Room 606: The Sas House and the Work of Arne Jacobsen

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Summary: Room 606: The SAS House and the Work of Arne Jacobsen
Review: The Dalai Lama was staying at the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel when I was in Copenhagen, a month ago, but happily Room 606 was unoccupied and I was able to see this one surviving fragment of Arne Jacobsen's gesamtkunstwerk. Denmark's leading architect designed this hotel-terminal in 1960 as the flagship of SAS, a major patron of progressive design, when air travel was still a civilized experience for a fortunate few. Fabrics, lighting, and furniture-most famously the Egg, Swan, and Drop chairs-even the stainless steel flatware and door handles were custom designed by Jacobsen for the hotel. Everything but the one room (which rents for about $575 a night) and the spiral stair in the lobby has now been changed. Sheridan, a New York architect, employs a wealth of period photos and sketches to recreate every facet of the original and places it in the context of Jacobsen's earlier work. The result is a gem of lucid scholarship. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)