Hotel Lotus Tree is a hotel for women located in Union Square in New York City. The interior design of the hotel is inspired by themes and motifs in Florine Stettheimer’s paintings.

Florine Stettheimer was an American modernist painter active during the early 1900s. She employed a feminine and theatrical style, depicting her friends and family in sumptuous images of New York social life that reflected her own experiences in the city. Stettheimer rarely showed her works in public exhibitions, preferring to display them in the homes of collectors and friends. As a result, she was not critically or publicly appreciated during her lifetime. After her death on May 11, 1944, in New York, her good friend Marcel Duchamp organized a 1946 retrospective of her work at MoMA.

Inspired by Stettheimer's legacy and the whimsy of her paintings, I wanted my hotel project to provide women with a sanctuary from the hectic pace of their lives right in the heart of New York City. Like her paintings, which feature recurring images of flowers and women in repose, the lobby of Hotel Lotus Tree is filled with flower and petal imagery, down to the shape of the reception desk and the chaise longue seating area.

Hotel Lotus Tree is furnished with antique and repurposed furniture to promote sustainability and create the feeling of being surrounded by found treasures. The upholstery is made of woven recycled fibers, recalling the status of weaving as a historically female art form that offered women an occasion to enjoy one another’s company and creativity.

The only human subjects in Stettheimer's paintings are women. Following her lead, I designed Hotel Lotus Tree to celebrate femininity, women’s social and private lives, playfulness, and, above all, relaxation. The hotel is intended to provide women with a haven, a space offering a much-needed break from the bustling pace of daily life in New York City.