The Mark

On the first Monday in May the pavement outside 25 East 77th Street fills with photographers, because the guests dressing for the Met Gala a few blocks away leave from here. The Mark, New York City, has become the staging post for the museum's annual fundraiser, and its lobby, with Jacques Grange's floor of black and white marble stripes, is as photographed as any in the city.

History

The building went up in 1927 as the Hyde Park Hotel, a residential hotel on the corner of Madison Avenue and 77th Street in the quiet blocks between Central Park and the galleries of the Upper East Side. It changed names and hands over the decades and was run as The Mark from the late 1980s. In 2006 the owner, Alexico Group under Izak Senbahar, closed it for a reconstruction that lasted three years. The hotel reopened in 2009, and in 2016 it unveiled The Mark Penthouse, the largest hotel suite in the country.

Architecture and design

The exterior keeps its 1920s brick and limestone facade. Inside, the French designer Jacques Grange, whose clients have included Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino, rebuilt the public rooms and the guest floors. His lobby of striped marble, Art Deco-inspired furniture and a vaulted ceiling set the hotel's image. The rooms use furniture by Grange and pieces by designers including Paul Mathieu, Vladimir Kagan and Ron Arad, in a palette of white, grey and black with lacquer and brass.

Rooms and suites

The Mark has about 150 rooms and suites, a large share of them suites, which reflects its residential origins. Several have terraces, and the two-bedroom and three-bedroom suites are among the largest standard suites in Manhattan. The Mark Penthouse covers the top two floors: five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a living room with a 26-foot ceiling, a conservatory, and a rooftop terrace of about 2,500 square feet with a view of Central Park, at around 10,000 square feet in all. Guests can call the concierge for Bergdorf Goodman shopping outside store hours and for a chauffeured pedicab.

Dining

The Mark Restaurant by Jean-Georges opened with the hotel in 2009 and is Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Upper East Side address, serving breakfast through late supper in a room lined with Grange's banquettes. The Mark Bar, next to it, is one of the neighbourhood's meeting places. In summer the hotel runs a sidewalk café along Madison Avenue. The Frédéric Fekkai salon occupies a floor of the hotel.

Wellness

There is a fitness centre and treatments can be booked in the room, but The Mark does not have a full spa or a pool. The salon handles hair and grooming, and the hotel keeps bicycles for Central Park, one block west.

Weddings and events

The Mark takes small weddings, receptions and dinners in the private dining rooms of the Jean-Georges restaurant and in the penthouse, whose terrace and double-height living room are hired for parties. Corporate groups use the same rooms for board meetings and launches. There is no ballroom; large weddings go elsewhere.

Location

Madison Avenue at 77th Street puts the hotel two blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one block from Central Park and in the middle of the Upper East Side's galleries and boutiques. The 77th Street station on the 6 line is on Lexington Avenue, a short walk east. LaGuardia is about 30 minutes by car, JFK closer to an hour. Of the luxury hotels in New York, this is the one the museum crowd treats as its own.