Daxton Hotel, Detroit

Located in Birmingham, a refined and highly walkable suburb just thirty minutes north of downtown Detroit, the Daxton Hotel brings an unexpected, avant-garde edge to the local luxury scene. Conceived by local entrepreneur Mark Mitchell and opened in the spring of 2021, this striking boutique property was designed by the Chicago-based architectural firm Booth Hansen, who crafted a minimalist glass and stone exterior that seamlessly blends into the historic Old Woodward Avenue streetscape.

Inside, the property sheds all minimalism to look more like a high-end, cutting-edge gallery than a traditional stay. The hotel features an expansive, world-class collection of over 400 original pieces of multi-media and street art curated by Saatchi Art, representing emerging artists from eighty different countries. It gives the public spaces a colorful, rebellious spirit, complete with a massive Geode-inspired metal bar structure and a custom, nine-foot-tall sculpture known as the “Daxton Bunny.”

The artistic storytelling continues right into the hotel’s flagship restaurant, Madam, which serves up locally sourced American fare beneath massive, twelve-foot-tall portraits of women created by Dutch artist Karin Vermeer. The suites on the fifth floor offer private outdoor terraces, while a sprawling second-level green roof courtyard gives guests a tranquil place to unwind above the bustling avenue below.

The hotel serves as an ideal baseline for exploring the wider Detroit metro area’s premium cultural attractions. You are just a short three-mile drive from the Detroit Zoo and the Somerset Collection’s luxury shopping, and only four miles from the legendary Cranbrook Art Museum and Institute of Science. When you want to catch a game or a show, the major stadiums of downtown Detroit—like Ford Field and Comerica Park—are an easy, straight-shot drive down the road.