Ian Schrager knows a thing or two about hospitality. The 40-year industry veteran first reinvented nightlife with Studio 54 in the ’70s, and then turned to hotels, widely credited as the founder of the boutique hotel (Morgans, Royalton, Delano, to name a few). Now he is at it again with Public. Whereas those creations were more about what was happening behind the velvet rope, Public is his stylish solution for the select-service market, or “luxury for all”—forgoing superfluous touches, such as a traditional check in, bellman, and roomservice (Public advisors are on hand to take care of guest needs), but still offering all of the amenities and the high design Schrager is known for at an affordable price. Just don’t call it a Millennial-focused brand. “I’m in the product distinction business,” he says. “If you do a really great product, something unique and original and unlike everything else, it will resonate with all walks of life.”
The first Public opened in Chicago some six years ago (which he recently sold), but since it was an existing building, Schrager was limited in what he could do. Yet this time, the new-build New York property gave him a clean slate. “This is all of the things that we wanted to do but couldn’t [in Chicago], so it’s a further refined and evolved brand now.”
The 367-room hotel (topped with 11 luxury residences) is tucked away in New York’s Lower East Side, “on the edge of an emerging area,” says Schrager, adding he always wanted to do something downtown but hadn’t found the right opportunity until now. The “refined gritty” aesthetic speaks to its surroundings and starts at the exterior, a concrete masterpiece by longtime Schrager collaborator Herzog & de Meuron with expansive windows and a rippling texture thanks to treated sandblasted formwork. “These small tricks with a little twist give a very different kind of result—they introduce a level of sophistication that you might not immediately see, but you feel it,” explains Ascan Mergenthaler, a senior partner at the architecture firm’s Berlin office.
That continues inside, where the palette is made up of modest materials—more concrete, wood, metal, marble, and glass—all used in novel and refined ways. Take the dramatic entrance escalator. It is surrounded by mirrors and made of polished steel so a reflection of the rose-colored incandescent lights creates an “otherworldly, theatrical” feel. Upstairs on the second-floor lobby, the top of a concrete wall has been polished 30 times for a mirrored appearance (“I wanted people to bend down to comb their hair or put their makeup on,” Schrager says), while plywood gains character as louvers above bleacher seating done in the same simple wood.
Schrager-approved unexpected touches abound. A striking tapestry featuring a replica of a mural by Mexican artist Diego Rivera “that was supposed to hang in Rockefeller Center before it was pulled for its communist overtones,” he explains, hangs in cocktail bar Diego, outfitted in the same jewel tones as the art piece. While in the nautically inspired efficient guestrooms, a baroque gold mirror contrasts the oak and raw concrete interiors for “a nice surprise,” he says.
True to Schrager’s MO, guests never need to leave the property. “It’s a microcosm of the best New York has to offer,” and a way to compete with Airbnb, he says. A grand entrance walkway cuts through “a mini Central Park,” which was part effect and part solution: a subway runs under the front of the property, and by setting the building back, he avoided the extra approvals needed to build on it. The ground floor is home to a retail store, as well as two new concepts from prolific chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten—Louis, a grab-and-go market, and Kitchen, boasting an open kitchen with three white marble tiled ovens and outdoor garden seating.
Besides Diego, there are three other watering holes on the property: Public Arts, a basement multimedia performance space; the lobby bar, which transforms from a coworking space during the day to an energetic nightspot that overlooks the park out front through soaring floor-to-ceiling windows intentionally cut back so guests “feel like they’re outside,” says Mergenthaler; and the crowning jewel, the rooftop bar. The latter is all about the views: columns are clad in mirrored metal; there’s a wraparound balcony; the all-black interiors are punctuated with floors embedded with blue strips of light that mimic the linear fluorescent ones on the lobby ceiling; and a wall of windows wraps the space, even behind the glowing golden bar and in the bathrooms. “You feel like you are floating in the clouds,” Schrager says.
