Height of Luxury: The New 57th Street

It’s not just billionaires in $90M condos who get to stay at 157 57th St.

The Park Hyatt hotel (the first 25 floors of the 1,004-foot, 90-story One57 tower) has its grand opening today, and for $700 or so a night, at least until high season, you too can sample the good life.

That rate is to be expected of a hotel that Extell sold earlier this month for $390M to Hyatt, or almost $2M/room. That’s the hotel’s portico on the right and the entry for private residents on the left. But the condos also avail themselves of Park Hyatt’s facilities and services.

Last week during the hotel’s soft launch, our publisher and his wife, who know GM Walter Brindell (center) from his days running the Park Hyatts in DC and Chicago, were invited to be the hotel’s first official guests. (Mark and Margot Bisnow say they are thinking of launching an Uber-like app that allows any beautiful new hotel to borrow them at any time to be First Guests.) They report that the Park Hyatt was beyond first class.

From the staff that awaits as you walk in…

… to the iPad check-in so you don’t wait at a counter…

… to the many other cheerful personnel who attend to guest needs…

… to the Living Room for meeting visitors…

… to tableside visits from noted chef Sebastien Archambault, who helms the kitchen of the new Back Room restaurant…

… to impeccable beverage selections…

… and, we are not making this up, the playlist from Carnegie Hall across the street piped into the water of the hotel’s swimming pool, so you can be cultured as you swim, even without earphones. And there's even more to 57th Street. Keep reading after the jump.