"In the Swedish version of Monopoly, Norrmalmstorg is the game’s most exclusive square. Now a real hotel has opened here, and it’s knocking the competitors off the board thanks to impeccable style and service, not to mention a dream location close to the city’s best stores, the opera house, and the Old Town. White-hot interior design studio Claesson Koivisto Rune preserved the two nineteenth-century buildings’ elegance but added a twenty-first-century sensibility to the 201-room hotel. The ceiling of the atrium lounge is painted to resemble a pixilated view of a forest canopy, and below it hangs a stunning 22-foot squid-shaped chandelier made from a thousand pieces of vintage Orrefors crystal. Large rooms have a beige-and-gray color scheme, inspired by the Nordic winter, that isn’t the least bit chilly, and white-marble bathrooms with cool Byredo products. For dining or drinks, there’s the superb Italian restaurant Caina; a neat little 24-hour bistro; and the Gold Bar, where the American manager mixes the cocktails. The hotel even has an odd place in history: Circular marks on the marble floor in the fitness center show where, in 1973, the police drilled into the bank vaults that stood beneath the hotel during the "Stockholm syndrome" hostage situation."
