May 16, 2026

Deep-Dive: Tourists (North Adams) — What Wilco's Bassist Built

Tourists opened in North Adams in 2018 and quickly did two things most new hotels don't. It became the architectural reference point for its region, and it became a hotel that musicians and designers actively talk about.

The backstory: John Stirratt, bassist for Wilco, had been coming to North Adams for MASS MoCA shows for years. He partnered with Brooklyn design entrepreneurs Ben Svenson and Scott Stedman and a local GC to buy a failing 1960s motor lodge on the Hoosic River called the Redwood Motel. Over three years they tore down most of what was there and built what stands now: forty-eight rooms in a series of cedar-and-steel buildings that step down a hillside toward the river, consciously referencing the Sea Ranch of Charles Moore and Joseph Esherick in 1960s California.

Nine years later, it works. Here's the full review.

The architecture is the hotel

Tourists is a rare case where the building design is the product. The rooms are nested into a series of low-slung cedar-clad structures with big flat roofs, stitched together by wooden boardwalks. Every room has a floor-to-ceiling sliding door onto a private porch facing the woods or the river. The boardwalks end at a pedestrian suspension bridge across the Hoosic River to a 55-acre parcel of trails and a waterfall.

The details matter. Door hardware is custom. Cabinetry is local walnut. Lighting is thoughtful. The beds are actually the comfortable part — Casper mattresses in most rooms, which is a fine call. You don't walk into a Tourists room and catch a glaring compromise.

The one architectural trade: the rooms are smaller than they look in the photos. Most are around 300 square feet. If you want a suite, book one — the number is limited and they go first.

The grounds are what sells the repeat visit

The 55-acre parcel across the river is the thing people don't expect. Trails, a waterfall, a bathhouse, a firepit, Sunday-morning yoga on the lawn. The suspension bridge connecting the hotel to the trail network is a Robert Indiana-designed thing that'll show up on your Instagram whether you want it to or not.

The outdoor hammocks on the riverside porches of the rooms are the other move. In summer, half the hotel is on a hammock by 4 p.m. on a Saturday.

The restaurant

The on-site restaurant, The Airport Rooms, is a compact New American place run by a rotating series of chefs since opening. The food has had its ups and downs. It's fine. It's not the reason to stay at Tourists.

For serious dinners, drive fifteen minutes south to Williamstown for Mezze Guesthouse's Mezze Bistro + Bar, or ten minutes east to Field Guide in Williamstown, or stay in North Adams for the funkier, more casual options (Public Eat + Drink, Bright Ideas Brewing on the MASS MoCA campus).

The coffee program at Tourists itself is very good. The pastry program is very good. Breakfast is one of the hotel's best meals.

The MASS MoCA factor

MASS MoCA is a ten-minute walk from Tourists. This is the biggest single selling point. You wake up, walk to coffee, walk to MASS MoCA, spend six hours inside a reimagined 19th-century factory complex looking at serious contemporary art, walk back to the hotel, swim in the Hoosic, eat dinner. This is the best art-weekend structure available in the Northeast.

The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown is fifteen minutes by car. If your weekend is MASS MoCA + The Clark, Tourists is the default basecamp.

What Tourists isn't

Not a wellness hotel. No spa. A sauna on the property, a bathhouse across the river, that's it.
Not kid-forward. Kids are allowed and staff are kind; the vibe is adult-couple-design-literate. Kids under ten may not find it engaging.
Not cheap. Expect $380–$550 a night in shoulder season, $550–$750 in peak summer and fall. The suites go higher.
Not a party hotel. The bar closes at 11 most nights. The river is the entertainment.

How it compares

Tourists is the most architecturally serious independent hotel in the Berkshires. Its closest peers in the region are:

Doctor Sax House in Lenox — smaller (nine rooms), more historic, totally different mood. Doctor Sax is a restored speakeasy. Tourists is a new-build in old-building DNA.
Mezze Guesthouse in Williamstown — five rooms above a serious restaurant. Mezze is the pick if the restaurant is the reason to stay.
Granville House in Great Barrington — at the southern end of the Berkshires, five rooms, a Michelin Key.

Outside the Berkshires, the closest aesthetic peer is Piaule Catskill — also 24-cabin, architect-designed, forest-forward. Piaule is more minimalist; Tourists is more lived-in.

Who to send

Book Tourists if you're:

Doing an art weekend (MASS MoCA + The Clark)
An architect, a designer, or somebody who keeps a saved list of Sea Ranch references
Two couples looking for a weekend with structure (museums, river, hammock, dinner)
Celebrating something that isn't a first anniversary (first-anniversary people often want more service than Tourists provides — try Troutbeck instead)

Don't book Tourists if you need:

A destination-grade on-site restaurant
A spa
A hotel that entertains kids
A room bigger than 400 square feet

The verdict

Tourists is the rare new-build hotel that earned its influence fast and kept it. Nine years in, the architecture still works, the grounds still feel alive, and the MASS MoCA pairing is as good as any art-weekend structure available.

Independently owned. One property. No brand. This is the right way to do a design hotel.