DESIGN / EX-US EMBASSY TURNS INTO ELEGANT BRIT HOTEL

Debuted on September 1, 2025, The Chancery Rosewood hotel is a design icon, reborn. Originally designed by Eero Saarinen and reimagined by David Chipperfield Architects, this Mayfair landmark is set within the former U.S. Embassy, a Grade II listed building. The hotel is an all-suite property, inviting guests into an immersive world of art, music and culinary excellence, blending heritage with contemporary luxury. It features 144 elegantly crafted suites by Joseph Dirand and eight bars and restaurants, including the European premiere of Carbone. 

At 30 Grosvenor Square, one of London’s most scrutinized modernist buildings has been given a second life that feels both inevitable and audacious. Opened on September 1, 2025, The Chancery Rosewood, 30 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, W1K, London, UK, occupies the former U.S. Embassy, a Grade II–listed landmark originally designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1960. 

Once a symbol of American diplomatic power, the building now operates as one of Europe’s most ambitious luxury hotels, balancing architectural restraint with a new sense of cultural openness. The transformation has been guided by Sir David Chipperfield Architects, whose approach avoids nostalgia or spectacle. Instead, the renovation treats Saarinen’s original structure as an authority rather than an obstacle. 

The building’s distinctive angular geometry and disciplined façade remain intact, while the interiors have been reprogrammed with a quiet confidence that respects the building’s civic gravity. Even the iconic gilded eagle sculpture, fabricated from B-52 bomber aluminum by artist Theodore Roszak, still presides over Grosvenor Square, its symbolism softened but not erased. 

Behind the project stands Qatari Diar, the state-backed property development company that owns the Grosvenor Square site and oversaw its conversion. Qatari Diar acquired the former embassy more than a decade ago and has retained ownership throughout its reinvention. Industry estimates place the total redevelopment cost at approximately £1 billion, making it one of the most expensive hotel projects ever undertaken in London. 

The scale of investment reflects not only construction and restoration costs, but the complexity of converting a high-security diplomatic compound into a hospitality address without compromising architectural integrity. 

The hotel is operated by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, part of Rosewood Hotel Group, which is privately owned by Hong Kong–based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, controlled by the Cheng family. 

The distinction matters. For that expect to pay per night beginning at 2000 pounds for low end, low season to low five figures for more premium suites. 

While Rosewood brings its global luxury expertise and operational philosophy, the real estate itself remains Qatari-owned. The Chancery Rosewood is thus a collaboration between Middle Eastern capital, a Hong Kong hospitality group, British architectural stewardship, and a deeply American mid-century legacy. 

Inside, the hotel unfolds as an all-suite property, with 144 accommodations designed by French architect Joseph Dirand. Dirand’s interiors are intentionally composed, favoring proportion, light, and material over ornament. 

Floor-to-ceiling windows draw daylight deep into the suites, framing views of Mayfair, Hyde Park, and the London skyline. A palette of warm neutrals and gold-anodized aluminum references the building’s original stonework without competing with it. 

Accommodation categories range from Junior Suites to expansive Signature Suites and private Houses, the largest of which are named after figures linked to the site’s diplomatic history, including Saarinen House, John Adams House, Kennedy House, and Chancery House. 

At the top of the building sit two penthouses, Charles House and Elizabeth House, each offering landscaped terraces, formal dining areas, full kitchens, and grand marble bathrooms that elevate them into private residences rather than hotel rooms. 

 Art plays a central role throughout the property. With more than 700 works curated by London-based consultancy Cramer & Bell, the collection is among the largest assembled for a European hotel. Rather than serving as background décor, the artwork is embedded into the architecture, with site-specific commissions by artists including Sir Christopher Le Brun, whose work anchors the main fireplace, and textile designer Sussy Cazalet, whose pieces animate the entrance hall. 

In guest suites, a series of commissioned collages by Anthony Grace reference American surrealism, U.S. landmarks, and Saarinen’s design legacy. Public life is concentrated at ground level, where the hotel reconnects with the city. 

Dining is conceived as a neighborhood destination rather than an inward-facing luxury enclave. The European debut of Carbone anchors the culinary offering, joined by Serra, inspired by Southern Mediterranean cooking; Jacqueline, a sculptural tearoom and dessert salon; Tobi Masa, marking chef Masayoshi Takayama’s London arrival; GSQ, a delicatessen and café with a retail pantry; and the rooftop Eagle Bar, whose wraparound terrace and vinyl-driven music program overlook the square below. 

Wellness descends beneath the building into the Asaya Spa, a 1,100-square-meter subterranean retreat designed by Yabu Pushelberg. The facility includes a 25-meter swimming pool, Technogym Artis fitness equipment, thermal suites, and the Taktouk Clinic, which integrates dermatological expertise with holistic treatments. The spa’s ambition mirrors the broader project: to function as a destination in its own right, not a secondary amenity. 

 Operationally, The Chancery Rosewood departs from traditional luxury hotel choreography. There is no conventional front desk. Guests are greeted personally and escorted directly to their suites, with fully flexible check-in and check-out times. Signature Suite and House guests receive dedicated butler service, reinforcing an atmosphere closer to a private residence than a hotel. What ultimately distinguishes The Chancery Rosewood is not simply its scale or expense, but its restraint. 

Asaya Spa

Despite the billion-pound investment, the building resists theatrical excess. It does not attempt to erase its past, nor does it trade on nostalgia. Instead, it reframes one of London’s most politically charged sites as a place of exchange, culture, and deliberate calm. In doing so, it demonstrates how modernist architecture, when treated with intelligence and patience, can absorb new life without surrendering its authority.

AMERICANA / SADLY THE UNENDING KENNEDY FAMILY GRIEF CONTINUES

Tatiana Schlossberg speaks at an event in New York City on Sept. 9, 2019. Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images 

Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of JFK, dies at 35 after revealing cancer diagnosis 

GUEST BLOG / By Kerry Breen, CBS News--Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of late President John F. Kennedy, has died shortly after announcing she had a terminal cancer diagnosis, the JFK Library Foundation said Tuesday. "Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts," read a message from her family. 

Schlossberg, 35, wrote in an essay published by The New Yorker last month that she had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in May 2024, shortly after the birth of her second child. She underwent grueling treatment, including chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants and a clinical trial for a type of immunotherapy, but the cancer returned and she was eventually given a prognosis of one year to live, she wrote. 

Schlossberg was the second of Caroline Kennedy Sclossberg and Edwin Schlossberg's three children. She published the essay announcing her diagnosis in November, 62 years to the day after President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. She wrote that she struggled with the impact of her diagnosis on her family. 

 "For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry. Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family's life and there's nothing I can do to stop it," she wrote. 

Schlossberg married George Moran in September 2017. The pair met as undergraduates at Yale University, The New York Times reported, and wed in a ceremony at her family's home on Martha's Vineyard. They had two children, a son born in 2022 and a daughter born in May 2024. 

 She had a career as an environmental journalist and author. "My plan, had I not gotten sick, was to write a book about the oceans — their destruction, but also the possibilities they offer," she wrote in her essay. "During treatment, I learned that one of my chemotherapy drugs, cytarabine, owes its existence to an ocean animal: a sponge that lives in the Caribbean Sea, Tectitethya crypta. This discovery was made by scientists at the University of California Berkeley, who first synthesized the drug in 1959, and who almost certainly relied on government funding, the very thing that Bobby" — her cousin, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — "has already cut." 

After her diagnosis, she said she focused on spending time with her family — especially her young children. "Mostly, I try to live and be with them now," she wrote. "But being in the present is harder than it sounds, so I let the memories come and go. So many of them are from my childhood that I feel as if I'm watching myself and my kids grow up at the same time. Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I'll remember this forever, I'll remember this when I'm dead. Obviously, I won't. But since I don't know what death is like and there's no one to tell me what comes after it, I'll keep pretending. I will keep trying to remember." 

 She is survived by her husband and children, her parents, her elder sister Rose and her younger brother Jack.