HIP HOTELS USA, Herbert Ypma (Thames & Hudson, 2003) This could well be the best hotel in the United States. The building is a magnificent Italianate mansion, the location is the picturesque Berkshires, one of the prettiest parts of New England, the town is Lenox - famous for its gentility, its classical music scene and its former resident Edith Wharton. The interiors are the most immaculate example of New York-based design and architecture duo Tsao & McKown's work, the food is easily the best in Massachusetts, if not New England and the service beats any city hotel I know. Wheatleigh has cottoned on the the kind of personal attention to detail that made the Aman chain so successful. There's no ugly front desk, no bureaucracy to greet you when you arrive via the immaculately groomed gravel driveway. Valets whisk away your car, your suitcases are transferred to your room and registration is a mere matter of signing your name. At night, while you are being spoiled by chef J. Bryce Whittlesey, someone sneaks into your room to turn down your bed and lower the lights. TRAVEL & LEISURE, April 2004 THE NEW BERKSHIRES Driving the transformation is a wave of new or newly redone hotels whose influence is being felt far beyond the emerald limits of Berkshire County... Wheatleigh, in Lenox, has become the most modern, luxurious, tightly run country hotel in the United States... The hotel doesn't just look good. Its restaurant is a high-wire act, with a challenging $115 tasting menu that elegantly surfs from fluke sashimi with water chestnuts to exotic clams with fennel gelée. The service throughout Wheatleigh is an easy match for that of any of France's palais hotels and untainted by the usual hint of obsequiousness. Handpicked by general manager Francois Thomas on hiring trips to Europe, the personnel have a palpable intelligence... CHRISTOPHORUS: THE PORSCHE MAGAZINE, June/July 2005 DRIVE AND DINE WITH THE BOXSTER S The elegantly appointed rooms are nothing short of spectacular. The cream and honey-colored fabrics are sumptuous; the polished hardwood floors harmonize perfectly with the exposed-brick walls. The Terrace Suite affords a breathtaking view of the mountains. The Tree-House Suite extends over two stories, creating the illusion that you're actually living amidst the ancient moss-and lichen-covered fir trees that surround the hotel. The restaurant is the realm of chef J. Bryce Whittlesey . . . After finishing my delicious meal, I decide that Wheatleigh truly gives new meaning to the term "sweet temptation." THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, FOOD, February 29, 2004 CUCKOO FOR COCOA: DO WE REALLY WANT CHOCOLATE IN EVERY COURSE? YES. 'Oh, isn't it good to be back!'' Red says almost breathlessly as we zip out of our midwinter New York lamentations and swan smoothly into a different class, almost a different era: the lobby of Wheatleigh . . . . We looked forward to staying indoors, safe and cuddly, and there are few indoors as serene as Wheatleigh's . . . . Also, the new executive chef, J. Bryce Whittlesey, had concocted a six-course all-chocolate tasting menu that intrigued -- and invited skepticism. Even after a tense drive up from the city fighting ice slicks, snow flurries and those without E-ZPasses who nevertheless get into E-ZPass lanes, the Wheatleigh interior almost immediately pacified. The hotel's charm doesn't hit you in the eyes with a brilliant chandelier or stroke of bold architecture. Its building and grounds are magnifico to be sure . . . its 21st-century incarnation radiates luxury through understatement . . . . Some consider Wheatleigh the best hotel in America. I can't say for sure, since I haven't stayed in them all. I can say that it has the best pain au chocolat, blackout curtains and shoehorn of any I've stayed in. And by virtue of its ingenious training program for young Conrad Hiltons, the sort of service where someone darts out to catch your falling handkerchief before it hits the floor. And the food? . . . . Whittlesey took over the kitchen two years ago, and the quality and imagination shot up directly. ''I spent the first 10 years of my life in Latin America, where my father was in charge of international trade for the Caterpillar Company,'' the chef says. ''My parents threw parties all the time. I loved watching my mother cook.'' Tall, square-jawed and fashionably unshaven now, Whittlesey at 15 biked to work in Miami pastry shops and restaurants after school. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and later spent five years at various two-star restaurants in France. His tales of bullying by sadistic French Uber-chefs could resurrect freedom fries. ''At first,'' he says, ''I was assigned to wash the pots, and they would toss their white-hot pans into my sink, scalding my hands, and then laugh about it. But I knew they were just having fun with the American.'' He left when the French government instituted the 35-hour work week, ''degrading the restaurant business and closing many smaller places.'' . . . Was Whittlesey's chocolate menu a gimmick, or could chocolate enliven unsweetened dishes without contrivance? . . . If food is fuel to you, turn the page and get on with your life. But if it's an adventure, or something more than an incidental pleasure, you'll dive into these dense and provocative creations. After two or three, Whittlesey's design, like Wheatleigh's, becomes apparent. The cocoa flavors intensify, from the barely noticeable striped-bass tartare with white chocolate through a delectable chestnut cappuccino to the volcanic head removal (yours) of the ''Velvet Manjari'' dessert. ''When the idea of a chocolate menu came up, I wondered if it could be done without imitating the Mexicans, who use it in a very pronounced way,'' Whittlesey says. ''The Aztecs considered it a sort of ancient Viagra. Supposedly, Montezuma drank 20 to 30 cups a day. But he had several wives to satisfy.'' Whittlesey finds Valrhona best because of its flavor -- and because it came up with Araguani chocolate, which contains 72 percent cocoa mass. (Most milk chocolate has less than half that.) ''With the striped-bass tartare, I use their white chocolate, which isn't really chocolate, for its high cocoa-butter content. It balances the lean fish texturally.'' The choices do indeed complement each dish: cocoa nibs -- the center of the roasted beans with the shells removed -- add a dark dimension to scallops and foie gras; because of its slight chestnuttiness, the Araguani emboldens a chestnut cappuccino; milk chocolate with orange zest gives lobster a citrusy, floral aroma gentler than lemon; Cafe Noir jus enhances venison because its accompanying seckle pear is poached in espresso, its liquid added to the sauce. Are these dishes improved by the use of chocolate? Certainly scallops, foie gras, lobster and venison can be brilliant on their own, particularly if they're as superbly prepared as they are here. Better? Not necessarily. Different? Definitely. Worth doing? Absolutely! . . . CELEBRATED LIVING: The Luxury Magazine For American Airlines Premium Class Passengers, Fall 2005 TOURING WEAR . . . TO WHERE Western Massachusetts flaunts a marriage of mountain ranges, that Taconic and the Hoosac, that together form one of New England's most spectacular settings. Here you'll find THE WHEATLEIGH, a 16th century Florentine-style palazzo set on 22 acres of leaf-gazing bliss. This regal 19-room country house hotel boasts one of the best restaurants on the East Coast and is within walking distance of Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Pops. Landscape oglers head for panoramic views from nearby Mount Greylock, a 30-minute drive, as well as the scenic way along Route 7 to Williamstown, near the Vermont border. ANDREW HARPER'S HIDEAWAY REPORT, December 2002 HOTEL OF THE YEAR GRAND AWARD WINNER Standing amid a divine parkland in the heart of the Berkshires, Wheatleigh is the most sophisticated country house hotel in America. The stately 19th-Century Italianate palazzo has been sensationally restored and now offers 19 exquisite accommodations, brilliant cuisine and flawless service in the grand European tradition. Contemporary and traditional furnishings, striking modern art and worldwide objets d'art accent the eclectic, elegantly understated Great Hall, which opens onto a terrace affording far-reaching views of the bosky landscape. A heated outdoor pool, tennis court and massage/fitness salons add to the pleasure of a stay. CONDE NAST JOHANSENS, 2002. THE MOST OUTSTANDING HOTEL IN THE UNITED STATES Wheatleigh is the perfect marriage of the grandeur of a 16th century Florentine palazzo with the elegance and comfort of the 21st century. This unique, luxurious small hotel is set within 22 acres overlooking the Berkshire mountains and lakes. Everything has been thought about from an internationally renowned dining room with an award winning wine list and the highest level of service through to a state of the art fitness centre, heated outdoor pool, tennis and massage facilities. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, April 1, 2001 BABY GRAND HOTEL The serenity you experience when entering Wheatleigh, the buff-brick hotel plunked down in the Berkshires as startlingly as a Christ of the Andes, may at first seem at odds with the luxury of advance word. No interior-design details scream "Look at me!" No ornate chandeliers or flocked and moneyed Louis XVI wallpaper shrieks opulence. And mercifully, no rude minimalist deconstruction confronts you, either. Instead, Wheatleigh's gracefulness seems effortless, like a turn by Astaire, a finger snap by Der Bingle or an illustration by Norman Rockwell (whose deceptively simple work is featured in a museum nearby). In fact, this hotel, which may be the most European small hotel in America, may--thanks to a recent renovation--also be the most self-effacing. "It took us four years to find the right architects," says Susan Simon, a former partner in a Chicago art gallery who bought Wheatleigh, an Italianate mansion in Lenox, Mass., in 1981 with her husband, Lin, a lawyer. They ran it successfully for more than 15 years as a somewhat fussy, back-to-quaint-style inn filled with chintz "and bedspreads from Sears," but the canopied beds and florid (rhymes with horrid) wallpaper finally got them down. In early 1997, they chose the architec-tural firm of Tsao & McKown for the renovation "because they heard us," Lin says. Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown, those rare architects who exhibit a flair for decorating as well as for building and who have worked at every scale from small (Ian Schrager's apartment) to huge (a six-million-square-foot commercial development in Singapore), began with the Berkshires themselves. "These mountains have a unique light--moody in fall and winter that goes steel-gray blue in the summer--not like the bright hue of Miami or Los Angeles," Tsao tells me. "First we studied how the light looked inside, how it went around corners." And so moldings are simpler in the rooms facing north to emphasize shape, more articulated in rooms facing south so that the shadows are sharper. When I mention that I hadn't noticed the shadows, he smiles. "Good. We think things shouldn't be noticed. They should be felt and sensed." The building itself is "such a hybrid--a bastardization, really: an American spirit set in New England in a sort of Palladian- designed-by-Jefferson style. The interior is ecclectically Classical," Tsao says. "And we approached it as if we were a family that had been living in it throughout the past century." The result is a transformation from 1893 (when a wealthy financier built it for his daughter) not just to the 21st century but into a sort of timelessness where nothing jars and all seems of a piece. Some hotels jerk the eye like jump cuts in a movie--outstanding object to outstanding object--but Wheatleigh floats you from space to space, welcoming you in each, as if filmed with a Steadicam. The experience is not simply one of unwinding; it is aggressively withershins. You arrive on a Friday, but the following day could be Saturday or it could be the previous Thursday--you'll never know unless you check an electronic something or other, and there aren't many of them around. The scale is pitch perfect. In contrast to the previous clutter, Tsao & McKown have created a consistent design theme in which just about nothing matches but everything fits, allowing for the juxtaposition of curved doors and contemporary planes, of vaulted plaster ceilings and stark smoked-glass fireplace screens, of lovely antique Venetian mirrors and the most Milanese of chairs. Some objects were designed by the architects; some are from a different period and place; all work together. Thick, oversize doors, hardware that clunks into place, shapely and unpredictable chandeliers and shades--if both God and the devil are in the details, God won out here. The grand entry and hallways, filled with mountain light, force your attention out the enormous bronze-encased windows onto the grounds. You are so enveloped by glass, light and mountains that the outdoors is virtually indoors. In one strikingly Gaudí-esque room called the Aviary, so present is the enormous pine outside that you might as well be sleeping in its branches. All the rooms soothe, controlled by a tight neutral color palette, with dark mahoganies used for tables, lamps and TV cabinets, all meant to work with, not combat, the vast Olmsted setting. Some rooms fare better than others: some are larger and some have grand vaulted ceilings and matching six-foot gilded mirrors, but all have meticulously thought-out comforts. Lights bright enough for reading that can dim to seduction level or relax you into a perfect massage (recommended--ask for Suzanne). Thermostats in the bathrooms as well as the bedrooms. The most intense water pressure this side of Victoria Falls. Vintage soaking tubs from England that cloak you in water--deep and narrow enough to turn you into Ondine. Raw silk bedspreads and linen blackout curtains that actually keep the light out. WEDDING DRESSES, Fall/Winter 2005 HONEYMOON: CLOSE TO HOME The pride of the Berkshires and one of most exquisite hotels in the United States is Wheatleigh, which resembles an Italian palazzo. This masterpiece of elegant vistas and secluded formal gardens would be very much at home on the shores of Lake Como. The interior is equally gorgeous with its arches, columns, garlanded fireplaces and Tiffany windows. The restaurant is magnificent, and the food is superb. It is an incredibly romantic place to start married life. BRIDE'S, December 2001/January 2002 HONEYMOON SUITE A Florentine palazzo? Not quite. A chateau in the Loire Valley? 'Fraid not. This jewel of a hotel dishes up Continental romance minus the jet lag.... Wheatleigh was built as a wedding present at the turn of the last century. One hundred and eight years later, it has emerged...wearing the unfussy chic of a Helmut Lang T-shirt.... The restaurant has been called the best in New England, and after sampling the herb-crusted rack of lamb, we're not inclined to argue.... But stylish as it is, this miniresort (only 19 accommodations) knows how to relax. Honeymooners who spring for the Aviary Suite find a snazzy sitting room that opens onto a terrace, while up the spiral staircase, a king-sized bed sits literally in the trees. Plumbing fetishists covet the tri-chamber bath, full of old-world fixtures that perform with all-American zeal. THE WINE SPECTATOR, November 2001 THANKSGIVING IN THE BERKSHIRES Berkshire County is an American classic, a rolling New England landscape dotted with clapboard farmhouses, white steeples and little towns with Rockwellian main streets.... But it's still possible to experience the region's more sophisticated side. The best place to do that, and to have the Berkshire's best turkey with all the trimmings, is at the Wheatleigh Hotel, in Lenox. The gracious Florentine Renaissance-style building, set in 22 gently formal green acres overlooking forested mountains, is a living emblem of the region's illustrious Gilded Age past. It's also a world-class rural getaway, painstakingly maintained by a fastidious, largely European staff.... The suave, understated decor celebrates the dramatic, high-ceilinged interior and the natural light that courses through.... GOTHAM, November 2001 MOST WANTED: WANDERLUST As November turns ever more brisk and thoughts of cozy escapes fill your daydreams, a trip to the plush Wheatleigh in Lenox, Massachusetts, is in order.... Expect the privileged and beguiling world of Edith Wharton with the luxury of serenely modern refinements. The only way to fully grasp Wheatleigh's distinct charms is to experience it firsthand.... Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown, the New York-based architecture and designer team, recently transformed the aging dame into a stylishly confident boomer with understated means.... Nothing's overdone; there's no chunky furniture and no clutter. It's comfortable luxury at its best.... For guests who prefer the extraordinary, there is the former aviary, which has been transformed into a two-story villa complete with a grand circular staircase, Ionic columns, and a separate wet room for bathing. The bathrooms are veritable masterpieces, boasting Czech & Speake appliances, narrow tubs that literally cocoon soaking bodies, [and] blown-glass light fixtures... TOWN & COUNTRY, October 2001 THE BEST IN THE BERKSHIRES Shortly before the birth of our second child, my wife and I decided that we were going to leave New York City--and our three-year-old son--behind for one last weekend escape. My wife was far enough along in her pregnancy that we knew a lengthy car trip was out of the question, and we were both sufficiently picky that we weren't going to settle for just any bed-and-breakfast or chintz-filled country inn. So where did we end up? Unable to think of a new (at least to us) world-class destination within a short drive of Manhattan, we booked two nights at the Four Seasons Hotel on East Fifty-seventh Street. It wasn't until after our daughter arrived this spring that we heard about Wheatleigh, in Lenox, Massachusetts. Actually, we'd known of the Berkshire Hills landmark for a while--the 19th-century Italianate villa had been the slightly less pulled-together rival of Blantyre, the very proper Relais & Chateaux property just down the road. What we didn't know was that longtime owners Lin and Susan Simon had subjected Wheatleigh to a rigorous four-year makeover by New York architects Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown that had, by all recent accounts, transformed the place into the coolest, calmest and least cliché-ridden luxury hotel in New England. With general manager François Thomas, formerly of the Montalembert in Paris, overseeing a young, Continental staff, the experience was reported to be utterly European--at once Old World and modern. As Thomas himself quips, "While the Concorde was not flying, we were the only European hotel within three hours of New York City." So in early May, my wife and I attempted another weekend escape, except that this time it was with two children and a baby-sitter in tow. (Although the management doesn't encourage young visitors, it will make exceptions on a case-by-case basis.) A few scenic hours later we headed up a long gravel driveway and pulled into Wheatleigh's walled front courtyard. Talk about first impressions: an ornate fountain splashes its welcome in front of the hotel's classically detailed brick facade; two gracefully massed wings reach out on either side to embrace arriving guests, while an equally handsome pair of uniformed porters waits in greeting under an intricate ironwork canopy. As the porters began to unpack our overstuffed station wagon, an assistant manager led us inside to the hotel's inviting foyer, which is known, somewhat deceptively, as the Great Hall. What a relief: nowhere in evidence was the self-important or self-consciously hip design typical of most "boutique" hotels. In fact, if Edith Wharton, once a Lenox neighbor, were to write The Decoration of Houses today, she might illustrate it with Tsao and McKown's pitch-perfect interiors. With its carved mantelpiece, walls of glass open to rolling green vistas and mix of antique and contemporary furniture all done up in beiges and browns, the Great Hall feels like the unerringly chic living room of cosmopolitan friends. Tsao admits that he and McKown conceived of the public spaces with an imaginary client in mind: a family that had lived in the house for generations, casually accruing furniture and art over the decades from around the world. "So pieces from Morocco, Antwerp, Paris and China happily coexist, as does furniture from the 1930s, the '50s and the present day," he explains. "It's the sympathetic colors and textures--really, the sensibility--that unifies the mélange." The house was originally commissioned in 1893 by H. H. Cook, a New York City financier, as a gift to his daughter upon her marriage to a Spanish nobleman. Designed by Boston's Peabody and Stearns, Wheatleigh was one of dozens of such extravagant confections that went up during the golden age of this summer watering hole. Set on a particularly pretty hilltop, it also had gardens created by the great Frederick Law Olmsted. Today all that remains of Olmsted's touch on Wheatleigh's twenty-two acres are century-old specimen trees that frame views of the Stockbridge Bowl (a local lake) and the mountains beyond. (The swimming pool and tennis court were added later.) The house, however, has fared better. "We never had any doubt that the building was a jewel," says Susan Simon, who bought the property, already an inn, in 1981, when she was running a Chicago art gallery and her husband, Lin, was still a practicing attorney. "We also new that eventually we'd have to do a big makeover. The problem was finding the right architect who'd hew to the old adage 'First do no harm.'" Enter Tsao and McKown, known for their sophisticated color palette and pure forms. With a few hotel projects already under their belt (the guest rooms of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas and New York's Tribeca Grand), the partners were eager to get their hands on this historic structure. Their work was extensive, but you'd never know it: old and new mesh seamlessly. The nineteen guest rooms were reconfigured (each has its unique appeal), bathrooms were renovated (some feature decadently oversize claw-foot tubs salvaged from an English spa) and new mechanical and electrical systems were installed throughout. A portico off the dining room was refitted with glass panels set within a bronze framework to create a delightful year-round dining space. And in every room, original decorative details were either restored or eliminated because, as Tsao explains, "much of Peabody and Stearns's design was ersatz Italianate--we're much more savvy about architectural styles today. So we simplified things." Our junior suite, located in a quiet corner of the second story, was streamlined elegance at its best. Filled with cool beiges and rusty reds, the room had vaguely Moderne chairs upholstered in velvet, a tall paisley headboard of the architects' own design and, at the windows, layers of curtains and Roman shades, which created the kind of middle-of-the-night darkness you'd ordinarily be lucky to dream about. There was a wood-burning fireplace, a bathroom large enough to have housed our entire traveling party had we not booked a second, smaller room, and a colonnaded balcony offering one of Wheatleigh's signature views. Other special touches: Frette linens and robes; complimentary baskets of biscuits and sweets; Maison du Chocolat turn-down treats; and, if you've still got an appetite, room service that takes the genre to new heights. We had arrived near sunset (and bedtime) on Friday evening, so we quickly ordered up dinner for the group--artfully arranged salads, halibut served in huge Asian-style bowls, sirloin steak garnished with potatoes that miraculously retained their crunch to the very last frite. Dinner was so delicious, in fact, that the next night, my wife and I descended to the dining room with high expectations.... we were not disappointed.... ...I'd say Wheatleigh's cornered the market on perfection in this neck of the woods. DEPARTURES, November/December 2000 WHEATLEIGH REVISITED It all started with the chandelier. "I remember vividly the day it shattered into a million pieces," says Susan Simon, standing in the exact spot where the ornate fixture, with its cut-glass prisms and dazzling 19th-century artisanship, once held sway. We're in the Dining Room of Wheatleigh, the "newly" grand country hotel in Lenox, Massachusetts, in the heart of the Berkshires. Once a private, Italianate villa, Wheatleigh has been spectacularly restored, renovated, refreshed, and refurnished, and Susan and her husband, Lin, are explaining to me how the whole thing came about. The chandelier, it seems, fell early on in the renovation when there was still some tentativeness about how far was "too" far. "The first thing I thought was, 'Susan's going to be terribly upset,'" says Lin, who discovered the chandelier on the floor. "So I waited until the end of the day when I came home to tell her. I was very surprised by her reaction." "It was liberating, absolutely liberating!" comments Susan. "I knew at that point anything was possible. We would hold on to what we could of the past; however, our real goal was to reinvent Wheatleigh for the present." And so they have. Nearly three years after l'affaire du chandelier, and a mere carriage ride away from where Edith Wharton wrote, Wheatleigh once again rules as the epicenter of Berkshire style and hospitality. The difference? This time around you and I are invited for the weekend as well. "Wheatleigh is their baby," explains Calvin Tsao, who with his partner, Zack McKown, is the architect responsible for the new Wheatleigh. "From the very beginning the Simons knew what they wanted, and what they wanted wasn't a museum." No one who's ever arrived late on a Friday night to be greeted by general manager François Thomas, or by one of his 62 mainly European staff members, could ever mistake Wheatleigh for a museum. In the wee small hours the fireplace roars; and in the Library there's smart conversation over Cognac and smoked salmon. Even by the standards of this rarefied Berkshire enclave of elegant country houses, Wheatleigh is grand, very grand indeed. But then it has been since 1893, when H.H. Cook, a successful New York financier, built Wheatleigh as a wedding gift for his daughter, who was soon to be Countess de Heredia. The villa was constructed on 380 acres by the Boston firm Peabody and Stearns, which brought 150 artisans over from Italy; the gardens were done by Frederick Law Olmsted, the 19th-century landscape architect best known for New York's Central Park. "The brilliance of Calvin and Zack," declares Susan, "was bringing Wheatleigh into the twenty-first century." The work of Tsao & McKown has been described variously as eclectic, postmodern, neoclassical, minimal, selective, restrained, and playful. Take your pick: They are all on view at Wheatleigh. The entrance, or the Great Hall, as it's formally referred to, which could easily have seemed cold and rather intimidating (think of those cavernous rooms at Xanadu in Citizen Kane), has been softened by several intime sitting areas--say a chair and a reading desk, or a Moderne-ish sofa upholstered in platinum crushed velvet. The lighting is warm and inviting. And with the hotel's great arched windows, the natural beauty of the Berkshire countryside literally envelops you. Everywhere you look indoors there's a connection to that world outdoors--whether it be in the abstract paintings by local artists or in the subtle use of colors that somehow manage to reflect the Berkshire palette: mustard, wheat, sage, and cypress. "It's about being in harmony with what's outside," says McKown. Both modern and yet deeply suggestive of a world gone by, Wheatleigh's magic is accomplished without gimmickry. One may quibble with a piece of furniture here or a painting there, but the overall effect is of an architecture and design that are profoundly compatible with and reflective of their environs. The story of Wheatleigh's transformation from then to now is a long and involved one, but it starts with the collaboration of architect and client. The Simons (he was a lawyer via Yale, Harvard, and Stanford, she a partner at an art gallery in Chicago) moved into Wheatleigh on June 15, 1981, three months after Lin first saw the villa while on a business trip from Chicago to nearby Stockbridge. That night--learning that it was for sale by the New York couple who had been running the place, unhappily and unsuccessfully, as a hotel--Lin called Susan to say he'd seen their future. Neither Simon remembers ever having wanted to own a hotel, but Susan flew out to have a look anyway. Two days and 48 sleepless hours later "we made them an offer and never looked back," says Lin. "We decided that once buildings like this one are gone, they're not coming back." Things could have proceeded comfortably for another 15 years, except that Lin and Susan knew that they wanted something different. "But it took us five years to find architects with the kind of sensibility we were looking for," says Lin. He discovered his dream team in The New York Times Magazine when he fell in love with an apartment designed by Tsao & McKown featured in its pages. The chic fortysomething Manhattan architects had worked with the likes of I.M. Pei, Richard Meier, and Rafael Vinoly before going out on their own to design, among other projects, the VIP lounge of Virgin Atlantic Airways, the interior of the Hard Rock Hotel tower in Las Vegas, the fifth floor of Bergdorf Goodman, and the library for a New York City public school. "In other words, we're eclectic," states the Hong Kong-born and Harvard-educated Tsao. "What appears stylish about our work evolves from a studied, earnest, arduous process of research and fact-gathering. We design projects that know their place." Collaborating closely with the Simons, Tsao and McKown worked "like forensic investigators, trying to fit together the pieces so that when the door opens the entire place seems all of a piece," McKown recalls. He and Tsao even studied old photos "so that we had a sense of what had once gone on." Theirs was not an attempt to replicate but to reinterpret, to preserve Wheatleigh's romantic past while updating it in a contemporary fashion. Take, for example, the bathrooms. The evening we checked in I was exhausted after the three-hour, post-work drive from Manhattan. I fell in love first with the white fire-clay tubs, several of which were uncovered in a London antiques store, shipped to northwestern Massachusetts, and hoisted into the second-floor windows by a massive crane. Other singular touches included limestone floors, wood-shuttered windows, and the handblown sconces whose soft lighting had even moi looking almost rested. There was, thankfully, not a high-tech anything anywhere. "Bathrooms," says Tsao, "aren't for watching TV and making phone calls." The bedrooms, which vary in both their style and configuration, are nevertheless--like the hotel in general--united by a commanding aesthetic, clean, clear lines, and an almost Asian restraint. At the end of one of the two loggias that frame Wheatleigh's circular driveway one finds the Aviary, where Leonard Bernstein stayed and played (his piano was actually squeezed into the living room) when performing at the summer Tanglewood festival. As reimagined by Tsao & McKown, a swanky downstairs room opens onto a winding narrow staircase leading to a terribly romantic, if teeny, room that boasts a jaw-dropping view of the Berkshires. Throughout the hotel--whether it be the phalaenopsis orchids, an antique Japanese vase, or a cashmere throw--one senses Calvin and Zack in every detail. "It is not simply a question of this is fabulous, that's fabulous, let's buy it and stick it over here," says Calvin, noting the light fixtures from Des Lampes on Rue de Beaume in Paris and a pair of antique lacquered-leather scroll boxes that he found in Souzhou, a small town outside of Shanghai. In the Dining Room one really sees the Tsao & McKown genius. Here the partners made one of the few real structural changes to the property--and it works. It was their idea to enclose the out-of-doors courtyard by artfully installing glass windows between Palladian columns, thus creating a year-round extension to the Dining Room. (Artisans from the same foundry that worked on the restoration of the Statue of Liberty were called in to do the intricate copper and glass installation.) And it's quite a feat: part Philip Johnson's Glass House, part Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon at Versailles. Then again, the Dining Room at Wheatleigh has been important from the very beginning.... METROPOLITAN HOME, November/December 2000 TRAVEL: THE BEST NEW PLACES TO EAT, SLEEP, SHOP AND VISIT - FROM THE BERKSHIRES TO BERLIN Visitors to the Berkshires (home of Tanglewood) can now be cosseted in one of the most stylish small hotels in the world. The 19 rooms and suites are furnished with top-drawer antiques, museum-quality modern art and luxe custom pieces by Tsao and McKown.