THE HUDSON!

The last time I was in New York back in September I was able to cross off another bucket list item...a stay at the Philippe Starck designed Hudson Hotel!  While I have had drinks and dinner there many a time, I never had the chance to stay and it was great to get the full experience and sleep in one of the very tiny guest rooms!

While the design throughout was excellent and amazingly not at all dated (of course, it is Starck, hotel design guru after all), I must admit I was underwhelmed with hotel management and for the hefty price tag I think I will stick with drinks from now on, probably not even dinner anymore due to the fact they have redesigned the main restaurant, no longer a Starck creation :(

FAMILY HEIRLOOM LOVE

On my last trip to Norway I checked out some family heirlooms I always loved as a child, and looks like I might the only one in the family interested in keeping these (the only one that did not find them spooky as a child!)...  They need some TLC, but just imagine the possibilities!  Now just have to figure out how to get them across an ocean!

AT THE GRAND

During my hotel design lectures to my interior design students, I use the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Lake Huron as a great example of the late 19th Century hoteliers obsession with the neoclassical style, despite the location.  All over the world from Hong Kong to India to the American West to the Great Lakes, hotels in the 19th century were big, white neoclassical mansions plunked down in any type of landscape with little regard for their surrounds.  And this big, white neoclassical mansion is no exception, however I believe the spot is actually quite well suited for the style!

It is most well known for its front porch, the longest porch in the world at a total length of 660 feet.  I must say it was the highlight of the visit, sitting and soaking in the view on that porch.  Luckily I visited just at the end of the season and it was quite quiet.

In addition to the porch, the main attraction for me was the interior design, all of which was renovated in 1977 by none other than the Dorothy Draper Company.  However excited I was, the excitement was tempered by the knowledge that Dorothy Draper had died in 1969 and her loyal minion Carleton Varney was running the show at that point.  While the firm still exuded a Draper-esque feel, I knew the minute I stepped in the door that it was not in fact Ms Draper that had done the work.  All seemed an echo of her brilliance, but unmistakably affiliated with her.

I must say I was quite impressed with how much of the design felt fresh and new, a kind of 'Kate Spade' aesthetic that really is quite popular right now.  Bold prints, bright colors and lots of white painted woodwork.  However, there was the occasional 1970s faux pas, mostly occurring in some of the draperies and room wallpapers.  Might be time for a few updates, Grand management.

Overall, despite some roughness around the edges expected with the 100+ year old hotel, I was quite happy with the visit to another property that I can now scratch off the bucket list.

TO NYC

I was lucky enough to be in the Big Apple and surrounding states a week before Sandy hit, and it is odd to think of the destruction that has occured.  And believe you me, I understand it.  I lived in Miami when Hurricane Andrew hit.  So here's to NYC, NJ and CT, good luck getting back on your feet and hang in there!

And a few good memories from my recent trip...

Always the skyline (at Park and 53rd):

I visited The Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking for the first time (on my cool hotel bucket list for some time now):

 

 

And I was able to take a Sunday stroll down the Highline Park (the old elevated rail line transformed a few years ago into a very cool park) which has just fab views of the city and Hudson River.  I hope it was not too battered by Sandy...

 



HOTEL MONACO SF

I suppose since I went on and on about how great the Clift by Starck was a few weeks ago, I should also give you a peak at where I actually stayed in San Francisco, a hotel I would have blogged about first if I hadn't been staying just a few feet away from a Starck hotel. 

The Hotel Monaco is a Kimpton Hotel.  Bill Kimpton is a man I have much respect for...almost as much as Starck (actually I don't really think respect is the correct word to use for how I feel about Starck, a man that regularly poses without a shirt on to advertise his furniture).  Anyway, Kimpton pretty much invented the 'boutique' hotel as we know it today.  The W and such hotels would likely not exist without Kimpton, well, at least not as we know boutique hotels...although Ian Schrager was only a few months behind Kimpton with the whole idea and may well have come up with it on his own.  But Kimpton was first, and gets his dues.  His whole premise for the boutique hotel was to create a great design, dining and bar experience with 'rooms on top'.    The whole point was not the room but the experience of being in fabulous spaces where the locals actually wanted to come and hang out.  So he created the first boutique hotel in San Francisco in 1982, and the whole idea took off instantly.  Some years later he created a boutique hotel chain- the Hotel Monaco- with locations in many cities across the country.  Many have followed in his footsteps. 

So, while not quite a Starck hotel, I was also excited to stay in one of the original boutique hotels located in the city that gave birth to the idea. 

And it lived up to expectations, with great lobby areas with a definate nod to the late great hotel designer Dorothy Draper (in my opinion- bold colors and oversized neoclassical and baroque elements):

A very cool resturant and bar:

And of course very tiny rooms.

CHECKING OFF ANOTHER STARCK HOTEL

Anyone who knows me or my design sensibilities knows that I LOVE the designs of Philippe Starck, that crazy, arrogant Frenchman.  And it has been a goal of mine to view as many Starck hotels as possible, even if not to stay in them all, which would be nice, but my pocketbook cannot afford too many nights in Starck hotels quite yet.  A few weeks ago I was in San Francisco and while I was unable to get a room at a Starck hotel, I was able to stay in another icon of early boutique hotels, the Hotel Monaco by Bill Kimpton, which happened to be just one block from the Starck San Fran original- the Clift.  The best part of the whole experience was that while I did not realize the proximity of the two hotels before arriving, as I drove down the street towards Monaco, I KNEW I was approaching a classic 90s Starck hotel long before reading the very discreet sign that marked it as the Clift.  It was a wonderful experience, much like the first time I could truely tell a Neoclassical chair from a Rococo one.  The exterior, while quite plain, had the telltale narrow white brick and the narrow vertical bushes in large pots out front.  That is Starck, I know it. 

Here is the Hudson in New York with similar exterior treatment:

So of course I had to have a drink in the lobby...which of course was appropriately dark, so I apologize for the photos.

The highlight of the experience was seeing in person and actually sitting on the hotel's iconic shiny gold, vinyl upholstered, rococo revival style chaise...

One more off the list....