A last look at the old sign.

Anyone who has seen the movie Taxi Driver knows that Times Square wasn’t always a desirable location for a hotel. But that was a long time ago. Now even hotels that aren’t all that close to Times Square are adding the spot-where-the-New-Year’s-Eve-ball-drops to their name.

The latest Times Square pretender is the Sheraton New York Hotel, which today augmented its name to become the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel – even though the hotel is ten blocks north of the Times Square’s throbbing heart, where Broadway, Seventh Avenue and 42^nd Street meet.

At least you can see Times Square from the Sheraton.  The same cannot be said for the TRYP New York Times Square South, which is a lot closer to Madison Square Garden and Penn Station than Times Square. (more…)

Louis Rigal murals — and a silver-leaf ceiling.

Less is more is rarely the first thought that leaps to mind when you enter the Park Avenue lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria. This massive expanse is one of the most superb examples of Art Deco design in town.

The deco is decorative – allegorical murals by French artist Louis Rigal, gilded ceiling reliefs of frolicking naiads and stags, a floor mosaic of the Wheel of Life made from 150,000 tiny tiles.

Still, there’s notably less to see than there was just a few months ago. While never a candidate for Hoarders, the lobby in its newly renovated incarnation is an emphatic if unexpected salute to Mies van der Rohe’s maxim.

To leap forward the hotel stepped backward, restoring the lobby to the original footprint on view when it opened in 1931.  (more…)

Companion — the inflatable version.

The last time we saw Companion, artist KAWS’s iconic cartoon character with big curly ears, Disney hands and a pair of Xs for eyes, he was a sculpture – a really big one. During the summer of 2011 his seated form, rendered in gray and white in steel, loomed 16-feet tall in front of The Standard hotel, hands over his eyes, the shyest character in town.

A year and change later he’s back in New York. This time he’s even bigger (and weighs a lot less). Look for him up in the air, hands covering eyes, at the 86^th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

As far as we know, Companion is the first hotel sculpture (temporary or permanent) to morph into a Thanksgiving Day parade balloon. (more…)

We love trade shows. For hotel buffs the annual International Hotel, Model + Restaurant Show at New York’s Javits Center is the Great Kahuna, a self-described hospitality show of shows unleashing a cornucopia of new, well, stuff.

Tucked deep within the rows of big-ticket items – towering refrigerators, 12-inch-thick mattress, even a couple of food trucks – we found five nifty gadgets their backers want to put in hotels. Remember, you (probably) saw them here first.

(more…)

Living large.

In the immortal words of Jo March in Little Women, “Christopher Columbus!”

There he was in all his statuesque glory, standing a dizzying 13 feet tall in the bird’s eye living room conceived, constructed (and decorated) by Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi in the center of Columbus Circle.

Since September 20, visitors have climbed up, up, up six flights of metal stairs to the pink-wallpapered lair where Italian sculptor Gaetano Russo’s 1892 marble rendering of Italy’s most famous sailor stands atop a coffee table littered with copies of The FT and The New York Times.  This week it was our turn (admission is free but by reservation), and we made the climb on a drizzly day.

Nishi creates short-term artworks by reimaging, and recontextualizing, public monuments in unexpected ways. In Villa Victoria, a pop-up hotel suite built around a statue of Queen Victoria in Liverpool, guests could actually spend the night. (more…)

Larger than life Gummy Bears? Models prepping for a fashion show? A Dublin artist’s outsize photos of New York?

You never know what will turn up in the windows of The Corner Space, the Roger Smith Hotel’s storefront on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 47^th Street. And that’s why we love looking in whenever we pass by.

Art under glass.

This week, through Friday November 16, a live art happening, courtesy the Thai Artists Alliance, is unfolding under glass from 9 am to 6 pm – and sometimes a little later as we discovered when we chanced by at 6:30 one night. (more…)

Trellised — the Palace Gate.

They don’t hand out gold statues for Best Dressed Scaffolding. But if they did we’d vote for the courtyard at the New York Palace.

During the hotel’s $100 million renovation, set to conclude in spring 2013, the lower parts of the exterior are aproned, scaffolded and cocconed in a moody brown scrim that brings Christo to mind.

Much of the work centers on the historic Villard Mansion, the opulent McKim, Mead and White manse that forms the base of the hotel, and the Palace Gate, the hotel’s outdoor lounge in the courtyard. And that’s were things get interesting. (more…)

New balloon in town: no peeking.

Companion, the giant balloon depicting grafitti artist KAWS’ iconic bashful character, isn’t all that’s new at this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 22.

After years of marching down Seventh Avenue, the parade has a new route for 2012 — and probably beyond. And as we reported last year, for guests hoping to watch from a hotel room the choices have changed — and shrunk.

Eight Seventh Avenue and Times Square hotels, including giants like the Park Central New York, Sheraton New York, Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square and Marriott Marquis, won’t be seeing Santa & Co. this year.  (more…)

A foul-mouthed teddy bear was the big winner in hotel rooms last month followed by an action franchise that got tweaked. And in something we rarely see – we’ve been Passing the Popcorn for nine months – the four most popular hotel room movies across the Nation and Canada and in New York City were identical. Guests dug Bourne — and that bear!

As always our round-up is provided by LodgeNet, suppliers of in-room entertainment to 1.6 million hotel rooms in the U.S. and Canada. (more…)

Storm weather.

A hotel on high ground with power, water, room service and a big bathtub can be a great place to ride out a hurricane – if you’re a guest.

But what about the people who work there?  “It’s definitely a lot more fun to stay in a hotel during a hurricane than work in one,” says Daniel Jones, a former employee at a luxury hotel in Orlando, Florida who writes the popular travel blog The World of Deej.

We asked D.J., as he signs his blog posts, what it’s like to be on the job at a hotel when a big storm strikes.

+ How many hurricanes occurred while you were on the job?

We had two storms pass through during my adventure in the hotel business. One was a moderate tropical storm and the other was a hurricane. (more…)