Inside the New Park Hyatt
The Park Hyatt global flagship in the base of Extell’s One57 is accepting reservations for as early as July 20, earlier than the previously reported Aug. 28. Yesterday, we took a hardhat tour of the luxury hotel. (Not even the Hotel Tonight app gets you this kind of access.)
We snapped our host, Park Hyatt New York’s Lynne Bredfeldt, and hotel GM Walter Brindell at the 58th Street construction entrance. A limited number of the 210 rooms will be available in late July and most by late August, and earlier days may become available. This year's opening coincides with Park Hyatt Tokyo’s 20th anniversary and the opening of Park Hyatt Vienna. Lynne tells us the property will serve both business and leisure travelers, but international travelers will form a big part of the biz.
92 of the rooms are suites. Rooms average 530 SF and start at $795/night, and suites (92 of the 210 rooms) like the 630 SF Park Studio Suite (rendered above) go for as much as $1,495. The property also will be pet friendly, at the urging of Walter, who’s got two dogs of his own (Papillon mix Rocco and Corgi Emma) and is an active supporter of DC’s Washington Animal Rescue League and a member of the board of PAWS Chicago. We hear some luxury canine amenities will be announced soon.
The hotel will occupy the first 25 floors of the 90-story building. The second-floor ballroom can hold 475, or 220 seated for dinner (210 if it's all-you-can-eat), all in a 28-foot-tall room enveloped in white onyx strikingly backlit by LED lights that offer three different color temperatures. It's the work of interior design firm Yabu Pushelberg, which used the ideal of an Upper East Side home as the design theme. The second floor also hosts three meeting rooms, including an executive boardroom with a terrace.
We also snapped the action at what will be the entrance at 153 W 57th St. The third floor hosts check-in, 60 seats in The Living Room and bar (half overlooking the 57th Street bustle), and a 96-seat American grill by famed chef Sam Hazen. The rooms and common areas will include 350 artworks, 10 of them commissioned for the hotel. For example, there’ll be a James Nares (in the guestroom rendering above) and an Ellsworth Kelly. Lynne tells us art is core for Park Hyatt, tracing back to its founder and art supporter Jay Pritzker, founder of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Consider that earlier this year, after Park Hyatt Chicago's Richter sold, the hotel replaced it with a Rauschenberg.
At the top of the building’s hotel component, the 25th floor, sits Spa Nalai (six spa treatment rooms with balconies looking toward Central Park), a locker room, and a three-story aerie with a steam room, hot tub, and two-lane pool. Park Hyatt has an agreement with Carnegie Hall, which is under renovation across 57th Street, to play its music through the pool’s underwater speakers. (We hope it's reciprocal, so audiences at Carnegie Hall get to hear people working out in the gym.)
