The Kimpton Arras offers an art-filled stay in the heart of downtown Asheville
Art was in the forefront when McKibbon Hospitality stripped the former Northwestern Bank building down to the girders to create the Kimpton Hotel Arras in 2019. Rising 19 stories over Pack Square in the core of downtown Asheville, North Carolina, the boutique hotel occupies the building’s first nine floors (the rest are filled with condominiums) and contains 22 commissioned pieces by local artists.
You are struck by several of them immediately upon entering the lobby. From the three ceramic trees by Eileen Powell lining one wall of the seating area to the giant leaves cast in a mixture of powdered natural stone and polymers by John Wayne Jackson that appear to float across the ceiling by the elevators, the design concept at the Arras takes its cues from the area’s mountains, forests, and rivers.
They call it “mountain modern.” In the 128 rooms, patterned metallic wallpaper suggests small flakes of mica, like you would find in the rock that makes up the Blue Ridge Mountains that surround Asheville. Cylindrical pieces by Lexington Glassworks and vases by East Fork Pottery grace niches in the 28 guest suites, while over every bed hangs a framed metal sculpture by Haw Creek Forge suggesting the sinuous course of the French Broad River. It’s a style that is at once elegant and contemporary, comfortable and organic. (Pro tip: Ask for a west-facing room to revel in sunsets over the mountains.)
Kimpton Arras amenities
Rooms are well-stocked with luxe amenities (robes, in-room refrigerators), but should you forget something, the items on Kimpton’s “Forgot It? We Got It!” list can provide you with many travel essentials. And if you plan to do some hiking and want to bring your pup along, feel free. The pet-friendly hotel will furnish Fido with a comfy bed, artsy feeding bowls, and doggie bags with pawsome treats.
Don’t have time for hiking? The hotel’s large, fully equipped workout room with two Peloton bikes offers the perfect in-house opportunity for exercise. Afterwards, relax by booking a massage by local Urban Exhale Massage Spa in one of the hotel’s two treatment rooms.
Each morning, you can help yourself to coffee and tea in the lobby, where you can also socialize with other guests at Kimpton’s 5p.m. happy hour. A cocktail at District 42, the lively lobby bar, is a fitting prelude to dinner at Bargello. Named for the Florentine needlepoint used in tapestries and upholstery since the seventeenth century, the restaurant serves a menu of Mediterranean fare including pizzas made in the open-fire oven, hand-made pasta, red-wine-braised beef short ribs, and local Sunburst trout.
While you’re there, take some time to roam the lobby and halls to admire artwork that reveals a fascinating mix of different mediums, all echoing Asheville’s natural environment. To wrap up your art-themed stay, walk across the street to browse the excellent exhibits at Asheville Art Museum, and explore high-end galleries such as Blue Spiral along Biltmore Avenue.
Asheville Art Museum
Through its excellent collection of twentieth- and twenty-first century American art, Asheville Art Museum shines a light on work by artists in Western North Carolina and Southern Appalachia. A total of 7,500 works includes the prominent group of artists who studied or taught at nearby Black Mountain College (1933-1957) as well as fine handmade objects by artists from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
From now until June 29, the museum is presenting a special exhibition, In A New Light: American Impressionism 1870–1940. This group of 100 paintings and works on paper from the Bank of America Collection explores how American artists such as Childe Hassam, Mary Cassatt, and George Inness translated the brisk brushstrokes, vibrant palette, and changing qualities of light found in European Impressionism into a visual language all their own.
2 South Pack Square, ashevilleart.org
