Tag Archives: new york

Sleeping in NYC

30 Nov

While we were dozing…three great new hotels have recently opened in New York City.  Here’s a little teaser for your next trip to the city that never sleeps. Full reviews to come when we relaunch of this blog sometime in early 2013!

Wythe Hotel, Brooklyn: hipster epi-centre, hot river views.

WYTHE HOTEL IN BROOKLYN

Picture all the hipsters in Brooklyn and then imagine opening up a hipster hotel sending  hipsters from all over the world into this hipster zone and what you have is a kind of hipster theme park where thoughtful interior design meets scruffy facial hair meets politically correct caffeinated beverages….

Sleep like a baby in the Baby Queen Room, Wythe Hotel, NYC.

Situated in the a former textile factory, the 72-room Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg makes a feature of its industrial past, while a renovation has opened up amazing new river views to Manhattan. Like Manhattan’s Ace Hotel, it aims to cater to the full-deck of clientele – lofts for the loaded, bunks for the broke. Also on offer, hipster-ish eating options at the Renard restaurant that draws the local foxes, Instagram competitions for guests and if you ask nicely they probably have a fixie out back that you can take for a spin. For details and bookings: Wythe Hotel.

HOTEL AMERICANO IN CHELSEA

Ever since we unwittingly stumbled upon some photos of the beautifully nostalgic  La Boca Chica in Acapulco a few years ago we’ve been watching the Grupo Habita hotel group to see what they would do next… The Mexican group’s latest ventures is situated in the heart of NY’s Chelsea art district, the hotel was designed by Mexico City-based architect Enrique Norten with interiors by Frenchman Arnaud Montigny (best known for his work on the Paris concept store Colette).

NYC likes to mix it up: Latin heart with a hint of modern Japanese at Hotel Americano.

The hotel’s steel exterior presents a hard shoulder to its gritty urban environment but inside an industrial aesthetic is softened by Danish-style leather sofas, wooden sleeping platforms a la  ‘urban ryokan’ (as the marketeers would have it) soft Japanese textiles and homely touches such as gas fireplaces (in suites). We like the occasional splashes of bright yellow that brighten up the neutral tones and remind us of New York’s iconic taxis. Perks include a roof top swimming pool that converts to a hot tub in winter. Guests can cement their hipster credentials by borrowing a bicycle from reception. Rooms priced from US$255. For details and bookings: Hotel Americano.

Sex and the city: she’s all your’s baby at Hotel Americano, NYC

NOMAD HOTEL IN BROADWAY

Broadway, NYC is at the centre of everything yet until now it’s been hard to find a cosy hotel to call home. We love the rich bohemian vibe of NoMad Hotel – the mash-up of pictures, textures and colours evoke a mood of travel, a sort of melting pot that reflects the make up of this most cosmopolitan of cities.

New York’s NoMad Hotel features art work drawn from the photographic travel series, Portraits de Villes.

Housed in a Beaux-Arts building, the interiors were given a classic make-over by French designer Jacques Garcia. The French influence is apparent in the art work drawn from Be-pôles’ Portraits de Villes  art book series that document a city through the eyes of a single photographer. Another French touch includes the in-house Kitsune boutique, the hipper-than-thou Parisian music and design label. The end result is an old school European-style hotel with a New York sensibility and service ethos. Modern nomads better be packing plastic: room rates start from $395. For details and bookings: The NoMad Hotel.

Not afraid to make a splash. The NoMad Hotel’s dining room evokes the exotic imaginings of an Anaïs Nin novel.

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In the Loop

5 Sep

Wooly ideas by NYC artist Olek via Keith Haring & Annie Leibovitz!

We just came across this fantastic little video about  New York-based yarn artist Olek. Having transformed herself from struggling creative to  (kn)IT girl on the NY street art scene, the Polish-born artist can finally indulge those crazy ideas she had years ago, but never got around to realising, such as crocheting an entire scene from a design by Keith Haring…(pictured). Here she is,  talking about hi-jinx stunts like giving the Wall St Bull a nice warm sweater and her recent show, “The Bad Artists Imitate, The Great Artists Steal“  at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in NYC.

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Smooth Operator: Morgans, NY

3 Jun

A discreet welcome: Morgan’s facade

Guest Review by Michel Beziat

In the crowded boutique hotel market, Morgans boasts an interesting claim to fame: it was the first original ‘boutique hotel’. The term was coined when Morgans was developed by the late French interior designer Andree Putman for Ian Schrager in the 1980s. (The hotel recently underwent a second refurbishment by the same Andree Putman, in 2008). Given the current 80′s revival, now felt like a good moment to see how it has fared the last decades. (In the interim Schrager has kept ahead of the hotel game with developments including the über-fashionable Hudson.) The association of high-design and Mad Men location led us to expect – and fear – a serious dose of attitude so we were surprised when we discovered a rather simple, and even familial ambiance.

The Hotel: It’s ‘classic NY’ in a beautiful red brick building. Anonymous – there’s no hotel sign or name on the front door – which somehow gives you that wonderful feeling of coming back home at the end of the day. The sentiment is heightened by very cosy and intimate common areas, such as the 4th floor salon or the little outdoor terrace which is great spot to hang out if you can’t afford the penthouse on the same floor… (Ed– Hell, even if you can, why not slum it for a change?) On a sunny day, you can make the most of the deck chairs and the gorgeous views onto the Empire State building.

French designer Andree Putman works her magic at Morgan’s

The staff members were friendly and professional, without overdoing it. The room service manager didn’t hesitate to join us in the morning at our breakfast table to help us with our program for the day, he also shared some very amusing hotel anecdotes – sorry, I can’t remember any of them! – and his favourite addresses.  (For ideas about what to do during your stay, see HWL’s Perfect Day in NY and check out our Suggested New York books….) Breakfast, by the way, was lovely. Tasty and generous, and included in the room’s price.

As far as the clientele goes, it’s a good balance of European tourists and professionals working in the area, which gives it a nice local flavour. Oh, and Andree Putman is a regular client too.

The Neighbourhood: You can’t easily beat the location, right bang in Midtown, a block away from 5th Avenue, two blocks from the Empire State Building, three from Grand Central Station. Times Square and Central Park are around the corner, about 15 minutes walk away. It’s a great base to explore everything by foot.

The building next door hosts a convenience store which is, well, convenient, when you come back to the hotel totally knackered and want to get something – food, drinks, pharmacy – without going back out. Continue reading →

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The Standard Hotel NYC: Anything but Standard

31 Mar

NYC’s Standard Hotel as seen from the Highline (Image: HWL)

Jutting out over the High Line in the heart of the Meatpacking arts district is the Standard Hotel, which is anything but standard.  It’s hard to believe that this retro looking edifice designed by Todd Schliemann of the NY-based Polshek Partnership was built in 2008 – judging by the facade and stilts it evokes modernist icons such as New York’s UN building.

standard room at The Standard Hotel, NY

The rooms: the standard sized rooms are comfortable with a cosy woody sleeping pod (see above) that defines sleeping/waking spaces, a desk and the usual mod-cons. Gazing at the New York City skyline through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows is mesmerising; akin to watching waves break or the glowing embers of a fireplace.  This twinkling jewel of light is nothing short of sublime. Request a room with the bath and you can enjoy the view while soaking in the tub.

bright lights, big city: views from the east rooms @the Standard (Image: HWL)

Tips: Aim to get a room on levels 9 to 11 – any lower than nine and you miss out on the view, any higher than 11 and you might be bothered by noise from the nightclub on the 15th floor.  Also request a room away from the ice machines located on each floor; sometimes they make a funny noise like a running shower which could disturb your sleep. Continue reading →

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New York books

8 Mar

… our all time favourite books set in NYC.


“You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy.”  - Bright Lights, Big City


Jay McInerney captures the crazy money era of 80’s Wall St in this spiral of  drugs, desperation and deception.  (Possibly the only book ever written about a fact checker in the publishing industry.)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon: an epic and occasionally surreal tale of about comic books and graphic art set against the backdrop of the Second World War, Jewish migration and Mcarthyism. Cameo appearances include Salvador Dali and Orson Welles. Romance is also involved.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer: Unusual and endearing tale about family, memory, loss and grief through the eyes of a child (a 9 year-old self-described inventor, jewelry designer and astrophysicist) in NYC post September 11.

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”- Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger.

Holden Caufield escapes his phoney school and runs away to New York. The ultimate teen novel, it’s a classic coming of age tale with a sense of pathos.

Continue reading →

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I Heart Milton Glaser: graphic designer superstar

9 Feb

Milton Glaser is the graphic designer you know best even if you’ve never heard of him. In the 1970s downtown New York City was synonymous with crime and urban dysfunction. In an attempt to revitalise the area city powers decided to develop a tourism campaign and approached graphic designer Milton Glaser with a line: ‘I Love New York’.  Glaser turned that phrase into the iconic ‘I Heart New York’ design that has since spawned innumerable imitations making it one of the most recognizable pieces of graphic design on the planet. Glaser, whose career now spans over 50 years, explains, “The creation of a puzzle is one of the tools that you have to make people understand things. When they activate the mind to figure something out the likelihood is that they will remember and respond to it more than if they are told something directly.”

Details of the Bob Dylan poster by Milton Glaser

To Inform and Delight: the work of Milton Glaser, a tribute film just released online (see embed below) is a celebration of Glaser’s entire artistic output that also offers a window into his creative process. Watching it, I couldn’t Continue reading →

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