Morgans Hotel

See also: Morgans Hotel (disambiguation)

Morgans Hotel
Location	237 Madison Avenue, New York City
Opening date	1927
Architect	Andrew J. Thomas
Owner	Morgans Hotel Group
Rooms	149 in 1927, 113 in 1984
Restaurants	1
Floors	19
Website	http://www.morganshotel.com/

Morgans Hotel is a boutique hotel located on Madison Avenue, New York City, USA. Owned by Morgans Hotel Group, this was the first property in the group and opened in 1984. Andrée Putman served as interior designer for the 1984 renovation of this 1927 structure.^[1]

Design features

New design features are evident throughout Morgans' public spaces. A sampling of these features includes:

A "Living-Room" Lobby, with textured taupe-colored glass walls with overlaid bronze mullions, featuring a custom Putman-designed wool rug of black, rich camel and taupe in a bold three-dimensional cubist pattern; floors in three varied shades of imported Italian granite in different finishes; groupings of antique French leather club chairs, including a teak and caned plantation chair from the '40s, all culled from Paris' top flea markets; Putman-designed dark wood end tables. Spherical-shaped desk lamps in nickel-plated brass are created by Félix Aublet in 1925. Candles in the evening coupled with black-and-white checkerboard patterned wool throws loosely draped over the French club chairs further accentuate the "lived-in" feel.

Downstairs is the redesigned Morgans Bar. It combines influences from different times and places. Brick foundation walls, poured concrete floors and metal girders that are original to the 1920’s building, copper chain mail curtains, etched Venetian mirrors, Louis XV style furniture and crystal chandeliers, 21st century fabrics, fiber optically lighted tables and music.

The Asia de Cuba restaurant serves a blend of Asian and Latin cuisine, and is under the direction of restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow.

Guest Accommodations

Like everything else in Morgans, the 114 guest rooms steered away from formulaic institutional design. To update guest lodgings, Ms. Putman began in the hotel corridors, which are covered in wool carpet in rich taupe with a black-and-white checkerboard patterned border. Guest room doors are of French custom-birdseye maple. With only four to eight rooms per floor, each hallway contributes to the hotel’s residential feel.

Inside the room, the walls are painted with a mixture of four muted tones, producing an effect like that of an "Impressionist wall painting" — an unusual backdrop for the specially commissioned black and white photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. In addition to a regular closet, each room features a four-drawer dresser cabinet with full-length lighted wardrobe mirror.

Inside the bathroom, unconventional features include customized stainless steel airplane-like sinks and hospital fixtures, floor-to-ceiling shower doors and partitions in 3/4" glass and poured -in-lace granite floors.

Morgans’ duplex penthouse suite is a 19th-floor suite that comes complete with its own greenhouse, kitchen, multimedia room with 60" Sony color television, curved staircase and two terraces with city views. Decorated in the same spirit as all Morgans' guest rooms, the suite offers a classic black wood bench by Bertola; and Ecart steel tube and opaline glass coffee tables.

Building history

Morgans Hotel began as the Hotel Duane, a 1927 structure intended for long-term residents, designed by architect Andrew J. Thomas. According to an article of the era, "In design the exterior of the building indicates a free interpretation of the Italian Romanesque style harmonizing very well with the Fraternity Clubs building at the north, designed in a similar style."^[2] When initially opened, the lobby and guest rooms showed "a rather free interpretation of Spanish Renaissance decoration."^[2]

Prior to its 1984 renovation, the hotel had operated under the name, Executive Hotel.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Gandee, Charles K. (1985-March). "The French Connection". Architectural Record 173: 144–151. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Hotel Duane". Architectural Forum: 621–622. 1929-Dec. 

External links

• New York Hotels - Morgans Hotel (flash-only site)

Coordinates: 40°44′59.3″N 73°58′52.3″W / 40.749806°N 73.981194°W / 40.749806; -73.981194