For all its gilded pomp and grand guests, the Hotel de Crillon had started to feel like a museum by 2010, when the 18th-century property was acquired by a member of the Saudi royal family. Two years later it was announced the Crillon would close for an upgrade, which its competitors the Ritz Paris and Hotel Plaza Athenee also did. If the decision wasn't a surprise, the results-just unveiled-are. Unlike that of its competition, which hewed closer to preservation, the aesthetic here has gone from preserved-in-amber ancien regime to a streamlined opulence that feels very of the moment. When she was selected by the owner to direct the renovation, Aline d'Amman, of the Lebanon- and Paris-based firm Culture in Architecture, wasn't a boldfaced name in the design world beyond the Middle East. The Crillon project will rightly change that.
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