Behind a wall of glass on West 53rd Street, a second wall of Harcourt glasses, the faceted tumbler Baccarat has made since 1841, glows in a backlit grid two storeys high. That is the entrance to Baccarat Hotel New York, in Midtown Manhattan, where the French crystal manufacturer put its name on a hotel for the first time.
History
Baccarat was founded in 1764 in the Lorraine village of the same name under a charter from Louis XV. Two and a half centuries later Starwood Capital Group, which owned the crystal house, built a tower opposite the Museum of Modern Art with a hotel on the lower floors and apartments above. The hotel opened in March 2015, run by Starwood Capital's SH Hotels & Resorts. Within months the hotel portion was sold to a Chinese insurer, Sunshine Insurance Group, for about 230 million dollars, one of the highest prices per room ever paid for a New York hotel, though management stayed with SH.
Architecture and design
The 50-storey tower was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, its facade of glass panels set in a pattern that recalls cut crystal. The interiors are by the Paris studio Gilles & Boissier, Patrick Gilles and Dorothée Boissier, who had worked with Baccarat on its Paris house. The second-floor Grand Salon, reached by a staircase from the entrance, is the hotel's living room: 60 feet of sofas and armchairs under chandeliers, with walls of hand-painted panels and tall windows onto 53rd Street. The Petit Salon and the Bar lead off it. Some 15,000 pieces of Baccarat crystal are in use through the hotel, from the glasses at breakfast to the chandeliers in every room.
Rooms and suites
There are 114 rooms and suites on floors four to twelve, with furniture by Gilles & Boissier, silk-lined walls, Baccarat chandeliers and glassware, and bathrooms in marble. The suites include the Baccarat Suite and the Harcourt Suite, and the largest have terraces. The hotel keeps a fleet of cars for guests, and the butler service extends to unpacking.
Dining
The Grand Salon serves all day, from breakfast through lunch to supper, with afternoon tea as its best-known sitting and a list of Champagnes poured into Baccarat flutes. The Bar, adjacent, is the Midtown cocktail room, with a wall of crystal behind the bar and a terrace in summer. The hotel's opening restaurant, Chevalier, closed after a few years and the Grand Salon took over its role.
Wellness
Spa de La Mer, the first spa of the Estée Lauder skincare brand, occupies the fifth floor beside a marble indoor pool of about 55 feet, lined with cabanas and lit from above. There is a fitness centre.
Weddings and events
Baccarat Hotel hosts weddings and receptions in the Grand Salon and the Petit Salon, with the chandeliers and crystal as the setting, and smaller dinners in the Bar's private area. Corporate groups use the same rooms for launches and board dinners. Capacities are modest for a Manhattan hotel, and the largest weddings take over the Grand Salon in full.
Location
The hotel's address is 28 West 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, directly opposite the Museum of Modern Art and a block from Fifth Avenue's shops and St Patrick's Cathedral. Rockefeller Center is two blocks south. The 5th Avenue/53rd Street subway on the E and M lines is at the corner; LaGuardia is about 35 minutes by car and JFK about an hour. Among luxury hotels in Midtown Manhattan, it is the one whose brand is a maker of glass.
At a glance
What sets it apart
- 01First hotel of the Baccarat crystal house, founded 1764
- 02114 rooms and suites with interiors by Gilles & Boissier
- 03Grand Salon on the second floor under Baccarat chandeliers
- 04Spa de La Mer, the skincare brand's first spa, with a 55-foot marble pool
- 05Directly opposite the Museum of Modern Art
Chronology
Dates that matter
1764
Baccarat crystal is founded in Lorraine under a charter from Louis XV.
2015
Baccarat Hotel New York opens in March; the hotel is sold to Sunshine Insurance Group later that year.
