Michelle Williams at Grand Reopening of W New York Union Square

Michelle Williams, Jane Krakowski and Lucien Laviscount have been among the many starry friends serving to to usher within the grand reopening of W New York – Union Square over the weekend. One of essentially the most iconic motels in Manhattan, with its neon “W” emblem perched on the rooftop, the property unveiled a $100 million transformation earlier than a various crowd of actors, musicians, influencers and native tastemakers that additionally included names like Ella Emhoff, Hari Nef, Moses Sumney and rapper Slick Rick.

The invite-only occasion kicked off with an intimate dinner at W New York – Union Square’s new brasserie-inspired seafood restaurant, Seahorse, earlier than friends ascended the sweeping foyer staircase into the second flooring “Living Room” area, which remodeled an outdated ballroom into an opulent cocktail and dancing lounge for the evening (it’ll even be open to the general public nightly). Dressed in a black Schiaparelli gown with gold, chain-link straps, Williams tucked right into a nook sales space with associates, whereas Laviscourt made the rounds to mingle with the group whereas having fun with DJ units from Toro y Moi and DJ Desiree.

W Hotels tapped design agency Rockwell Group for its “room-to-rooftop reinvention,” with founder David Rockwell explaining that he needed to deliver the “landscaping of New York” indoors, to create an “inviting” and “more natural space.”

To wit: hovering columns and architectural rooms pay homage to town’s skyline, whereas interiors draw from the inexperienced, blue and orange colorways of New York fauna and foliage. Custom tiling and lighting fixtures, meantime, are impressed by outdated subway stations.

The new area additionally options intentional touchpoints to the lodge’s Union Square environment, with murals that replicate the eclectic spirit of the artists and avenue performers exterior the lodge doorways, and recent flowers impressed by the bustling farmer’s market. Side tables within the bedrooms, meantime, characteristic chessboard tabletops, identical to those seen within the park.

According to George Fleck, the SVP and Global Brand Leader for W Hotels, EDITION, and St. Regis, the Union Square property was due for a refresh.

“W has always been a leader in the hospitality and lifestyle space, but now you have 20 or more lifestyle brands in the world and customers really can no longer understand the difference between them,” he provides. “And so, as we were going through our brand reviews, we kind of five years ago said, ‘You know, I think we can’t just keep pushing things as we have in the past,’ but maybe we need to take a step back and say, with the rise of that lifestyle bubble becoming bigger and bigger, are we really standing out enough?”

Renovation talks started simply previous to the pandemic, and whereas the lodge by no means formally shut down for enterprise in 2020, Fleck says the quieter occupancy “actually gave us some breathing room to really think about the design.”

Chief among the many priorities was to make it possible for the design ethos was not solely elevated, however that it prolonged to the whole property, with Fleck noting that “people now live in hotel rooms — they’re not just for sleeping.” That means plush carpeting within the rooms and high-end furnishings that encourage friends to unfold out and work (or calm down). The newly-expanded health club, meantime, transforms an outdated underground nightclub right into a health middle that rivals among the high membership golf equipment within the metropolis.

“We hope that people will choose the hotel because it makes them feel like they’re not staying in a hotel, but maybe in like a beautiful little New York apartment,” Fleck says.

Up subsequent: curating the general public areas like Living Room and the soon-to-be-opened rooftop bar with leisure choices that Fleck says may vary from particular music nights to vogue pop-ups to artwork exhibitions. “We’re not just another hotel,” he says, “but [rather] something that can become a platform for experiences that feel hyper local. Whether you’re coming for a drink after work or want to impress somebody who’s visiting from out of town, we’ve created a wonderful new destination for people to experience New York.”