Hyatt Hotels opens Thompson Palm Springs, located along the Palm Canyon Drive downtown. The new Thompson Hotels property is the first project between Hyatt and Dallas-based HALL Group.
Thompson Palm Springs has 168 bungalow-inspired guestrooms, including 18 suites with private balconies. Thompson Palm Springs will debut an exclusive adults-only tower, Upper Stories, later this year. Situated in a private enclave at the hotel’s edge, Upper Stories will house a separate collection of 42 guestrooms with five suites, with a private pool and lounge reserved for Upper Stories’ guests.
Thompson Palm Springs has Lola Rose Grand Mezze, a Levantine-inspired dining destination from executive chef Quentin Garcia, which feeds out to a skyline pool and swim club overlooking the San Jacinto Mountains.
The hotel will have two additional dining concepts, including a Hall Napa Valley Tasting Room, expected to open in 2024, which will showcase a selection of high-quality wines from Hall, Walt and Baca’s northern California vineyards, and a new, ground-floor Mediterranean concept from Melissa & Matt Hermer’s Boujis Group, Bar Issi, slated to open in early 2025.
The hotel also has a custom art collection sourced by Shore Art Advisory, more than 30,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, a fitness studio with TRX and Peloton equipment and more than 20,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor event space.
“Thompson Palm Springs infuses new energy into the rich cultural heritage of Palm Springs, offering a place where everyone who walks through the door feels welcome and at home,” General Manager Jeffrey Miller said in a statement. “The hotel is intertwined with the support and engagement of the local community, and we are pleased to debut the thoughtfully curated space designed to reflect the vibrant spirit of the great city of Palm Springs.”
The Design
A collaboration between SMS Architecture and B2 Design Co., Thompson Palm Springs took inspiration from the city’s history as a destination for bespoke modern architecture and the intuitive aesthetic of the Thompson brand, to create an atmosphere of city sophistication in a serene environment. The exteriors were crafted by SMS Architecture to emulate a gateway into Palm Springs’ Design District through playful geometry blended with a mid-century style framework. B2 Design Co. infused the interiors with a thoughtful mix of desert influences—channeling subtle nods to the surrounding landscape with the use of soft stone, light woods and neutral furnishings, all beautifully accented with brass fixtures and the vibrant colors featured in the hotel’s curated and commissioned artworks.
Featuring an open-air design, the lobby has lushly lined pathways and bespoke works of art. Inside, there are warm natural hues complemented by soft pops of greens and wood-like textures to emulate the outdoor landscape. Guestrooms range in size from king and double queen, up to the sprawling 1,750 square foot Thompson Suite. All guestrooms feature private balconies with views of the surrounding skyline and San Jacinto Mountain range, flatscreen TVs, Sferra linens, signature D.S. & Durga bath amenities, robes and slippers, black-out curtains, curated minibars and a selection of in-room coffees and teas.
Thompson Palm Springs houses its own collection of curated works from Craig and Kathryn Hall’s long-time partner Virginia Shore of Shore Art Advisory, building on the arts experience across the city. The diverse, contemporary and eclectic works are sourced from local and international artists with varied backgrounds and perspectives. These works are showcased through a variety of mediums from murals and sculptures to paintings and mixed-media pieces.
The hotel’s facade has an attention-grabbing rainbow-colored mosaic bands of shimmering glass tiles titled "The Land is Speaking ... Are You Listening" (2022), which was conceived of by renowned artist Jeffrey Gibson, expressing his deep appreciation for the earth and the kinship shared with the natural world.
A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson is known for combining aspects of traditional Native American art with references to Modernism and contemporary pop culture. Shore worked closely with Gibson and fabricator Stephen Miotto to bring this mosaic to fruition.
Gibson’s work is included in the collections of major art museums across the world, and he made headlines in 2024 for his inclusion in the 60th Venice Biennale, which marked the first solo presentation of an Indigenous artist for the U.S. Pavilion.
Inside the hotel lobby, guests will find a wall-mounted sculpture by Gerald Clarke. The artist created Continuum Basket: Creation (2023) using recycled aluminum cans that he crushed and arranged into graphic motifs based on traditional Cahuilla basket designs. Clarke is a tribal member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and lives on the Cahuilla Indian reservation with his family on their ancestral land near Anza, California. Through his art, he honors the legacy and process of Cahuilla basket makers: the women who gather grasses and natural materials from the surrounding desert, using their hands to pound and split the reeds in preparation for weaving. In a contemporary twist, Clarke sources his materials from the same land, but instead collects the beer and soda cans he finds littered across the landscape, transforming man-made waste into large-scale sculptures that speak to his cultural heritage.