Gotham Hotel Replaces Midtown's Bookworms With Bellhops

Studies show that a new hotel opens in Midtown every 2.5 seconds, but we're especially interested in East 46th Street's soft-opened Gotham Hotel for a few reasons. Here they are! 1) It took the place of beloved retailer Gotham Book Mart. 2) The building's skinny rooftop addition, by C3D Architecture, is kinda crazy, right? 3) The hotel is being managed by unflappable Cooper Square Hotel overseer Klaus Ortlieb, who, when not catering to guests' every whim, is winning ribbons for horse jumping. It wasn't until we got inside that we added 4) It doesn't really feel like a hotel at all. And that's the point!

Just like the Cooper Square Hotel, the Gotham doesn't have a check-in desk, just a lounge area (and a restaurant in the back that's still under construction) where an employee approaches confused guests and leads them up to one of 66 rooms. But taking the casual approach even further, designers tried to make the property feel more like an apartment building than one for transients. Terraces get bigger the higher up you go in the 22-story building, and since the building is close enough to Grand Central to almost reach out and touch it, the Gotham's modern steel and glass exterior makes it stand out dramatically. But don't judge a book by its cover, have a look around the place in the gallery above.
· The Gotham Hotel [Official Site]
· 16 East 46th Street coverage [Curbed]