Hudson Hotel

Hotel description

Hudson Hotel is a hip luxury boutique hotel from Morgans Hotel Group. Located in Columbus Circle and steps from Central Park, the hotel features Hudson Bar, Hudson Cafeteria, Private Park and the rooftop lounge, Sky Terrace.

The Hudson Hotel is hip — yet, some say, haunted. It is a recent addition to a string of high-concept, affordable hotels; first it was chic motels, and now the Hudson has taken over the 1928 YWCA. Located west on 58th Street, across from Central Park, it's just avenue blocks away from Morgan Stanley and Broadway, but according to most people, it's the last undiscovered territory in Manhattan, and, therefore, the locale with the most hip potential. It's a Morgans Hotel Group & Philippe Starck hotel, and that trademark Starck whimsy is on display from the moment you enter. There's a touch of kitsch 1960s fantasia — you travel up in an escalator trapped in chartreuse glass, and the bar sports a lit floor, Dali chairs, and Louis XVI chairs upholstered in Barbarella silver. The park looks like it's swallowed the same thing that Alice did in her Wonderland — 500 gallon watering cans and 30 foot vases and chaise longues in the middle of the garden pathways. But most of the Hudson Hotel is furnished university-style. The lobby is supposed to be reminscent of Harvard Square, with its brick and its ivy and its enormous crystal chandelier. Granted, the royal purple club chairs and the fireplaces in the library are more Oxford circa 1930 than the fake-wood furnished dorm days of your youth. Instead of lava lamps by the bed, there are light boxes painted by Francesco Clemente. The cafeteria, though it looks pretty with its great steaming vats and long tables, serves up things more appetizing than your standard campus fare (lobster bisque, for example) And if we remember correctly, you also didn't have to pay $8.00 for a drink in college either, but at least the Hudson cocktails are more substantial than Sea Breezes and keg beer. Still, the clientele that packs the downstairs is strangely reminiscent of university days. The standard rooms upstairs are tiny, with low ceilings. This was a YWCA, after all. Here Starck is in his more restrained mode — square beds, stainless steel tables, hardwood floors (unusual in a New York hotel) and lots and lots of white. But furnishings are more old-fashioned than Starck's usual — they're supposed to recall space-economizing yet elegant Victorian ship cabins (the dark corridors are also reminscent of a liner). Victorian ship cabins, however, did not have up-to-the minute wiring (T1 connection), which is perfect for your youthful entrepeneur. Nor did they have, er, those revealing showers, divided from the room by a glass wall. Sweep that curtain away, and whomever is lying on the bed gets quite a show. A unique twist is the option of office or gym suites — a great choice if you need to really work or work out.