Barclay Street runs one block north of the World Trade Center site, and at number 27 a pale stone tower by Robert A.M. Stern Architects rises beside Cass Gilbert's Woolworth Building. Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown fills the lower floors of that tower, 30 Park Place, with private residences stacked above, and its door opens a block from the Oculus and the memorial pools.
History
The tower was developed by Silverstein Properties, the company that took the lease on the World Trade Center in 2001 and has since rebuilt much of the site. Construction began in the early 2010s and the hotel opened in 2016, giving Lower Manhattan its first Four Seasons. For decades the brand's New York flagship had been the I. M. Pei tower on East 57th Street; the downtown house was built for a different city, the residential and office district that grew around the new trade centre.
Architecture and design
Stern's office looked to the masonry skyscrapers of the 1920s and 1930s rather than to the glass towers around the site. The building is clad in limestone, with setbacks towards the crown, and it sits comfortably beside the Woolworth Building, its neighbour on the block. Inside, the design firm Yabu Pushelberg used a calm palette of wood, stone and bronze, with large windows and works of art through the public rooms.
Rooms and suites
Rooms are generous for Manhattan and look over Tribeca, the Hudson or the downtown towers. Suites on the higher hotel floors face One World Trade Center and the harbour. The style is restrained and residential, with deep bathtubs and walk-in showers in stone bathrooms, and the soundproofing keeps out a busy part of the city.
Dining
CUT by Wolfgang Puck opened with the hotel, the chef's first restaurant in New York. It is a steakhouse in the modern American sense, with prime and wagyu beef alongside fish and a long wine list, and its dining room has become a business address for the financial district. A bar off the lobby serves cocktails and lighter plates through the evening.
Wellness
The spa floor has an indoor lap pool long enough for proper swimming, a set of treatment rooms and a fitness centre. For a downtown hotel, where space is scarce, the size of the pool is unusual.
Weddings and events
The hotel has a ballroom and smaller function rooms used for conferences, banquets, weddings and private dinners. Its position makes it a practical choice for meetings with firms in the financial district and for events tied to the World Trade Center campus.
Location
The hotel stands between Church Street and Broadway. City Hall Park, St Paul's Chapel and the Woolworth Building are within a block or two, and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and the Oculus transit hub lie just to the south. Tribeca's restaurants are a short walk north, Brookfield Place and the Hudson River waterfront are to the west, and the Brooklyn Bridge begins beside City Hall. As a luxury hotel in New York's financial district, it gives the area something it lacked for a long time: a house that people choose for itself rather than for a meeting nearby. Park Place, Chambers Street and World Trade Center stations are close, the PATH trains to New Jersey run from the Oculus, and the three airports are reached by car.
At a glance
What sets it apart
- 01Lower floors of 30 Park Place, a tower by Robert A.M. Stern Architects
- 02Interiors by Yabu Pushelberg
- 03CUT by Wolfgang Puck, the chef's first New York restaurant
- 04Indoor lap pool on the spa floor
- 05A block north of the World Trade Center site, beside the Woolworth Building
Chronology
Dates that matter
1913
Cass Gilbert's Woolworth Building, the hotel's neighbour on the block, is completed.
1993
Four Seasons opens its I. M. Pei tower on East 57th Street, then its only Manhattan hotel.
2001
Silverstein Properties, later the developer of 30 Park Place, takes the lease on the World Trade Center.
2016
Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown opens at 27 Barclay Street, with CUT by Wolfgang Puck.
