The new Mondrian New York?our apologies for calling it the Mondrian Soho these past couple of years?promised an opening last spring but that got bumped back to November. Now Soho's latest luxury hotel will be welcoming guests at 9 Crosby Street just in time for Valentine's Day. The hotel's website proclaims "Opening February 2011," and introductory rates come in as low as $275.
Hoping to see some signs of the hotel's fantastical Cocteau-influenced design from Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, we headed down to the foot of Crosby Street to check out the 25-story tower. Up above everything is neat and tidy, with fritted windows framed in white rising forever into the Soho sky. But down at street level things looked entirely different, where construction of the low-level but high-design plaza has left things askew. We wouldn't have been surprised to see a sign saying "Charlie Sheen Slept Here."
The site on this quiet block of Crosby, with the hotel tower set back from a wide courtyard where a "garden room" will grow, is a mess of construction equipment. A broad concrete pad has been laid down and a wall of cinder blocks is starting to climb up the old bricks to the north. Along the south side of the plaza will be the Mondrian's guest entry, an outdoor corridor leading to a whole medley of meeting spots tucked away inside. Amid a slew of filings at the Department of Buildings, plans are found for the subterranean Crosby Ballroom, big enough for 337 guests.
There's also the Crosby Garden Building (room for 118 loungers) and the Crosby Bar (108 quaffers). Not to mention the Lafayette Lounge, the Banquet Room and an unnamed restaurant that will, altogether, host an additional 410 eaters and drinkers, all provided for by chef Sam Talbot. Come February it should be fun to see how this assemblage of folks figure into the rule-filled agreement hammered out last year between concerned members of Community Board 2 and the intrepid Mondrian team.
· Hotel Overview [Mondrian New York]
· Mondrian Soho coverage [Curbed]