Gramercy Park Hotel
COST: $$$$
When design partners Ian Schrager and Julian Schnabel unveiled their reimagined, ultraswanky Gramercy in winter 2006, it brought modern glamour back to this once-famous, 1925-era hotel that had been on its last legs. The 185 rooms—done up in Raphaelite tones of jade, claret, and sapphire blue—have chairs and ottomans upholstered in thick velvet, studded leather hope chests, and heavy drapes. Many have decent views across the park, and all are enlivened by funky metal light fixtures and bold wall art (much of it black-and-white photography from the Magnum agency archives). Art looms large in the common areas too; the checkerboard-tiled lobby, where rough-hewn wooden columns support a 20-foot ceiling, and the adjacent Rose and Jade bars double as galleries for paintings by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Cy Twombly. And all guests are allowed entry to the exclusive, quiet, privately keyed Gramercy Park, just outside.
Tip: Don't assume that just because you're a hotel guest, you'll automatically get in the door at the two superchic in-house bars. To get past the doormen, you'll need to call and make a reservation as soon as you check into your room.
Room to Book: One-bedroom suites are worth spending a little more for; although Superior rooms are just as plushly outfitted, they're less than half the size (250 square feet).
As Featured In...
From Travel + Leisure, Oct 2007
“The perfect place to see and be seen while taking in art by Julian Schnabel and Damien Hirst....” MORE>>
From Travel + Leisure, Jun 2007
“Haute bohemian. Velvet draperies and leather armchairs share space with surrealist objects (sawfish-snout lampstands!) and sprawling canvases by Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly....” MORE>>
From Travel + Leisure, Sep 2006
“Evocative, eccentric, eclectic, personal are the words best suited to characterize the now 185-room hotel, which announces its departure from Schrager's familiar modern aesthetic at the street, where the hotelier played it polite, installing a new limestone façade at the building's two-story base....” MORE>>
From Travel + Leisure, Jun 2006
“It's where Humphrey Bogart once tied the knot, where Babe Ruth held court at the bar, where Joe and Rose Kennedy stayed with a young John F. in tow. Could the Gramercy Park Hotel possibly have more panache? Apparently, yes. Long a favorite haunt of writers, artists, and rock stars, this shabbily genteel institution is getting a multimillion-dollar makeover under its new proprietor, Ian Schrager. The boutique-hotel impresario has enlisted artist Julian Schnabel to create its interior....” MORE>>
Last updated October 2007 lastArticle = 10/2007 and lastAward =
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