave lounge and tequileria with DJs on Friday and Saturday. The roof is the third act: the WET Deck stays open year round, the fire pits go on at dusk, and the cabanas fill in summer. FIT, the gym, handles the mornings. It is a small hotel with the social programme of a much larger one.