Decorated in soft white shades designed to complement the natural light seeping in, the sense of harmony is underscored by details such as hand-crafted finishes, subtle splashes of gold and pops of earthy, auburn color.

“We decided that an orange color with a hint of red would enliven the space and attract attention, giving character to the interior and making it unique,” say VAAV on LinkedIn.

This holistic blend crosses stylistic borders to feel luxurious yet inviting: “Despite the classic character resulting from the function and importance of the apartment, we wanted it to also be contemporary,” add VAAV.

Costing 25,000 złotys per night, the Marriott’s Presidential Suite was not just cherry-picked for its refined luxury, but also for its security. Swift’s team has reportedly cited the exclusive access the songstress will have to her own lift as one of the reasons for the choice.

For VAAV, the specific nature of the Presidential Suite was an additional challenge: “For us, a very interesting element of the design process was adapting the arrangement to the unusual needs that accompany the arrival of important guests,” they say. “Usually, the entire floor of the building is booked for such visits. For security reasons, among other things, the apartment is connected to other rooms intended for service, e.g. personal security.

“Therefore, the apartment uses solutions such as hidden doors or additional entrances to improve its service.”

Quite possibly, though, it is not just the security arrangements that attracted Team Swift, but also the proximity of a Starbucks right across the road. As widely reported by the planet’s gossip columns, among the singer’s tour demands are the punctual delivery of a Starbucks grande iced caramel latte at 11 a.m.

Hotel Backstory

Swift’s arrival is but the latest chapter in the colorful story of the Centrum LIM tower. First breaking ground in 1977, plans for the iconic Warsaw skyscraper in which the Marriott is located were originally revealed in the 1960s. These were an exercise in fancy, with the earliest sketches envisioning a futuristic complex of towers linked by pedestrian bridges, escalators and cable cars.

Unsurprisingly, the 1970s saw the adoption of a more moderate and realistic approach. Significantly simplified, the new plans foresaw a towering HQ for the state air carrier, LOT, and a hotel that would allow for the convenient transfer of guests to Warsaw’s airport.

By the beginning of the 80s, the reinforced concrete core of the tower was taking shape. Dark clouds, however, were looming over Poland and the collapse of the state-controlled economy saw tools being downed in 1981.

It would take six years for work to resume, and only then after LOT joined forces with Austrian construction firm Ilbau and the Marriott hotel chain. Taking the first initials of this trio of names, the tower was christened Centrum LIM.

Within two years, the building was ready, partially thanks to the diligence of a team of Thai workers, and on October 2, 1989, it was opened to great fanfare by the US Ambassador, Jim Davies, the Mayor of Warsaw, Jerzy Bolesławski, hotel tycoon Richard E. Marriott, and the singer Andrzej Rosiewicz.

Speaking to Warsaw daily paper Stołeczna, Rosiewicz later recalled how he caused an incident at the inauguration ceremony. Tasked with spinning a gold-painted roulette ball during the opening gala, Rosiewicz held it up before cheekily announcing in English: “Solid gold! Goodbye!” Pretending to escape into the crowd, he was duly stopped in his tracks by the hotel director.

Attended by 2,000 people – four times more than the number projected – the launch remains a red letter day in the history of Warsaw’s hospitality sector.

From the outset, the Marriott became the epicenter of Warsaw’s whole-hearted embrace of capitalism. The world was changing, and so too was Poland – as the country took its first faltering steps into the free market, it was to the Marriott that foreign consultants, politicians and entrepreneurs headed.

Among others, the US Secretary of Commerce, Robert Mosbacher, was one of the early guests, and used his visit to hammer out the preliminary steps of a US-Polish trade agreement that would be signed the following year in 1990.

An article from the Time archives reveals much about the era: “For retired US executives who are looking for a second calling, opportunity is knocking in Poland,” it read.

“This week at the new Marriott Hotel in Warsaw, Robert Mosbacher plans to announce a program organized by US executives to advise Polish managers on how to think like American entrepreneurs and help revive their ailing national economy.”

It wasn’t just Americans that came. Nicknamed ‘the Marriott brigade’, the unceasing wave of foreigners were to play a central role in formatting the modern nation we see today.

Socially, too, the LIM was the place to be seen, with the on-site bars and restaurants offering a rare link to the Western world; corporate intrigue and hedonistic good times lived in symbiosis. These were exhilarating days.

With pickings slim in Warsaw’s hotel sector, the luxuries of the Marriott were not lost on foreign leaders, either. Just a month after it opened, it welcomed West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who was forced to cut short his visit after he learned that crowds had begun breaching the Berlin Wall.

Other guests included Michael Jackson, Joan Collins and Luciano Pavarotti. Less welcome, on six occasions the face of the tower has found itself scaled by ‘free-climbers’, including ‘the French Spiderman’, Alain Robert, in 1999.

Although Robert was the first to conquer the 140-meter LIM, he was not the last Frenchman to do so. In 2022, Alexis Landot and Leo Urban also etched their names into local folklore after completing the feat.

Speaking to the local press afterwards, Landot spoke of being confronted by policemen waiting at the top: “They were actually very nice to us, I think they were confused why we did it, but after talking to them they were really cool about it all – but we still had to pay a fine of 500 zlotys!”

However, it is for its associations with the American presidency that the hotel has truly earned its stripes. George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, George Bush Jr., Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have all stayed, with Obama causing a particular stir when footage was published of him working out in the gym in 2014 and 2016.

Although the Marriott cannot boast the priciest room in the city (an honor that goes to Europejski’s 33,000 złotys-per-night suite), it is perhaps fitting that Taylor Swift should find herself lodged where she is.

As Swiftmania seizes Warsaw ahead of the superstar’s trio of concerts in the Polish capital, it feels entirely appropriate that the all-American girl should choose a hotel that has been so integral to bridging Polish-American relations in the post-Communist world.