Latest news with #FrankMahan
Fast Company
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
New York City's most iconic hotel just got a $2 billion glow-up
'A 1.6 million square foot, three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.' That is how architect Frank Mahan, from the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, described the Waldorf Astoria's near $2-billion renovation project on a recent behind-the-scenes tour. 'If you were here a few months ago, or a year ago, you would see workers undertaking restoration in these spaces that we're walking through with a fine point paintbrush.' When the Waldorf Astoria opened over a century ago, the hotel became so synonymous with high society gatherings that one of its corridors—where the elite came to show off their finest attire—was known as 'Peacock Alley.' The hotel quickly became a symbol of New York's glamour, ambition, and what the author Henry James called the 'hotel spirit'—a place where everyone was equal as long as they could pay the price of entry. When I visited in late April, the ambition was evident in the constellation of workers buzzing around the premises. Some were tearing plastic wrap from freshly delivered armchairs. Others were busying around Cole Porter's grand piano, which was tauntingly shrouded under a protective cloak. But if the renovation was one giant puzzle, then these were the last pieces. This week, after much delay, the reimagined Art Deco landmark has finally reopened. It is as spectacular as New Yorkers deserve it to be. Midtown's belle of the ball Spanning an entire block in Midtown Manhattan, the Waldorf Astoria was the tallest and largest hotel in the world when it opened in 1931, to a design by Schultze & Weaver. Quickly, the Art Deco landmark, which hosted presidents, royalty, celebrities, and major global events, became synonymous with power and cultural cachet. Over the years, however, the celebrated building underwent a patchwork of renovations that gradually chipped away at its character. The lobby was reconfigured, cooling towers were added to the roof, and by 2017, when the entire hotel closed, just one of the original 5,400 windows remained. Eight years later, the Waldorf Astoria has undergone a wildly complex transformation that converted some hotel rooms into opulent residences designed by top-tier designers, and restored every inch of the place, including signature venues like the Grand Ballroom and Peacock Alley. The project was slowed down by the fact that 60,000 square feet of the building were designated as a landmark. (This makes the Waldorf Astoria the fourth largest interior landmark in New York City.) Some parts of the building were meticulously restored to reflect the building's original 1931 design; others were modernized to meet 21st-century standards. 'It's an awesome responsibility because in a sense, [the building is] owned by New Yorkers, but you can't be afraid,' Mahan told me. 'You have to allow change in order for it to have a new life.' Instead of freezing the building in time, or even gutting its identity, the Waldorf has merged old and new. At a time when countless other historic buildings are being converted into private condos, or getting demolished altogether, its rebirth offers a blueprint for how landmark preservation can coexist with new investment. Eight years after the hotel closed, the myth of the Waldorf Astoria lives on. The most iconic address The most anticipated change has been the Waldorf Astoria residences. These high-end apartments generated up-front sales revenue, which helped finance the hotel's renovation. Before it closed, the hotel counted 1,400 guest rooms. Now, that number has been reduced to 375 rooms operated by Hilton—and 375 residential units designed by French interior designer Jean-Louis Deniot. Today, for the first time ever, those with enough disposable income can own an apartment at The Waldorf and call one of the world's most iconic addresses their home. The residential wing comes with a separate entrance, a private porte cochère, and the sort of detail you'd expect from a luxury enclave carved out of a hotel this storied—like a cleverly disguised 'concierge closet' that can be accessed both from the apartment and the corridor, allowing staff to deliver packages, laundry, or room service without setting foot inside. Studios start at $1.875 million and four bedrooms begin at $18.75 million. (At the time of writing, 25 residences have already closed, and many residents have moved in, including the managing director of Waldorf Astoria New York, Luigi Romaniello; two penthouses, housed in the copper-clad towers, are yet to be unveiled.) The residences are spectacular, but the real gift is the public-facing side of the hotel. Average New Yorkers can now walk up the steps of the Park Avenue Lobby, take in the grandeur of the interiors while shortcutting through the building, and exit onto Lexington without spending a single penny. This journey was possible before the hotel closed, but today—at long last—it looks like it was always meant to. advertisement Going back to 1931 To return the Waldorf to its former glory, SOM consulted archival black-and-white photographs, specification books, and original drawings from the Schultze & Weaver collection at the Wolfsonian–FIU museum in Florida. On the outside, the team restored the building's bronze entryways and distinct brickwork, and replaced every window—expanding 900 of them to let in more daylight. They removed the cooling towers to reveal a skylight that once crowned the Starlight Ballroom, where Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra once dazzled captivated audiences. That space has now been reimagined as a 25-meter indoor swimming pool—dubbed the Starlight Pool—bathed in natural light. Inside, they worked with French designer Pierre-Yves Rochon to make the Waldorf look both old and new again. In the Park Avenue lobby, they stripped back the ceiling, updated the underlying lighting infrastructure, and rebuilt it to match an old design they had seen in an archival photograph. It was a black and white photograph, but Mahan's team still noticed that the ceiling reflected light in an unusual way. Pairing that with notes from the spec book, they discovered the central marble panel had once been backlit. 'That was the case with many of the spaces,' he says. 'People had been walking through them and thinking, 'oh, that's a historic hotel, this is the way it's always been,' but in fact, it changed many times,' he says. Now, the new lobby looks brighter—and closer to the original architects' intent. In the check-in lobby, the iconic Waldorf Astoria clock that once served as a meeting point for New Yorkers, was disassembled, cleaned, re-gilded, and re-silvered. In the Silver Gallery upstairs, art conservation firm ArtCare painstakingly restored a series of murals depicting the 12 months and four seasons. In photos Mahan shows me, the murals look muddied by time. The restored versions you can see today appear to be glowing with light. In the check-in lobby, the architects reduced the number of reception desks from a seemingly endless row of desks that Mahan says made it look like a train station, to just two. And in the Grand Ballroom, where the Beatles were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, they relined the walls with genuine silver leaf and acoustically isolated the entire space. 'In the past, they've either had to keep the volume down or not rent out the rooms around the ballroom because the vibrations would bother people in the surrounding rooms,' says Mahan. 'Now, this space basically floats in the center of the building.' Perhaps most impressively, SOM reinstated the original volume and drama of the building's public passageway—the one that allows you to traverse the block from Park Avenue to Lexington. In 1931, Schultze & Weaver designed the corridor as a cinematic journey through five distinct but connected lobbies that widened and narrowed to create moments of compression and release. 'That would've added to the drama of the space,' says Mahan. By 2017, some lobbies had become cluttered with retail build-outs and clashing materials. Now, it flows like the choreographed experience it once was. The building has survived COVID-19 delays, supply chain issues, and even a corruption scandal —only to reopen at a troubled time for the tourism industry. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the U.S. is on track to lose $12.5 billion in travel revenue this year, which makes it the only country out of 184 analyzed that's projected to see tourism dollars decline in 2025. If all else fails (it likely won't considering the target clientele) New Yorkers will at least have that glorious shortcut. The super-early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
Eater
14-07-2025
- Business
- Eater
The Waldorf Astoria Is Finally Reopening Alongside Its Three New Restaurants
One of the biggest openings of the year, the trio of restaurants in the iconic Waldorf Astoria New York, is happening any day now — a project years in the making. The landmark hotel, circa 1931, has been closed for renovations since 2017, following the purchase of the building by the Chinese Anbang Insurance Group in 2014 for $1.95 billion (now the state-owned Dajia Insurance Group). The reopening, under the Hilton umbrella since 1949, is a historic event as far as real estate is concerned, as it's one of the most recognized hotels in the world. The renovation is described as 'a total transformation of the building' by Frank Mahan of the architectural firm behind the overhaul, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The hospitality spots will open by mid-July; reservations for the redone hotel rooms, which debut September 1, opened earlier this year. Frequented by political figures from Queen Elizabeth to the Dalai Lama, just about every U.S. president, and tons of celebrities over the decades (it has even inspired the name for a Muppet), the hotel is poised to showcase its history, remade for 2025. The marquee restaurant called Lex Yard features chef Michael Anthony leading the kitchen; it is the first new project that the Gramercy Tavern chef has embraced in the 20 years since he's led the kitchen at the Danny Meyer restaurant, where he will remain executive chef. (The restaurant is not under Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group umbrella.) Japanese spot Yoshoku will also debut in the space with chef Ry Nitzkowski. The lobby is home to Peacock Alley, the original name for the lobby bar, with Jeff Bell of Please Don't Tell behind the cocktail menu. At 47 stories, the Gilded Age hotel at 301 Park Avenue, between 49th and 50th streets, was once the tallest in the world. During this recent near-decade-long renovation, it went from 1600 rooms total to 375 rooms, on the lower 18 stories, with another 372 residences on the upper floors. The three new restaurants replace La Chine (formerly Oscar's Brasserie), Bull and Bear Steakhouse, and the bar version of Peacock Alley, which closed for reservations in 2017. In the lobby, the clock that was a gift of Queen Victoria in 1893 has been restored for the space. Here's what we know so far about the restaurants: A big new project for one of the city's best-known chefs Named for the Lexington Avenue Track 61 that once connected the property to Grand Central, the 220-seat brasserie, Lex Yard, is a lavish, two-story restaurant designed by AvroKO, offering elevated classics as well as seasonal dishes. (The underground train depot is no longer accessible to visitors.) The restaurant offers an a la carte menu as well as a seasonal prix-fixe menu, the latter of which is available on the second floor. The more casual first level has a menu with raw bar offerings, platters, seasonal grilled vegetables, a fully-loaded lobster roll, leek ravioli, burgers, and beef-fat fries. Prices for first courses and vegetables range from $18 to $40, while mains run $34 and up. The restaurant displays one of two variations on the Waldorf salad in the building — with this one, a salad 'good enough to make people who try it want to eat it again,' Anthony tells Grub Street. Desserts come from Jennie Chiu, formerly head of pastry at Rosewood Miramar Beach hotels in California. Here, her spin on red velvet dessert made famous at the Waldorf includes a red velvet souffle tart with cream cheese, raspberry swirl ice cream. A storied space goes all-in on a burgeoning trend Kaiseki is seeing momentum around New York in places like Chinatown's Yamada and Union Square's Kappo Sono. Yoshoku in the lobby adds a boost. The minimalist wabi-sabi space with views of Park Avenue centers around the building's 1939 'Wheel of Life' mosaic. Expect items like toro tartare, grilled lobster, and king crab. Drinks range from sake to champagne, Japanese spirits, and cocktails like the Tokyo Sidecar, with Kikori rice whisky, yuzu, and sakura. A hotel bar icon expands to a full-service restaurant Peacock Alley is the only of the trio of openings that was formerly at the hotel — an import from the 1890s. Originally a cocktail bar, it has been upgraded to become a full-service restaurant. Jeff Bell, known for PDT and the forthcoming West Village project, the Los Angeles import Tacos 1986, opening in Greenwich Village, is overseeing it. Cocktails like the absinthe-laced Waldorf Cocktail ($38) and the 50th Street Martini ($40) made with Tanqueray, Vetiver, and dry vermouth are on the menu, while a raw bar offers lavish seafood towers stocked with oysters, a lobster roll, caviar, and truffles. Other items remain doggedly classic, like pigs in a blanket and a Waldorf salad. For this renovation, the designers went back to the earliest plans for the lobby — maple burl veneer, black marble columns, black lacquer and marble bar, ornate French-leaning Art Deco flourishes. The Cole Porter Steinway will still anchor the room. A pianist will, once again, play nightly, a spokesperson confirms. The ground floor of Lex Yard is open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Its second-floor dining room is open Tuesday through Saturday for dinner. Yohoku is also open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday. Peacock Alley is open daily with a breakfast and an all-day menu. Visit Resy or the hotel website for reservations.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Waldorf Astoria's Peacock Alley Gets Ready for a New Era
The Waldorf Astoria is back and Mrs. Astor would be pleased as punch. When the iconic hotel reopens in mid-July, visitors will be walking into a painstakingly renovated Art Deco skyscraper with a storied history going back to the height of the city's Gilded Age. 'This wasn't just a restoration,' says architect Frank Mahan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), who started on the project almost a decade ago. 'It was a total transformation of the building.' The eight-year renovation saw the 1,400-room hotel—at 625 feet, it was the world's largest when it relocated from Fifth to Park Avenue in 1931—completely reconfigured. The Schultze & Weaver façade, with its rooftop copper domes and Art Deco step-back architecture, has been burnished to its original luster; the hotel's rooms and suites, which now number 375, have been expanded in size; the legendary Grand Ballroom is ready to once again host the city's most high-powered galas; and owners are moving into an adjacent tower with 372 residences designed by ELLE Decor A-Lister Jean-Louis Deniot. But the most iconic space of all remains: Peacock Alley, the grand promenade that defined New York glamour for almost a century. 'It connects everything: the entrance on Park Avenue, the Clock Lounge, and the heart of the hotel,' says Pierre-Yves Rochon, the French designer who oversaw the interiors for the Waldorf's public spaces and hotel rooms. The original Peacock Alley—and the first Waldorf Astoria hotel—predates the current location. Like an episode of the Julian Fellowes series, it began with two feuding members of the Astor family: William Waldorf Astor and his aunt, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, the real-life basis for Donna Murphy's character on the HBO show. Irritated by his aunt's refusal to cede the title 'the Mrs. Astor' to his wife, William built a 13-story hotel on his property, adjacent to his aunt's mansion. She and her son retaliated by building their own hotel next door. Eventually, the two properties merged into the Waldorf = Astoria, with the equal sign representing Peacock Alley, the long marble-lined corridor that connected the two buildings, so named because it soon became one of the most fashionable places in town for high society to preen and promenade. In 1929, the original hotel was torn down to make way for the Empire State Building. The new Waldorf Astoria then reopened on Park Avenue as a 51-story skyscraper—23 stories taller than the original. At that point, Peacock Alley was so identified with the hotel that Schultze & Weaver's lead designer, Lloyd Morgan, created a new version in the Park Avenue location. The space quickly became a favorite gathering spot for the celebrities and royalty who frequented the hotel, from Marilyn Monroe to Elizabeth Taylor to Grace Kelly. When they started on the Waldorf restoration project, SOM's architects were surprised that the interiors of the New York City icon had never received landmark protection. They spent years researching the history of the hotel's architecture and design and worked with the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission to have the inside of the building designated a landmark that cannot be torn down in the future. Going back to the original documents and photographs, they learned that the hotel's interiors were altered multiple times. Peacock Alley had evolved over the years into the hotel's ornate lobby. At its core was the gilded 19th-century clock, originally commissioned by Queen Victoria for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, which John Jacob Astor IV bought and displayed it in the original Waldorf Astoria. 'We started digging through the archives,' says SOM partner Kenneth A. Lewis. 'The lobby had gone through multiple iterations—in the 1950s, '60s, and again in the '80s. Conrad Hilton believed in constant modernization, and that's reflected in how the interiors evolved.' Those redesigns include a 1960s version where wood veneer was swapped for blue enamel walls; the zany décor also included columns in the shape of golden palm trees and a pair of massive stone lions. Later, the room became darker and more serious with mahogany veneer and cove lighting. The architects began by streamlining the space to recreate its sense of symmetry and flow. They moved the check-in area out of Peacock Alley and into its own designated area. The space once again forms the heart of the hotel, serving as an enfilade linking the entries and lobbies at Park with those on Lexington Avenue. A restaurant was removed and replaced by the Peacock Alley Bar, which is open to the central lobby and will serve up cocktails by Jeff Bell, the mixologist behind the speakeasy Please Don't Tell (PDT). Meanwhile, the 11-foot Chicago World's Fair clock—an octagonal beauty in gilded bronze and orm0lu—was removed and restored offsite before going on display temporarily at the New York Historical Society. Queen Victoria commissioned the timepiece, which depicts several American presidents and images of sports, agriculture, and architecture, for the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago (the Lady Liberty that tops it was added later). The clock has been returned to its central spot in Peacock Alley where visitors can once again "meet at the clock." Based on documents, SOM has brought the space back to its original look: A lighter maple burl veneer sheaths the walls, the black marble columns have been restored, and a frieze added in the 1950s was removed to make the room feel taller. Meanwhile, they worked to restore the intricate plasterwork on the ceiling. 'At one point, we built a full plaster shop within Peacock Alley,' Mahan says. 'There was a room inside a room, with high wood walls, and silicone molds were made to recreate the plasterwork where missing.' The hotel's interiors are an unusual hybrid of Art Deco styles. 'The exterior is a stripped-down American Art Deco—more modernist in style,' Lewis notes. 'But inside, it's more exuberant, almost French Deco in its detailing. Lloyd Morgan, the senior designer, had studied in Europe, and you can see that influence. The interior also references the previous Waldorf on Fifth Avenue, which was Beaux-Arts.' He also commissioned a carpet with a fish motif that nods to the one in the former Sert Room at the corner of Park Avenue and 50th Street. That room featured a handwoven carpet inspired by Persian gardens, with an aquatic design that incorporated fish and lily pads. 'The history of the building guided us,' Rochon says. 'The Art Deco legacy, the American precision of the 1930s, the volumes, the materials—everything was already there. We simply worked to bring lightness, coherence, and calmness.' Rochon says the goal was to transform the lobby into a loungelike room with tailored seating, chic lighting, and a central bar in black lacquer and Saint Laurent marble. 'It's a place to sit, observe, and feel the life of the hotel,' he says. In the evening, the space will come alive with martinis and music from another of the hotel's treasures: Cole Porter's mahogany Steinway piano also takes center stage at Peacock Alley. Porter lived in the adjacent Waldorf Towers from 1934 to 1964 with his two cats: "Anything" and "Goes." What would the Mrs. Astor make of the renovation? Surely, she'd be strutting like a peacock. You Might Also Like From the Archive: Tour Sarah Jessica Parker's Relaxed Hamptons Retreat 75 Small (But Mighty) Kitchens to Steal Inspiration from Right This Instant
