The Empire Hotel, across the street from Lincoln Center is one of Goodman Charlton’s newest designs for the Empire Hotel Group. It is quite lovely. The guest is greeted by an simple entry which leads into a double height elegant sitting room. This room is flanked by a bar, the reception desk, and the elevator bank. It is not a huge space which is nice. It felt warm, comfortable, and inviting. My friend Jen Morris (a designer at Zeff Design) made a good point in saying the space feels like a touch of old Hollywood. The room is luxurious with layers of fabrics, textures, woods, and a terrific floor pattern in stone. The combination of the dramatic double height drapes, zebra patterned accent chairs, and high backed velvet banquettes really brings back the sense of another era. The space is filled with textures and patterns (perhaps a few too many) but one that I love is the dark venitian plaster in an alligator print at the stair case. It’s gorgeous. The Mezzanine is only on one side of the double height sitting room. The designers, very smartly, echoed the metal bannister detail opposite the mezzanine. They put mirror behind the banister to give the alusion the mezzanine continued all around.
Goodman Charlton used the Empire Hotel logo throughout the space. This can often be cheesy but they did it really well. The metal door pull as you enter and the carpet pattern going up the stairs both incorporate the two E’s of the logo. The only thing I wish they had done differently were the bathrooms. The attention to detail that is exhibited in the main space is lost here. The partition doors do not close properly and there are a miriad of fixture finishes.
I didn’t have a chance to see the rooms or to sit at the bar so I can’t really comment on those.
It’s worth a visit and they had a very nice Spanish Cava.
