New York Hospitality by Vijay Dandapani

Frank Gehry - New York Hotel?

The Los Angeles Times today has a report on what will be the first Frank Gehry designed building in New York. The famed architect had tried for decades to put his stamp on the New York architectural skyline with a number of projects such as a "61-story skyscraper that was going to be built on the site of Madison Square Garden, a hotel in Astor Place, a building in Times Square and,a grandiose plan for a new Guggenheim over the East River near Wall Street". Mr. Gehry now sails into Manhattan at the invitation of fellow sailor Barry Diller, head of IAC/InterActiveCorp, a conglomerate of companies. The new headquarters of IAC will be along Manhattan's West Side Highway and, in keeping with their common passion for sailing, will look like the "billowing sails of a sailboat". For Mr. Gehry it fulfills a long sought, if unstated, desire to leave his imprimatur on the Big Apple for despite his fame all he had done thus far was the designing of the interior of a Manhattan town house and the cafeteria inside Condé Nast's headquarters.

While the Guggenheim in Bilbao is world renowned, less well known is a hotel he built near Bibao in Rioja Alavesa. The Hotel Marques De Riscal is his first and only hotel and is part of Starwood's luxury collection. Somewhat expectedly, it is an atypical hotel as the report notes: "No. 10 at the Marqués de Riscal was so unlike the normal hotel room that it made us slightly giddy. You enter by a long hallway. The wall panels are made of pale, raw maple that also lines the floor, bare except for a simple area rug. A king bed with a prow-like leather headboard designed by Gehry dominates the room. The architect also designed the cloud lamps on the bedside tables, made of seamed white fabric balloons, and chose the green and black marble in the bath on the far side of the room". The hotel's rates average $750 and are more typical of upper echelon of Manhattan hostelry. Perhaps, Mr. Gehry's westside project with Mr. Diller will spur him to consider a second project in Manhattan - his second hotel.

Great Edifices

The Wall Street Journal (subscription may be required) today reports on a survey commissioned by the American Institute of Architects to get the opinions of "ordinary" Americans. Harris Interactive, a polling agency surveyed 2,000 people who were shown photographs and asked to rate 247 buildings nominated by 2,500 architects in various categories. While the Empire State Building came in as numero uno followed by the White House, the Bellagio, a hotel-cum casino in Las Vegas made the list albeit at number 22.

The Bellagio's inclusion was greeted with consternation and derision by some architects, the article fails to mention more notable and arguably eclectic hotel structures such as New York's St. Regis at number 16. The main architect, Samuel Beck Parkman Trowbridge, of the Beaux-arts style structure was part of a slew of famous architects from the turn of the last century who brought that Parisian style to many a notable New York Building. Other hotels in that style include the Peninsula on 55th Street and the Aberdeen (now known as the La Quinta Hotel) on 32nd street, both "landmarked" by the City's Landmarks Commission.

Other New York buildings such as the Chrysler building made the list and the hotels category includes many fine establishments around the country including the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego (#18), Ahwanee Hotel in Yosemite Valley (#26), Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park ( #36), the Delano Hotel in Miami (#39), the Waldorf-Astoria (#46), Mauna Kea Beach Hotel (#54), Dolphin and Swan - Walt Disney World (#70), the Willard in Washington DC (#76), the Broadmoor in Colorado (#78) and the Plaza Hotel in New York (#81). The Plaza's facade hails from a different pedigree, German renaissance, akin to the Dakota building on 72nd Street where John Lennon was killed.

The Bellagio's inclusion at number 22 is welcome to hoteliers even if as the headline for the Journal article sums up the sentiment that beauty is "In the Eye of the Beholder". Perhaps, that would inspire architects of today to design edifices based on today's tastes - tasteless to some but obviously not to many.