Mandarin Oriental, New York

The lobby is on the 35th floor. Guests at Mandarin Oriental, New York take a lift from Columbus Circle to a lounge where the windows frame Central Park, the Hudson and the towers of Midtown, and that elevation sets the hotel apart from almost every other address in Manhattan. It occupies the upper floors of one of the twin towers of the former Time Warner Center, the complex at the southwest corner of the park.

History

The Time Warner Center was built on the site of the New York Coliseum, the exhibition hall that had stood on Columbus Circle since 1956. Construction ran through the early 2000s, and the hotel opened at the end of 2003 as the group's first in New York. The complex mixed offices, apartments, shops, restaurants and a concert hall, and the hotel was planned as part of that vertical town from the start. In 2021 the building was renamed the Deutsche Bank Center after the bank moved its American headquarters there.

Architecture and design

The towers were designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, two glass shafts rising from a curved base that follows the line of Columbus Circle. The hotel's interiors work with the height rather than against it. Public rooms are arranged along the windows and the decoration is restrained, so that the views dominate, with touches of Asian craft that recall the group's beginnings in Hong Kong.

Rooms and suites

Rooms face either Central Park or the Hudson River, and all sit high above the traffic of the circle. Corner rooms take in both views. The suites on the upper floors have park-facing living rooms and dining rooms large enough for small private dinners, and the largest are used by visiting performers and families on long stays.

Dining

The Lobby Lounge on the 35th floor looks straight across Columbus Circle into the park, and it is one of the city's favoured places for afternoon tea and for a drink at dusk. The hotel's dining room shares the same height and outlook. Below, the shops at Columbus Circle hold several of the city's most ambitious restaurants, so guests have serious choices without leaving the building.

Wellness

The spa has long been counted among the best in New York, with treatment rooms that look out over the Hudson. Its indoor lap pool runs along floor-to-ceiling windows facing the river, and a fitness centre sits beside it. Swimming lengths above the river at sunset is the experience most guests remember.

Weddings and events

The hotel has a ballroom and a set of smaller function rooms with park or river views, used for weddings, galas, conferences and private dinners. Because the event floors sit high in the tower, the views come with every room.

Location

Columbus Circle is the meeting point of Broadway, Central Park South and Eighth Avenue, with the Maine Monument at the park entrance and the column with Columbus at the centre. Jazz at Lincoln Center has its home in the same complex, and Lincoln Center itself is a few blocks north on Broadway. Carnegie Hall is close by to the south-east, and the Upper West Side begins just beyond. As a luxury hotel in New York, it trades the street-level grandeur of Fifth Avenue for the most open views in Midtown. The Columbus Circle subway station, served by several lines, is directly beneath the building, and the airports are reached by car.