Hudson Hotel
New York City
Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck turns a brick building from the twenties into another Ian Schrager hot spot

© Michael Mundy

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

In his first New York City hotel in more than 10 years, Ian Schrager decided to create a "hotel as lifestyle" for the young crowd and the young at heart, where the room rate can be as low as $95 a night (a standard room goes for more like $245). Philippe Starck's transforming of the former American Women’s Association clubhouse and residence, built in 1928, into a hotel required completely gutting the public areas, which had been made into a warren of spaces by various tenants over the years.

To compensate for the tiny guest rooms (140 square feet for a single bed; 150 square feet for a queen-size one) whose dimensions were established by the original women’s residence plan, the designers created large public spaces where guests can stretch out and relax. The spacious lobby bar is conceptually upside down, with a Francesco Clemente mural on the ceiling that suggests carpet and a light grid on the floor that suggests an office ceiling. Casual placement of eclectic inherited furniture—mismatched Starck, Droog, Versace, flea-market finds, and other pieces—suggests an informal, found elegance throughout the public spaces and the garden planted in the courtyard of the U-shaped building.

With just enough room for a queen-size bed and two small bedside tables, the standard rooms are highly efficient. Televisions and sound systems are stowed in built-in cupboards, and ashtray-like fixtures affixed to one wall provide a catchall for keys, loose change, and other pocket-fillers. The proportionately small bathrooms are done in nurse’s white, and the wall between the tub and bedroom opens up with a curtained interior window that lets light into the bath and simultaneously seems to expand the space of the bedroom.

The layers and layers of decorative detail amuse the eye and cleverly conceal what is still basically a mundane brick dormitory building. But in offering a lifestyle for the young who don’t want to face growing old, Schrager and Starck have struck a lucrative chord.

See the May 2001 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of building:
Hudson

Location:
New York City

Gross square footage:
475,000 sq ft

Total construction cost:
$125 million

Owner:
Ian Schrager Hotels, LLC.

Architect's firm:
Overall design:
Philippe Starck

Production architect:
Polshek Partnership Architects
www.polshek.com