Four Seasons New York
The Four Seasons is not a cozy hotel. Nor is it an understated one. At 52 stories, it's New York's tallest, and at 600 square feet, its standard guest room is New York's largest. From the thirty-three foot high onyx and alabaster ceiling lobby to the bathtubs that fill in sixty seconds, the Four Seasons NY is about as big as you can get. In an environment that's all about modesty, minimalism, and black Prada, it's refreshing to see this honey limestone monument to the old New York of splendor and showing off. Here, your floor is a status symbol, and perfectly grown-up celebs fight for the right to be higher.
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Being I.M. Pei's only complete project in the Western hemisphere, it doesn't look like any of the other Four Seasons hotels, with its sleek modern facade. They have the same limestone as the Louvre — not just the same kind of limestone, but limestone that was quarried at exactly the same time and place. Throughout, the hotel is caramel and ivory and very, very Deco. Oval, polished tables, Corbusier prints, and blonde sofas the color of Harlow's hair. You can see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers tripping across its reflective marble floors, and Nick and Nora Charles checking in with their terrier. |
Even room service is excessive. A database keeps a profile on each and every guest. And they use it. Every morning, the staff sits down to review the histories of everyone checking in that day. So if, three years ago, you had a hankering for turkey pot pie, threw a fit because there were raisins in your cereal, or liked to call room service at four in the morning, they'll remember. But you haven't done the Four Seasons until you have spent the entire morning in bed. Order up the famous lemon ricotta pancakes, press the switch by the oversized bed, watch the apricot gold silk curtains slide apart, and enjoy the panoramic view. You will feel like an emperor sitting on top of the world. |
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