Philadelphia, USA · Four-Star · ★★★★
Kimpton Hotel Palomar Philadelphia
Beaux-Arts bones, Kimpton polish, and a Rittenhouse address. The best-priced design hotel in Center City.
Beaux-Arts bones, Kimpton polish, and a Rittenhouse address. The best-priced design hotel in Center City.
"A 1929 Beaux-Arts office tower restyled by Kimpton with the kind of confident colour palette that most chain hotels never attempt. One block from Rittenhouse Square, with a free wine hour at six and a serious restaurant on the ground floor."
The Architects Building at 117 South 17th Street was completed in 1929 by Ritter and Shay, a firm whose other Philadelphia work includes the U.S. Custom House. It was conceived as a tower for the city's architectural profession — a building made by architects, for architects, with the Beaux-Arts ornamentation, brass details, and proportional restraint that the period required of its serious commercial work. The bones of that original commission are still entirely visible, which is the point. Many hotels in this category begin life as hotels. The Palomar began life as something better.
Kimpton acquired the building and reopened it as Hotel Palomar in 2009, a careful conversion that left the historic envelope intact while gutting the office floors for 230 guest rooms across roughly 25 stories. The interior design language is recognisably Kimpton — bold colour, layered pattern, art that takes a position rather than apologising for itself — but the Palomar property leans more architectural than its sister hotels in the brand. Public spaces showcase the building's original geometry. Rooms are unusually generous for a Center City hotel of this price tier, and the corner units on the higher floors deliver views across Rittenhouse Square.
Square 1682, the ground-floor restaurant named for the year William Penn laid out the city's grid, is a more serious dining proposition than most hotel restaurants in Philadelphia. The menu is contemporary American with a market sensibility and a wine list that takes Pennsylvania's regional producers seriously. The cocktail bar at the front, facing 17th Street, is a credible drinking address in its own right — Center City professionals stop in after work, which is the cleanest signal a hotel bar can give. Breakfast for guests is taken at the same room and is a quietly good way to start a day in Philadelphia.
The 230 rooms are organised across nine categories from Standard Kings up through the Palomar Suite, with most travellers landing in the Premium or Deluxe tiers. The signature touches that have made Kimpton a category leader for two decades are all present: leopard-print robes, in-room yoga mats, complimentary bicycles to borrow at the bell desk, pet-friendly policies extended to almost any animal. The free hosted wine hour every evening at five o'clock in the lobby remains the best version of this practice in Philadelphia — not a token gesture but a genuinely social half hour, attended by guests and the occasional neighbourhood regular.
The Rittenhouse Square location is the third reason the Palomar makes our list at this price point. The square itself is one block south, the Rittenhouse Hotel and the city's most serious shopping corridor are the same distance, and the 19th Street SEPTA line for the airport and 30th Street Station is two blocks west. Within a fifteen-minute walk you can reach the Kimmel Center, the Comcast towers, the Barnes Foundation, the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps, and the entirety of the Center City office district. For the rate, this is the most efficient address in Philadelphia.
For couples who are returning to Philadelphia rather than visiting it for the first time, the Palomar delivers a more confident anniversary stay than the obvious five-star options nearby. Book a higher-floor corner room facing Rittenhouse Square, walk to dinner at a.kitchen or Vetri, and finish with a nightcap at Square 1682's bar. The room rate leaves enough headroom for a properly memorable dinner, which is the trade most anniversary couples actually want to make.
The Palomar is one of Philadelphia's best solo hotels. The wine hour gives the lobby a sociable register without forcing it. The borrowable bicycles take you down to Spruce Street Harbor in twenty minutes. The Rittenhouse Square location means you can walk to the Barnes, the museum, and the Reading Terminal Market without ever ordering a car. Request a Deluxe King with the in-room yoga mat, take breakfast in Square 1682, and use the rest of the day at your own pace.
For corporate travellers calling on Comcast, Independence Blue Cross, or the Center City law firms, the Palomar is a straightforward choice. The address is walking distance to nearly every meeting that matters in Philadelphia, the in-room work setup is properly considered, and Square 1682 functions perfectly well as a breakfast-meeting venue. The hosted evening wine hour saves you the awkwardness of suggesting a hotel-bar drink with a client. WiFi is fast and complimentary throughout.
Rates checked May 2026. Price may vary by date.
The Palomar gives you the best Center City address at the lowest credible design-hotel rate. The wine hour, the bicycles, and Square 1682 do the rest.
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