Well-designed sights to see

Wallpaper* City Guides

The editors of Wallpaper* magazine

Phaidon Press, $8.95 each

The problem for we design junkies is that our craving for architecturally pleasing buildings, well-thought-out rooms and inventive shops filled with high-style treasures never goes on vacation, even when we do. Fortunately, the newest additions to a series of guidebooks by the hip-seeking staff of Wallpaper* magazine map out where to see the best designed stuff in 20 more cities around the world.

The new San Francisco book leads you to Hotel Palomar’s Rene Magritte suite with a cloud-painted ceiling and a bowler hat on the pillow. A trip to Bangkok must now include an expedition to the white Lego-like Elephant Tower condo and office building and the tubular Bed Supperclub, dreamed up by Orbit Design Studio and perfectly suitable for a sea of Verner Panton’s white stacking seats.

Of course we all know to check out Roberto Burle Marx’s wavy mosaic promenade alongside Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, but with guidebook in hand, wander away from the camera-toters’ spots to the downtown Botafogo area and you’ll find Espaco Cultural Maurice Valansi, a bar with a vintage collection of midcentury modern chairs hanging above your head from the ceiling.

These slim (around 100 pages), small (about an inch taller than a passport) and photo-laden paperbacks are packed with brief but deep information that might enlighten even locals because included is information on the creative minds behind the decor, such as the sparkles in the Cristal Room restaurant in Paris, courtesy of Philippe Starck’s glass-and-mirror table and oversized Baccarat chandelier.

The Wallpaper* guides also direct you to design showrooms, shops and niche museums, such as the Bauhaus Center in Tel Aviv and Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Los Angeles book, released last fall in the first batch of 20 books, was a good architectural guide to what the editors called “The city of Eames, Neutra and ‘Googie.’ ” They applauded contemporary look makers, including architects Frank Gehry and Thom Mayne and interior designer Kelly Wearstler as well as the star-beckoning bars outfitted by Thomas Schoos and imaginative shops like TableArt on Melrose Avenue, referred to as “a honey trap for art designers and creative directors.”

I appreciate the books’ short list of suggested reading and websites about site-specific design and a cost-of-living index that compares, among other must-haves, the price of a cappuccino: $3.94 in Miami, $4.35 in Dubai and $1.63 in Milan.

The price of good design? Exorbitant, according to these books, in which only the finest hotels and stores are mentioned. Don’t look for hippie fair listings. But then again, it’s still free all over the world to linger in tony lobbies and window shop.

-- Janet Eastman