With 58 million out-of-towners expected to come to New York this year, Deco New York provides you with an insider’s cheat sheet to the best of the newcomer hotels in town.
Right now, all eyes are on the weeks-old Baccarat Hotel, which lets locals escape to Paris without leaving Midtown. The debut stay from the storied French crystal company, now owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts founder Barry Sternlicht, the hotel combines 114 Art Deco-inflected design rooms, wonderful interior design spaces, chandelier-hung salons; a bar inspired by Versailles’s stables; and a modern-French restaurant from Michelin-starred chef Shea Gallante and former La Grenouille host Charles Masson. A 50-foot black-and-white marble-lined indoor pool and spa from Creme de la Mer will open soon.
As the flagship Manhattan outpost of an Istanbul-based brand, the 128-room Marmara Park Avenue brings some international swagger of its own to the city, offering Turkish tinges like wines from a celebrated vineyard in the country’s Anatolia region and hammam treatments at its spa.
Ian Schrager brought his Marriott tie-up to town in May: the 273-room New York EDITION mixes amazing interior design compositions with Gilded Age-inspired American glamour and 21st-century social interaction – expect it to be as plugged-in and fashionable a draw as the previous EDITIONs in London and Miami Beach – all inside the impeccably renovated 1909 clock tower building overlooking Madison Square.
SEE ALSO: Best Design Hotels in New York
In July, Ian Schrager continues his hospitality re-entrée with Hotel Central Park, the second spot from his new sustainability-minded concept (the first opened in South Beach in late March, with Brooklyn next). The 229-room eco-conscious escape designed by interior designer AvroKo allows blissful remove from urban grit and grime, with a three-story living wall, reclaimed rustic-chic materials and all-organic everything, plus an on-call Tesla, monthly farmer’s market and high-impact volunteering opportunities organized by local nonprofits.
The writerly retreat The Renwick, which reimagines historic artists’ studios and apartments originally designed by St. Patrick’s Cathedral architect John Renwick in 1928.
After ushering in a second wave of luxury boutique hotels when it opened in 2001 as the first Thompson, SIXTY SoHo re-emerged this winter as the flagship of Thompson co-founder Jason Pomeranc’s new SIXTY brand. Rock-and-roll-ready British designer Tara Bernerd handled the seductive interior design, which sees a clubby lobby lounge give way to a light-filled, mid-century-mod-feeling bar and breakfast room followed by 97 rooms above. Downtown restaurant vet John McDonald will open the Italian-focused Sessanta in May, also overseeing bites at the summer-opening guest-only rooftop, long one of the city’s most sought after.
SEE ALSO: Best new hotels in New York City
Martha Washington Hotel
Less a renovation than a complete reinvention, the Martha Washington has gone from being a landmarked 100-plus-year-old women’s-only Gramercy hotel to a wallet-friendly chic retreat, with public spaces designed by German-born minimalist master Annabelle Selldorf. The 261 playfully decorated rooms, graphically done in red, black and white, feature references both classic and contemporary design, and Danny Meyer’s Roman pizza joint, Marta, handles in-room dining, so if you can’t score a table at that packed-to-the-gills ground-floor space, you can always just book a room and order in.
An even more dramatic overhaul ushered in a new era at The Knickerbocker, on West 42nd Street. Originally opened as a glittering hotel by John Jacob Astor IV in 1906, the landmarked building spent most of its life as offices before re-launching in February as a contemporary, clean-lined 330-room member of Leading Hotels of the World, with three food-and-drink venues from chef Charlie Palmer, not least of all the soon-to-debut St. Cloud, a 7,500-square-foot 17th-floor rooftop bar and terrace overlooking Times Square.
The Gregory
Another early 1900s hotel gem, this one originally opened to provide the first Waldorf-Astoria with overflow space, The Gregory will telegraph tailored, masculine 1940s haberdashery style when it arrives by summer’s end. Sister property to the new Renwick, it sits in the Garment District, just adjacent to Herald Square, where it combines contemporary touches with original high ceilings and mosaic-tile detailing.
SEE ALSO: Dream Downtown Hotel New York, NY
Looking for a log cabin-style stay, but want to stay within the city limits? You’ve got it at Williamsburg’s new Urban Cowboy, a townhouse converted by Corcoran broker Lyon Porter into a four-bedroom B&B with Wild West and Adirondack pretensions. But about that cabin: It’s out back and features a wood-burning stove, clawfoot tub and more John Wayne style than usually found this side of the Mississippi.
[…] The 20 Hottest New Hotels You’ll Want to Book in New York – Part 1 […]
[…] to the second part of our hottest new hotels list. Without further ado, here are our last 10 […]