Ames Hotel

Citysearch Editorial Review. As a historic Brahmin business building reincarnated into an intriguing boutique hotel, the Ames Hotel amalgamates elements old and new. Its airy decor takes white as a base and adds seriously showy eye candy--like the silver leafy mobile sculpture hanging in the lobby, which is echoed in the illusory “Pepper’s Ghost” chandeliers in the corridors. Guest rooms have simple deluxe appeal created from an ad hoc mix of stark modernism and Federalist nostalgia. When this former office block for an old Boston family business was transformed, all was not lost of the original Romanesque architecture. Many features were tastefully integrated, including wonderful wide-plank wooden floors, a delicate mosaic set in a barrel-vaulted ceiling and the dramatic marble staircase.…