Room with a View: the Lakeside Suite at Baur au Lac

The Lakeside Corner Suite at Baur au Lac functions as more than a room; at its best, it reads as a coherent interior composition. Rather than an accumulation of objects, each element feels deliberate and traceable. Perhaps this clarity comes from its setting itself: poised at the edge of Lake Zurich, separated only by the waters of its private park, with the Alps fixed on the horizon.

Upon entering the main salon, the suite’s visual language is immediately established. Dominating the space is a stucco fresco wall artwork by Novidis, the Paris-based atelier known for architectural ornamentation and sculptural plasterwork, alongside one-of-a-kind coffee tables with Quartz Blanc surfaces that catch and diffuse light throughout the room.

The bedroom deepens the narrative. The headboard recalls the restrained classicism associated with André Arbus, the French designer celebrated for merging Empire influences with Art Deco proportions, while a Louis XV-style armchair introduces another historical reference point. Behind the bed, the walls are clad in gold-printed Fortuny fabric. Yet amid these historicist gestures, the doors create a deliberate interruption. Inspired by the bold geometry and graphic contrasts associated with David Hicks, they anchor the room with clean, decisive lines.

Inside the bathroom, Stucco Veneziano lines the walls, the lime-and-marble-dust plaster polished to a finish that evokes marble without fully imitating it. This is set against Statuario Venato from Carrara on the countertop and Bardiglio marble framing the mirror. The juxtaposition makes the hierarchy explicit: the stone defines the focal surfaces, while the plaster carries the surrounding field.

Here, the designers, materials, and historical references are not simply context for the interior; they are the interior itself. Against the suite’s heavier and more permanent materials, each decorative gesture feels intentionally calibrated. Since 1844, Baur au Lac has stood on this site, and the Lakeside Corner Suite carries that legacy forward through an interior that responds to history directly, with the same rigor of sourcing and intention that has defined the property across generations of family stewardship.