May 11, 2009

US & CANADA | US | NEW YORK

NoMad’s Land

By Doug Black

A trio of hotels puts Gotham’s newest hood on the map.

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If you thought Manhattan island was sufficiently documented, get ready to update your maps. Introducing NoMad. Meant to define the relatively under-developed historical district north of Madison Square Park (get it?), an impending glut of luxury properties has called for the classic NYC acronym treatment. And come May, the newly-minted NoMad expects to welcome its first guest: the Ace Hotel New York (pictured).

Long delayed, Gotham’s version of the Seattle-based Ace promises the cool-friend’s-apartment vibe of its three West Coast editions (including Portland and Palm Springs). Inhabiting the century-old former Breslin Hotel on Broadway, design duo Roman & Williams (who also take credit for the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District) honored the building’s history with a mix of vintage and custom furnishings (picture clothing racks wrought from industrial pipes and retro-streamlined refrigerators). Never content to travel alone, the Ace invited their cool friends from the Pacific Northwest, too. Along with a new restaurant from the folks behind New York’s own Spotted Pig, the Ace New York will house the first East Coast branch of Portland’s beloved Stumptown Coffee.

Set to occupy the very same block is the aptly-named NoMad Hotel. Considered a “sister property” to the Ace, (they’re independent properties by the same developers), the NoMad expects to be New York’s first LEED-certified renovated hotel when it opens next winter. The building’s high ceilings, wood floors and oversized windows affect a French bohemian feel that’s reinforced by a suitably French interior designer: Paris-icon Jacques Garcia.

As if all this NoMadness weren’t enough, mini-chain Desires Hotels is throwing their boutique hat into the hood too with MAve, a “Scandinavian Modern” hotel on 27th Street. Scheduled to open this summer, its name is a play on the Madison Avenue location, and the product of a week-long online “You Name It, We Claim It” contest. With thousands of participants jockeying to give it a title, this might just mark a golden age for New York nicknames.