The $180 million, more than 20-month-long renovation of the InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel, the 704-room property built in 1926 primarily as a residence along Grand Central Station’s railroad line by the Vanderbilts, was no small feat for New York-based architecture and design firm HOK. “We were charged with creating allure for a 90-year-old property,” says Christina Hart, HOK Hospitality’s senior principal, the project’s principal in charge. “In a time when many hotels, particularly in New York, are minimalist and contemporary, this offered an incredible opportunity to make history appealing, upscale, and chic.”
Working with Les Faulk and Lisa McClung of IHG (as well as architects Stonehill & Taylor), the team researched the property’s history to restore its Federalist style grandeur while bringing it into the 21st century—and while expanding the bar and dining area, and adding a grand marble stairwell and mezzanine, meeting and event spaces, a club lounge, and concierge lounge. Weaved throughout, says HOK senior designer Caroline Bertrand, are a few hallmarks: birds (the hotel used to keep live birds in the lobby); the letter B (found on the property’s exterior cornice); eagles (a classic Federalist symbol); and railroads (the hotel was one of four created on added land for Grand Central Station).
The lobby was brightened and melds old and new thanks to a palette of gray, blue, periwinkle, yellow, beige, rose, and orange; new fluted, white columns; a replica of the original Palladian-style glazed embellished ceiling; a marble floor of alternating gray-and-white checkerboard squares (some 3,220 pavers were used); oval patterns on mirrors, columns, and the ceiling; curved, wood-framed furniture; and detailed millwork.
Guestrooms and suites, meanwhile, are “elegant but comfortable to give guests a feeling of home,” says Hart. Highlights include leather embossed headboards dotted with brass nail heads set against white walls featuring salon-style artwork; a wall-size Hudson River School murals depicting nature in sepia tones; richly patterned pillows contrasting orange and soft beige upholstery; custom floor lamps topped with a brass-sculpted bird; and a period-inspired bust.
And for the unexpected: inspired by the grand, oversized bird cage from the Barclay’s former lobby, guests enter the hotel through brass screens with a warm antique finish featuring warblers sitting on tree branches.
