NEW YORK — Walking into the newly renovated W New York — Union Square, it is exhausting to know the place to look first. Just previous the doorway, the partitions showcase murals by Shantell Martin, that includes her signature black marker drawings of summary faces and scattered letters in opposition to a white backdrop.
Straight forward, a curved staircase sweeps upward, wrapped in carpeting that seems to ripple down the steps in swirls of orange, cream and rust. Florals cascade from above, whereas glass-block partitions glow with backlighting behind the welcome desks.
It’s a maximalist and multilayered aesthetic, and a far cry from what the lodge seemed like when it opened in 2000. The 256-room lodge’s transformation is the results of a $100 million, four-year renovation following Marriott International’s buy of the property in 2019.
It’s additionally reflective of the life-style model’s efforts to re-establish its relevance as a part of an ongoing, multiyear model refresh.
“A lot of W hotels are changing their look, and they’re being redesigned to match the new ethos of the brand, said Sohrab Parakh, director of marketing at the Union Square W, during a tour of the property.
Originally developed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts, the W brand emerged as a lifestyle hospitality pioneer with its first hotel, the W New York in Manhattan’s Midtown East neighborhood, in 1998. The concept became known for its modern design elements and lively bar scene as well as playful touches like room categories labeled Cozy, Wonderful or Fabulous and culminating in an Extreme WOW Suite.
A brand new rooftop venue on the W New York — Union Square is predicted to open later this fall. Photo Credit: W New York — Union Square
The model joined Marriott’s portfolio in 2016 by way of Marriott’s Starwood acquisition, and immediately, W has greater than 70 properties globally. With the unique W New York reflagged in 2018, the Union Square lodge is now the oldest W in its system.
According to George Fleck, senior vp and international model chief for W Hotels, the Union Square lodge has been deemed a world flagship, serving as a “blueprint that evokes and informs what W Hotels appears to be like like shifting ahead.” Fleck said the brand expects more than 80% of its portfolio to meet W Hotels’ refreshed standards by 2028.
Rockwell Group, which designed the original W New York — Union Square, led the renovation, drawing inspiration from Union Square Park and its surroundings.
During our tour, Parakh pointed out design details like light fixtures modeled after subway entrance lamps and side tables with chessboard patterns, which are a nod to the park’s chess players. In the bathroom, faucet handles are a bright taxicab yellow.
Among the hotel’s other upgrades are an indoor-outdoor rooftop bar, which is set to debut later this fall, and a reimagined Living Room lobby venue.
The reimagined Living Room on the W New York — Union Square. Photo Credit: W Hotels
Up the curved staircase from the doorway, the Living Room occupies what was as soon as a personal occasion area. Now, the ethereal, ballroom-like space is open to company and locals as a lounge and bar, with Parakh aiming to place it as a “cultural membership” featuring everything from slam poetry events and album listening parties to game nights. (An adjacent Living Room Cafe serves coffee by day and transitions into another bar space at night.)
On the ground floor, Seahorse, a seafood-focused brasserie, has opened with its own entrance on Park Avenue South.
“These venues are designed for locals; our aim is to draw the neighborhood,” said Parakh, adding that the hotel hopes to move away from New York’s increasingly exclusive hospitality and nightlife scene. “New York has form of [shifted] away from being extra about neighborhood, and I believe we have to get that again.”
This ethos of approachability extends to the hotel’s room categories. Gone are monikers like Fabulous and Wonderful, which have been replaced by straightforward descriptors — Standard Guest Room, 1 King — that guests can more easily understand.
“We’re not making an attempt so exhausting to be cool anymore,” Parakh said.
Recapturing the cool factor
But as the lifestyle category nears middle age, early players like W may indeed need to try to maintain, or in some cases regain, their cool factor.
“These way of life manufacturers began changing into well-liked when individuals had been uninterested in extra standardized and cookie-cutter experiences,” said Makarand Mody, associate professor of hospitality marketing at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, Mody added that W “actually established its popularity because the social gathering model” of the lifestyle space.
The category, however, has become far more crowded over the past few decades. Early entrants like W, IHG’s Kimpton and Ace Hotel now compete with a flood of lifestyle offerings launched after 2000, like Hyatt’s Andaz, Hilton’s Tempo and Canopy, and Ennismore’s Hoxton.
W Hotels considers the redesigned W New York — Union Square a flagship lodge for the refreshed way of life model. Photo Credit: W New York — Union Square
“W and different manufacturers, like Edition, have develop into virtually legacy manufacturers now,” said Bjorn Hanson, an industry consultant and adjunct professor at New York University’s Tisch Center of Hospitality. “Their diploma of uniqueness is not what it as soon as was.”
Part of the problem, according to both Mody and Hanson, is replicability. As other brands have jumped into the lifestyle category, “way of life turned a little bit of a buzzword for something that is non-standardized,” Mody said. “The mannequin isn’t that arduous to repeat.”
The solution, said Mody, is specificity, particularly as it relates to experiences.
“You cannot type of be on this generic way of life boat anymore,” he said, adding that travelers across generations seek “expertise over extra.”
W appears to be betting on this approach. According to Fleck, the brand has focused on offering more “developed” programming, like expanding its W Presents live music series that brings DJs and musicians to properties worldwide, and reimagining its W Insider role “to be extra like a cultural information than a concierge.”
“Today’s traveler expects greater than only a trendy room and a buzzing foyer bar,” Fleck said. “Next-generation vacationers worth experiences over possessions, neighborhood over exclusivity and goal over formality.”