The city that never sleeps: New York

New York’s changing neighbourhoods are home to new hotels reflecting their distinct origins, says Jo Fernàndez
Jo Fernandez7 October 2013

Famously, New York is the city that never sleeps — and neither does its hotel scene, with a heady 2,000 new hotel rooms since last year. Hotels reflect the changing nature of New York’s neighbourhoods, something the heavily branded tourist board — and Mayor Bloomberg — is keen to promote. A new trend this summer was hotels opening in former industrial buildings and districts, reflecting the changing nature of the city as previously crime-ridden or commercial areas are transformed.

Downtown in Chelsea, New York’s art district, the High Line Hotel recently opened in the former General Theological Seminary. There’s something very discreet and unassuming about the High Line, despite its setting in a vast redbrick Gothic pile. Take its name, shirking any notion of a religious play on words in favour of simply that of the urban walkway it faces.

Walking in on a late summer afternoon, locals and guests at bistro tables in the garden outside, you notice the absence of reception. Instead young, smiley staff brandish iPads for an easy check-in. For impatient anti-form fillers such as me, it was sheer relief.

A departure for husband and wife design team Roman & Williams, whose other New York projects include the Standard, interiors feel more homely than your average

Manhattan hotel — antique rugs, real furniture made of wood instead of identikit mass-produced pieces, windows that open and large, comfortable beds. Vintage rotary phones by bedsides, shelves lined with second-hand novels and desks holding old-fashioned stationary create authenticity.

While my partner and daughter slept, I cocooned myself in the bathroom. Its forceful shower and CO Bigelow apothecary products combined to soothe the effects of waking up at 4.30am.

Breakfast was as simple as check-in given there’s no restaurant either (room service and a tapas-style menu are still to launch). Instead, Chicago-based Intelligentsia Coffee’s first New York outpost in the corner of the lobby sells coffees and pastries. We ate outside, watching the street life go by, map spread out to plot the day.

Across the road is the entrance to the High Line, an imaginative ribbon of park created from an abandoned elevated Thirties railway line lined with wetland grasses, perennial flowers, and art installations. One way looks down on the Hudson River, the other over the streets of Chelsea and the neighbouring, once-industrial Meatpacking District. In 2015, the Whitney Museum will move to a 200,000 square foot Renzo Piano-designed space between the High Line and the river.

We dropped down to street level for a nose around Chelsea Market, enclosed in the former redbrick Nabisco factory (creator of the first Oreo) with shops, bric-a-brac stalls and a thriving, multicultural food hall (also headquarters of the Food Network).

Over in the Meatpacking District, André Balazs’s unashamedly concrete Standard High Line — straddling its namesake — rises up 18 storeys. Urban in a Seventies Barbican kind of way, it’s a revelation inside. Slick minimalism meets sheer indulgence: lifts entertain with a video depicting heaven and hell, taking guests from the understated ground-floor Standard Grill with its floor made of copper pennies to the hip rooftop bar with ironic fake grass.

On the way up, we pass the dark-suited form of polo player and model Nacho Figueras. Directly beneath us, Diane Von Furstenberg’s flagship store, crowned by her glass and steel “tree house” apartment, symbolises the area’s glamour and grit (she donated $35 million to the High Line).

Goldfish bowl rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows helped hype the hotel when it opened in 2009, giving families strolling the High Line an eyeful (a child-friendly East Village outpost is being renovated in the Bowery).

Another Gothic hotel in an industrial area, the Refinery Hotel, has opened in the Garment District. Rows of Art Deco skyscraper factories define the historical hub of the American fashion industry since the Twenties (textile manufacturing since declined with outsourcing to cheaper countries).

Opening in good time for this autumn's fashion week in a former hat factory turned 197-room hotel, large rooms have oak floors, high ceilings and lovely reminders of the building’s past such as custom-made desks in homage to Singer sewing machines, courtesy of architects Stonehill & Taylor. Dinner ranges from rustic ribs to oysters eaten in a cosy booth in Parker & Quinn, the brass-fitted bistro-cum-pub with open kitchen. Sleep was fitful from the hi-tech sensor, winking at us with any movement.

Weighed down after a North American-style breakfast of omelette and bagels so vast the plate could barely contain it, we walked the few blocks to that towering Thirties symbol of American industry, the Empire State Building. I could have stayed in the entrance with its gorgeous Art Deco features but we zoomed up to the 86th-floor observatory, the 360-degree views of Manhattan a little misty. While films such as King Kong and Sleepless in Seattle add to the romance, the building had firmly industrial beginnings as a potential mooring for zeppelins.

Two blocks from here at the new Langham Place on Fifth Avenue (where Justin Bieber recently ordered pizza for the screaming fans outside) we bid farewell to the city with juicy posh burgers and sweet ravioli in the hushed confines of the hotel’s Michelin-starred Ai Fiori restaurant.

We didn’t make it across the bridge to Brooklyn’s gentrified district of Williamsburg, home to the new Wythe Hotel, a 1901 former barrel factory. By the time we return, another “new” district will probably have come along, begging to be discovered. That’s New York — the city that never sleeps.

DETAILS: USA

Virgin Atlantic has return fares from Heathrow to New York from £584, virgin-atlantic.com

The High Line, doubles from £200 room only, thehighlinehotel.com

The Refinery, doubles from £265 room only, refineryhotelnewyork.com

The Empire State, adult $27; child (6-12) $21, esbnyc.com/ nycgo.com

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in