Tourists
A 1960s motel reimagined by Wilco's bassist and a Brooklyn design crew. Sea Ranch on the Hoosic River.
Tourists is the reason the Berkshires boutique scene got a second act. In 2018, a partnership that includes John Stirratt (the bassist from Wilco), the founder of Brooklyn Magazine, and the former chef of San Francisco's Bar Tartine bought a 1960s roadside motel on the Hoosic River. Ben Svenson's development firm Broder led the design with architect Hank Scollard, taking Sea Ranch — that quasi-utopian redwood-clad community on the Sonoma coast — as the reference.
The result is 48 rooms in long, low, cedar-clad buildings that step down the riverbank. The architecture stays out of the way. The rooms are quiet — natural materials, generous windows, almost no pattern. A suspension bridge crosses the Hoosic to 55 acres of trails. The restaurant is a proper restaurant. The pool is saltwater. There's a sauna. Everything on the property is LEED Platinum-eligible and the air in each room is swapped out every hour.
What Tourists gets right that most design hotels don't: the design doesn't ask to be photographed. It just makes the stay better.
Who it's for: People who think the Berkshires are about Mass MoCA and Clark Art, not Tanglewood. Couples doing a design-first weekend. Anyone who'd rather look at trees than at wallpaper.
Who it's not for: Guests who want nightlife (North Adams is not that kind of town). Families looking for a traditional resort vibe. People uncomfortable with the Wes Anderson level of natural-material restraint.
