Preceded by a history that stretches back more than 100 years, the Knickerbocker Hotel was constructed in 1906 by Marvin Davis Architects. Located between New York’s theater district and Times Square, it debuted as a hotel before functioning as an office building from 1920 to 2013. For its most recent renovation, completed this year, owners Highgate Holdings and Felcore Lodging & Trust turned to locally based Gabellini Sheppard Associates for a contemporary refresh that nods to the property’s location.
“There was an aspirational character and vision embedded into the original hotel’s inception that we were very drawn to,” says Michael Gabellini, a partner at Gabellini Sheppard Associates with Kimberly Sheppard and Daniel Garbowit. “We reconceived the Knickerbocker to recapture that Old World glamour and luxury.”
Fronted by a Beaux Arts-style façade with limestone and terracotta masonry, the 15-story landmark’s public spaces have been reimagined with a flexible layout and flourishes that hark back to its original design.
“The surrounding materials create an alluring, anticipatory feeling for what lies beyond,” says Gabellini, who wanted to create “a luxe, casually elegant public environment,” including in the L-shaped lobby, where textural finishes and a floor with alternating bands of light– and medium-toned marble takes center stage. While a diptych mirror complements the stone floor’s concentric patterning, an abstract mural by Brooklyn-based Orazio De Gennaro Studio adds modernist flair along a backlit wall to the left of the reception desk. In homage to the original hotel, a centrally located elevator bank features a barrel-vaulted ceiling highlighted by a white-gold-inspired finish.
The lobby leads to a café, dubbed Jake’s @ the Knick, which features a similar plaster ceiling flecked with gold hues that play off the atmospheric lighting in the evening, when the room becomes a lounge. “Programmatically, it was important to develop public spaces that would allow for both socializing and relaxing, thereby transitioning seamlessly from day to night,” Gabellini explains.
The fourth floor is dedicated to public amenities, such as a meeting space, fitness center, and library, which adjoins the 122-seat signature restaurant Charlie Palmer at the Knick—a fluid area whose central bar is clad in sculptural Frappuccino quartzite with swirling brown hues. The F&B outlet is distinguished from the library and lounge via curtains and glass screens, which form partitions amongst intimate seating areas throughout the floor—which is spatially defined around its perimeter by tiered ceiling panels with integrated lighting. The floor’s central bar comprises vertically grained Maron Grecale stone that is “reminiscent of a fine menswear fabric,” adds Gabellini.
The hotel’s oxidized copper mansard roof, now restored, is home to St. Cloud, a newly added 7,800-square-foot, indoor-outdoor lounge. Carved from charcoal slate, a bar sits upon wood floors dipped in a silver metallic finish. An outdoor terrace showcases a vertical living wall that contrasts with the views. Zones that formerly housed flagpole structures were also converted into lounge areas that form “singular event spaces perched high over the animation of Times Square,” explains Gabellini.
More than a finishing touch, the hotel’s former 556 guestrooms have been reconfigured as 330 oversized accommodations with unique layouts, clean lines, custom millwork, wainscot elements, vanities, and bathrooms with privacy glass that “creates the feeling of a larger spatial environment and augments the rooms’ serene aesthetic,” says Gabellini.
Four expansive Tribute suites—Caruso, Cohan, Martini, and Parrish—also offer residentially inspired layouts with bespoke details rooted in Knickerbocker’s history. Though each boasts its own personality, all are cosmopolitan with an emphasis on modern décor. The Caruso suite, for example, centers on extensive millwork and muted tones, while the Martini suite—named for the famous drink—features leather-clad walls with Art Deco-inspired elements and blackened steel.
