NEW Hotel

For Greek Cypriot art collector Dakis Joannou, restructuring the tired Olympic Palace into New Hotel has been a true labor of love. Throughout the chunky modernist building, chairs and doors salvaged from the old property reappear as artworks that awaken guests' senses. Thanks to interiors by Brazilian visionaries Humberto and Fernando Campana, who have earned a reputation for creating living art from castoffs, key elements of design and culture collide on every floor. From the spa and fitness area to the top-floor terrace, which affords one of the best views in Athens, the designs are consistently intense. Each of the hotel's 79 rooms and suites lets guests feel like they're a part of the vivid in-room installations. This theme even pervades the bathrooms, where blocky, sharp-edged washbasins based on the shape of diamonds reach into spaces normally left unused.