My Urban Garden Deco Guide

Just read this and have to share it : I just love the combination of colors, the slate firepit and the aquarium type lane pool used in a hotel presented in detail in the NY Times online. It goes to prove you can stay in an understated chic style without giving into the 'Beige' all teck and aluminium attitude!

'At first glance, La Purificadora, a new hotel in Puebla, 90 miles southeast of Mexico City, doesn’t look like it was designed by Ricardo Legorreta. For one thing, the colors are neutral (there’s some purple, but only in the furniture). “Imagine, we’re this young hotel company, putting conditions on the most important living architect in Mexico,” said Rafael Micha, managing partner of Grupo Habita, the company that operates the hotel and insisted that the architect tone down his color palette. “At first he was a bit hesitant.” But Mr. Legorreta, near right, now in partnership with his son, Victor, far right, finally agreed to turn the 1884 water purification factory into a 26-room hotel. “When you work around a historical building you do a lot of things you would never accept in a new structure,” said the younger Legorreta. The architects couldn’t touch the facade, and preserved the original walls in the lobby. The result: spaces like the firepit and pool that nod to modernism but remain true to the 19th century. Information: www.lapurificadora.com. RIMA SUQI'