Last year, the 22-story hotel was awarded a one-key designation from Michelin's travel guide. Later in 2024, the hotel's crown jewel restaurant, Stillwell's Steakhouse and Bar, landed in the Michelin Guide as a recommended restaurant. Other awards the hotel has racked up include Esquire's "Best New Hotels in 2024" and Travel and Leisure's "It List, 100 Best New Hotels of the Year."
The name Swexan pays tribute to founder Gabriel Barbier-Mueller's Swiss and Texan heritage; he was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and earned his undergraduate degree at SMU. The 134-suite hotel near Pearl Street and Cedar Springs Road offers individually unique rooms dressed in art and large lavish bathrooms. There's an infinity pool on the roof, which we've yet to get our day passes to (it's actually only available to guests, but we can get a glimpse in the Instagram reel below).
A signature double queen room runs about $600 a night if you and your besties want to split it up for a couple of nights.
We're smitten with Stillwell's steak dinners and deviled eggs topped with candied bacon during happy hour at the bar. Stillwell's and every restaurant in the Harwood fiefdom draw from HWD, the company's beef program, which manages cattle in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.
The hotel has five restaurants and bars. The Salvador Dali-inspired bar Babou, on the basement level, offers live jazz on Thursday nights. Leonie, a tiara atop Hotel Swexan, offers one of the city's most exclusive tea services; it's also only for hotel guests.
Swexan is in the center of the Harwood District, just blocks from the American Airlines Center and many other Harwood properties, including the pub Harwood Arms, pizza spot Poco Fiasco, NDA Brasserie and the French cafe Mercat Bistro, which is also a Michelin-recommended restaurant.
The Harwood District is also home to The Samurai Collection, which is spread out throughout the 19-block area, as well as other art installations and grand green spaces.
The hotel was designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. As the Time article notes, its "minimalist exterior belies the heart-quickening maximalism found inside, where every nook and corner offers a surprise (think astounding art pieces, rich fabrics, repurposed vintage fireplaces, retro chandeliers, and gleaming marble)."
The Time unranked list of the world's 100 Greatest Places of 2025 includes both paid submissions and editorial picks.
