Le Meridien Columbus The Joseph Hotel
When you can’t get away for a vacation, a staycation can do just the trick. I was recently invited to check out Le Meridien the Joseph Hotel in Columbus, Ohio. The Joseph Hotel is the latest hot spot in the Short North (Columbus’ arts district) and they have just celebrated their one year anniversary.
The Joseph Hotel features 135 guest rooms in one of Columbus’ hottest neighborhoods. What makes this hotel unique is its’ extensive contemporary art collection. The hotel is owned by famed art collector, Ron Pizzuti. With his wife, Ann Pizzuti, they have been collecting art for over 40 years and they possess an extensive collection.
Our Room
We had a room on the 5th floor that faced High St. We were able to see a bit of downtown as well as the rooftops of the Short North. It was a fun perspective because as you can see from the photos, most buildings in Columbus are pretty low, so it’s rare to be up more than a few a floors for a view – unless you work in a downtown highrise.
Our room as well as the hotel stuck to a fairly neutral color scheme with lots of grey and a bit of black and white. I’m guessing the intention is to highlight the artwork. Each room has multiple art prints in it and they’re all from Ohio artists.
Our room had a king bed with soft, white bedding. The bed was truly one of the best parts of the room. Between the comfortable mattress and the blackout shades, I slept like a baby. For some, it can be hard to sleep in a bed that is not their own, so to have a great sleeping experience is definitely a plus. I know I am not the only one – when we met up with the other bloggers in the morning, everyone was talking about how well they had slept the night before.
The Lobby
On Saturday, we all met up in the lobby at the Soul Cafe for a light breakfast before going on a tour of the hotel and checking out the Joseph Editions.
The Lobby is home to one of my favorite art pieces in the hotel – NYT by KAWS (Brian Donnolly). It’s comprised of 10 bright neon circular canvases. Each one looks like it has a comic face on it. The neon colors really catch your eye in an otherwise neutral design scheme. Famous for his urban street art, KAWS’ is also known for his Macy’s Day Parade float and an album cover for Kanye West.
The Soul Cafe is open from 6am – 11pm. They are essentially a coffee bar by day and a cocktail bar by night. They also serve food throughout the day with changing menus according to the time of day. Breakfast is served from 6am-12pm; Lunch is served from 12pm-4pm; and Dinner is served from 4pm-11pm. I enjoyed the Greek yoghurt with honey and one of their Illy iced coffee drinks.
The Soul Cafe is home to another interesting art piece. The large lit-up sign is called West Liquorsoul by Nari Ward. Ward, originally from Jamaica, lives and works in New York City. The piece is comprised of found objects – such as the neon sign, the fake flowers, and the shoes. The neon sign originally said “liquor” and the letters were rearranged to spell out “soul.”
After breakfast in the Cafe, we went on our tour of the hotel. We took the stairs up to the second floor event space. In the stairwell, we saw an incredibly interesting art piece by Diane Landry called Solo Knight – I. It is a site-specific piece – meaning that the artist was asked to create a piece to go into a particular spot in the Joseph Hotel. This piece is composed of glass bottles and sand and the piece is motion-activated, so it moves whenever someone walks by. The second floor is made up of rooms for various events such as conferences and weddings.
The Presidential Suite
Next on the tour, we visited The Presidential Suite, located on the top floor of the hotel. It is comprised of two rooms – a bedroom with a spacious bathroom as well a large entertaining space with its own powder room. The Presidential Suite is around 1100 square feet, while the regular guest rooms are around 300 square feet. As you can see, it has some wonderful views of the city and would be a great place to entertain. It can also be connected to an adjoining room to create more sleeping space.
The Spa Suites
We also checked out the Spa Suites on our tour. You may remember my previous post about my trip to the Spa. If not, you can read it here. One of my favorite features of the Spa is the large soaking tub over High Street. One thing to keep in mind is that the glass is not one-way glass, so if you can see people – they can see you!
The Gym
The gym is another great feature of the hotel. They have plenty of workout machines as well as space to yoga and use some of the smaller weights. They also have this wonderful area with water as well some extras like these refrigerated towels and fresh hair ties – in case you forgot yours.
The Joseph Editions
We wrapped up our tour at the Joseph Editions. I checked out the opening of the Joseph Editions last year in this post. The Joseph Editions is actually located outside of the hotel, but it’s essentially across the street. The basic premise of the JE is that anyone can be a collector and it’s a way to make art more accessible to the general public. They also wanted to make a commitment to local artists and their work. The current exhibition, “To Paris, With Love” by Gregoire Moulin was a series of black and white photographs taken in… you guessed it – Paris. The images were beautiful and they captured that classic beauty of Paris. We were fortunate enough to actually get to meet the photographer while we were there and hear a bit about his thoughts and process behind the work. He said he wanted the viewer to feel as though he or she were going on a walk through Paris – and I certainly feel like he accomplished that with his work. Each piece is available as a limited edition print of 25.
Thank you to Le Meridien Columbus The Joseph Hotel for hosting us.
Le Meridien Columbus The Joseph Hotel
620 North High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215
(614) 227-0100
