'Boolah, boolah!' for this Conn. lodging

Opened last October - just in time for Parents' Weekend - the Study transformed and expanded a tired 1960s-era lodging into a stylish boutique hotel. In contrast to its conventional brick neighbors, the Study's facade features an eight-story glass curtain wall, an openness that carries through the hotel as a design motif. Our standard queen room on the back of the building, for example, was actually rather small but a full wall of glass at one end made it seem spacious and bright. A built-in desk stretches the entire length of the window-wall, creating an inviting place to work while gazing out at New Haven rooftops. Free Internet access is available through a network plug at the desk or Wi-Fi everywhere else.

The room has all the right modern touches: a nicely engineered architect's lamp on the desk, a bigger version with a stylish contemporary shade as a floor lamp next to a leather chair and hassock, built-in reading lights in the headboard of the bed, and a clock radio with iPod docking station on a night table. The color scheme of beige walls with a sky blue accent wall combines with a soft linen comforter on the bed to create a soothing backdrop. The 42-inch flat screen television on a low dresser opposite the bed offers distraction from books and computers.

For even more distraction, the Study makes a good base for exploring Yale and the surrounding neighborhood. The Yale Repertory Theatre, Yale University Art Gallery, and the Yale Center for British Art are all in easy walking distance. Perhaps inspired by the modest display of Yale gear for sale in the hotel lobby, we stopped in the Yale visitors center opposite the orderly New Haven Green. Wall displays give a quick summary of university history, but we were most taken with Handsome Dan II, the taxidermied bulldog who had served as Yale's mascot in the 1930s.