MEETING LOFTY EXPECTATIONS.

Byline: - Eric Noland

NEW ORLEANS - The cookie cutter of the hotel chains shatters into a million shards at Loft 523, a new boutique hotel housed in a renovated 19th-century warehouse in New Orleans' Central Business District.

If you've grown weary of nondescript chains - where you awaken in the morning and can't immediately recall if you're in Kansas City or Cleveland - this place is for you.

To begin with, it's close to but not in the midst of the city's French Quarter. You can get there in a walk of a couple of blocks, yet the sound and frenzy of New Orleans' adult playpen is not in your face. We found the neighborhood of renovated warehouses and office buildings divinely quiet during our stay in early June.

It took nearly a year to renovate this building and convert it to an 18-room hotel, and although urban-chic elements were given a high priority, the accommodations were clearly designed more for comfort than just to show off.

Our room was appointed much the way you might personally outfit a refurbished loft apartment downtown.

The floor was bare concrete with throw rugs. The walls were simple and clean, painted a light gray. Furniture was used to create divisions in the room, and in the airy space - enhanced by 12-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows - pillars and pipes were exposed rather than hidden behind false panels.

The bathroom was an indulgence: an ocean of textured limestone, an Italian ``spoon'' soaking tub, and a two-headed shower with neither door nor curtain - you just walk in; its floor and drain are slightly recessed from the rest of the bathroom floor.

Other intriguing design touches included pressed-tin ornamental panels in the elevator and burnished copper sheeting on the doors to the rooms. The lobby is comfortably minimalist, with a floor of both hardwood and unglazed stone blocks.

Business travelers - and tech addicts - will probably revel in a 3-megabite wireless system that enables guests to fire up their laptops anywhere in the hotel. We, by contrast, were just thrilled there was a stack of local newspapers in the lobby each morning.

The hotel has a bar (it was all but deserted most afternoons) but not a restaurant. The property is affiliated, however, with the full-service International House, which is just a few steps away.

We also found the staff to be friendly and responsive, a contrast to the exclusive snootiness found at many such stylish urban hotels (W chain, this means you).

523 Gravier St. Rates from $199. [phone]; www.loft523.com.

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Modern art enhances the otherwise mininalist space of a room at Loft 523, an impressive boutique hotel in New Orleans' Central Business District.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor