Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel by Moneo Brock Studio

Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican RepublicType: HotelYear: 2024Architect: Moneo Brock Studio + Pepe Deudero + Linette NardiPhotographer: Sergio López

Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel by Moneo Brock Studio in Santo Domingo

Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel is the conversion of a group of colonial buildings on Calle Las Mercedes in Santo Domingo, in the heart of the Ciudad Colonial, the oldest European city in the Americas, into a luxury hotel with 130 rooms arranged around nine courtyards. The Madrid-based practice Moneo Brock Studio, led by Belén Moneo and Jeff Brock, restored the historic houses and their great central courtyard and added new stepped wings behind the old facades, with interiors by Pepe Deudero and Linette Nardi. Operated by Iberostar under IHG’s Kimpton brand, the hotel was completed in 2024.

Central courtyard of Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel, a mature tree rising over a brick-arched colonial arcade with a timber gallery above and planters on the stone paving

The oldest city in the New World

Santo Domingo was founded in 1496, and its Colonial City, laid out on a Renaissance grid in the early 16th century, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The hotel stands among some of its oldest landmarks, close to the church of Altagracia, the ruins of the Monastery of San Francisco and the Hospital of San Nicolás de Bari, the first hospital in the Americas, and a short walk from the Alcázar de Colón and Parque Colón. The 3,680 square metre site takes in two historic buildings, described by the operator as a one-time schoolhouse, and the district around it is the subject of a wider programme of regeneration to which Moneo Brock has also contributed plans for Plaza de España and the ruins of San Francisco.

Brick arcade of the colonial courtyard at Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel, three round arches with salmon-pink walls and tall timber doors behind café tables and green chairs

Restoring the colonial houses

The conservation of the old buildings was central to the project. The existing facades on Calle Las Mercedes were kept and carefully restored, with their wrought-iron balcony, timber shutters and stone-framed doorways, and inside the original masonry, openings and doors from the colonial era were preserved. The new construction, around 6,360 square metres above ground and 3,890 below, is set back from the street so that the small scale of the historic centre is maintained, and rises as a succession of volumes in height that create new patios and avoid a massive block, giving a sense of openness and connection between the public spaces.

Courtyard of Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel at dusk, a large tree and palms between new wings with open galleries screened by green horizontal louvres

A courtyard garden and louvred galleries

The heart of the hotel is the central courtyard of the main colonial building, preserved with its old trees and native planting as a green oasis open to guests and to the people of the city. It has also been enlarged, doubling its area on an upper level reached by a broad stone stair between planted terraces. Around the garden, open galleries lead to the rooms, bringing natural light and cross ventilation, and are protected from sun and rain by horizontal green louvres and vertical glass fins that echo the surrounding foliage. In the rooms, a ceramic lattice in the ceiling and beside the balconies provides shade, and the building also harvests rainwater and uses solar panels.

Upper courtyard terrace at Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel, round tables and green woven chairs on timber decking under tall trees, with terracotta planters along the brick colonial wing

Restaurants, lobby and rooftop

The restaurants and bars spread through the old and new courtyards. Zola serves northern Italian food and El Patio offers more casual international dishes, with tables set out beneath brick arches on stone columns, palm trees and a rough rubble-stone wall, and a covered terrace with a green slatted pergola looking over the garden. Inside the colonial building, timber-beamed ceilings and exposed brick arches frame the lobby, where a loom-like timber desk stretches a woven textile across the room. On the roof, a solarium with a swimming pool, a bar and a gym looks out over the historic quarter towards the Caribbean Sea.

Restaurant in a courtyard at Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel, rattan chairs and set tables between palm trunks beneath brick arches on stone columns and a rubble-stone wall

Travertine, ceramic and wood

Local materials were chosen for their natural beauty and suitability to the tropical climate: travertine, ceramic vaulting and wood. The rooms pair pale travertine walls and floors with timber furniture, slatted screens and glass-walled showers, and every room features paintings of birds, some set into large timber panels above the bed. In the colonial wing, some rooms keep exposed coral-stone walls and old timber ceiling beams, set against carved headboards. The project received a Luis M. Mansilla Mention in the 2025 COAM Awards, was selected for the XVII Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism and longlisted in the heritage category of the Dezeen Awards 2025.

Lobby at Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel under a timber-beamed ceiling, a loom-like timber desk with an orange woven textile stretched across to a roller on a rust-red wall, before an exposed brick arch

Team and credits

Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel was developed by Megeve Investment Office and is operated by Iberostar under the Kimpton brand of IHG. The architecture is by Moneo Brock Studio, with Belén Moneo and Jeff Brock as lead architects, the interiors are by Pepe Deudero and Linette Nardi, the landscape by Estudio PWP and the lighting by CA2L, with Aparejadores ACC as technical architect and Constructora Aybar as contractor. The photography is by Sergio López.