Tour the Super-Hip New Hollywood Hotel That Isn't Interested in Exclusivity

The new Mama Shelter hotel just opened this month in Hollywood has chalk ceilings and public guitars in the lobby, iMacs pre-loaded with porn, and a bible and a copy of Keith Richards's book ("our bible") in every room, and Intelligentsia in the coffee shop: it's hip as fuck. And it's in the middle of Hollywood. But founder Benjamin Trigano (whose family cofounded Club Med) is hoping it doesn't get too LA in there. "We're for everyone, we're not exclusive at all," he says. "We're about having fun, we think fun is cool." Rooms at the hotel (there are 70) start at just $149 a night; each one has a king bed and one of those 27-inch iMacs, which are for TV, movies, internet, and porn, plus photo booth—the photos (once vetted) are sent down to a screen in the lobby.

Mama Shelter is already scattered around Europe but this outpost, in a 1920s building on Selma Avenue, is its first US location; design—which features loads of local art—is by Thierry Gaugain, former head of design for Philippe Starck, who designed the other Mama Shelters.

Aside from the photo screen and chalk ceiling, which for now features local artists' work inspired by their mothers, the lobby also has an extra-long pool table, message board, bar, cafe, and restaurant, with food from Benjamin Bailly, formerly of Fraiche and the Roosevelt Hotel.

The sixth-floor roof is still under construction, but around October should have a Muscle-Beach-style outdoor gym, bar, restaurant, lounge, and simple screening setup. Everything else is now open.

· Philippe Starck Designing a $150-a-Night French "Urban Kibbutz" Hotel in Hollywood [Curbed LA]