NEW YORK—The Renwick, a new 173-room hotel, featuring 33 custom suites, located here at 118 East 40th St., has officially opened its doors. The product of a partnership between Interstate Hotels & Resorts, hotel Asset Value Enhancement (hotelAVE), and Meadow Partners, the new hotel focuses on whimsical luxury with a modernistic approach, according to the company.
Set to launch in November, John DeLucie’s first solo restaurant, Bedford & Co., will open as its signature food and beverage venue offering modern American cuisine prepared on a custom-made wood-burning grill.
“The Renwick is an artfully curated hospitality experience that caters to the most discerning of travelers and locals,” said David Israel, SVP of hotelAVE. “We’re excited to bring back the creative spirit of the building’s past through each detail of the property and launch a new lifestyle luxury hotel that brings to life the new soul of classic New York.”
Housed in what was built in 1928 as a long-stay residence for sheltering artists, intellectuals and noted authors—such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Mann and John Steinbeck—The Renwick takes inspiration from its former residents. Their work has inspired many of the elements found within the rooms and suites. The hotel takes its name from James Renwick Jr., the architect best known for his design of St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Ave. in NYC.
New York-based architect and interior design firm Stonehill & Taylor was tapped to reimagine the space, paying homage to past residents and cultural and artistic innovations of the 1920s, through a modern lens. The property’s 173 loft-style guestrooms and suites feature custom-furnishings made to reference items found in an artist’s studio such as easel-inspired television stands, desks reminiscent of the artist’s work bench, nightstands intended to mimic flat file cabinets and a patterned carpet that simulates paint-splattered concrete.
The hotel’s 33 spacious studios and suites are all inspired by the prominent literary and creative figures of its past, curated to pay homage to either Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Mann or Ernest Hemingway. They feature literary works, quotes from the respective authors as well as other items reminiscent of each name and their celebrated careers.
The property offers a fitness facility, business center and complimentary WiFi and hardwire Internet. Among the amenities are origami kits hanging from the pushpin cork boards above the desks in the guestrooms, while an interactive postcard can be found in-room, which guests can mail directly to the hotel by placing it in the original mail chute next to the elevator bank for a chance for their art to be displayed in the hotel or as a future hotel postcard. Bathroom amenities are made exclusively for the hotel by Brooklyn-based Apotheke.
The hotel features no framed artwork and instead spotlights functional art sourced by 19 local New York artists who were tapped to create pieces exclusively for the hotel that complement the public spaces and guestrooms. Handpainted blinds of the New York skyline hang in every room. One-of-a-kind ceramic mugs with an excerpt from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby sit upon each guestroom desk and the “do not disturb” signs come in the shape of paint brushes that hang on door knobs. Each room is also equipped with a different handpainted artist stool and a quote of inspiration on the desk’s blotter. Brooklyn-born artist Gregory Siff was tapped to create the multi-wall mural in the hotel lobby, a signature piece that pays tribute to the New York skyline and the building’s former residents.