W Hotel Hollywood NYE 2011 December 31, 2010

The W doesn't want you to forget you're in Hollywood — the Hollywood of myth, glitz and glamour, not this still-seedy part of town. Guests enter on a red carpet stretching from the motor court through the lobby and onto the plaza fronting Hollywood Boulevard.

Tucked behind a renovated Metro Red Line station, the high-end 305-room hotel shares a block with the 143 luxury condominium Residences at W Hollywood, retail space and mixed-income apartments, an intriguing urban mix. There's a hotel entrance off the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but the motor court entrance is around the corner on Argyle Avenue.

There's much to like about the W. The lobby, or Living Room, is a knockout, a light-filled space 60 by 45 feet with a soaring 34-foot ceiling, a footbridge suspended overhead and a red-carpeted floating staircase. A stunning 18-foot-tall chandelier, a swirl of crystal prisms and fiber-optic strands tipped with tiny lights, manages to be both delicate and massive.

At cocktail hour, guests settle into black leather sofas or gather at the lobby bar, whose backlighted onyx façade lends a warm amber glow. At one end of the room, in front of a curving wall of mirror tiles, is a circular seating area centered with an oversized white croc-embossed leather ottoman.

Floor-to-ceiling glass doors open from the Living Room to the Station, an open-air space behind the Metro entrance with a bar, seating groups, two fire pits and a 600-square-foot pull-down movie screen.

The lobby-level Delphine Eatery and Bar, designed by New York-based Mark Zeff, is an inviting, more traditional space with a blue-green and white tile floor and a vaulted wooden ceiling with large fans. Blow-ups of French Riviera beach scenes and shelves with books and antique objects add warmth.