The Mercer, New York
Tel: (2121966-6060 Fax: (2121965-3838
E-mail: reservations@mercerhotel.com Internet: www.mercerhotel.com
Grand Central Station is one of the most famous entry points to the city of New York. This old style portal is the doorway to Manhattan for thousands who cross its concourse every day. Off to work, their heads down, few probably glance up at the heroic vaulted ceiling painted with constellations of the Zodiac.
The station's original turn-of-the-century splendor has been restored to better reflect its name.
To many, New York is the ultimate urban destination, the consummate city, home of skyscrapers and towers, night and day adrenalin, corporate success or failure, stardom or anonymity. Thousands of newcomers still arrive here with stars in their eyes, and as the song says, "if you can make it there you can make it anywhere."
One of Manhattan's older downtown neighborhoods is SoHo, once the center of the city's iron and steel manufacturing industry. The cast-iron buildings with huge windows and strong structures capable of supporting heavy loads were taken over by artists who set up loft studios here. They were followed by art galleries, restaurants and bars. Then the big-name retailers started to move in. Now SoHo's concentration of stores draws foreign tourists and local shoppers away from uptown's crowded streets.
The latest arrival on the block is the (Mercer) Hotel. Contradicting its desire for discretion, a delayed opening, the interior design and its celebrity guests have attracted attention and coverage. The hotel has achieved instant popularity in spite of itself. All the print material from stationery to matchboxes has the Mercer's name in parentheses.
"In small and exclusive hotels that tend to be used by celebrities, you want discretion and protection - from noise, phone calls, being photographed, even the city itself - and parentheses suggest that ... " said the graphic designer Tibor Kalrnan. The theme continues on the bedroom doors, where the number is bracketed.
The Mercer building, constructed in 1890 for John Jacob Astor Il, is detailed with Romanesque arched windows, cast-iron columns, vaulting and gargoyles. Its owner, Andre Balazs, who also owns the legendary Hollywood hotel Chateau Marmont and the Sunset Beach Hotel on Shelter Island, didn't want something "painfully stylish" for the new interiors. His vision was to provide an atmosphere of domestic bliss (one that you often have to leave home to achieve '). The much talked-about interior is by hot French designer Christian Liaigre, whose starting point was to think of the Mercer as a home, or maybe as a club for friends. "I wanted to make it warm and livable - and calm; to get away from that SoHo people-in-black severity ... that darkness which goes with the assault of New York, the noise, the aggressiveness."
Accordingly, the lobby is more like a living room, with couches and armchairs covered in the Liaigre palette of chocolate, taupe, ivory and lilac. It can seat 100 people, considerably more than the normal living room. Tables and stools are made of luxurious dark African woods like wenge and ipe, a Liaigre trademark. One wall is lined with bookcases, filled with brightly colored volumes on art, fashion and design. So there is plenty to read while having a drink or waiting for friends. There is even a little room behind the bookcase to which you can retreat if you want solitude. This hotel caters to those who like and can afford infonnalluxury, perhaps the most expensive kind!
The glassed-off vestibule at the front is a bar and entrance to the basement level restaurant, the Mercer Kitchen. Balazs wanted a restaurant like "a big eat-in kitchen, always the place with the warmest feeling and the best conversation," so there are some communal tables as well. The food and service are excellent and not at all of the kind usually found at home.
This casual warm ambience has been meticulously planned. The atmosphere is slightly rarefied, the illusion of peace compared to the traffic noise outside a clever juxtaposition.
The rooms are serene, a welcome relief from the stress of the streets. Sunlight streams through arched windows, filtered by linen curtains. There is plenty of table space, as Liaigre believes that most hotels don't provide enough space to work or eat at. Generously proportioned full-length mirrors that lean against the wall also satisfy his concern for space. There is also somewhere to hide the shopping bags, with walk in wardrobe storage. SoHo provides ample opportunity for retail therapy, after which you have to lie down on a couch for some time.
The rooms have an air of simplicity rather than minimalism -less zen, more den. These are spaces to relax in as well as relaxing spaces, reflecting the sure yet light hand of this stylish designer. Liaigre believes that the purpose of design is to make you feel comfortable, and his trademark look is livability.
Large bathrooms with enormous showers and marble king-sized bathtubs are based on studies suggesting that this is where most hotel guests spend around 70 percent of their waking time. What they are doing for that amount of time was not revealed.
The Mercer has the aura of a sleek club, at the luxury end of the market in a city where hotel rooms are usually all premium priced. Its atmosphere is that of a super-chic home edged with a touch of attitude, which, for some, will make it even more authentic.
You could be tempted to move in and live here - although you might want to forgo the rubberneckers at the front door on the look-out for the famous. Unless you really are a name of course, in which case this might make it seem even more like home. Here you can wear your sunglasses at all times to avoid being recognized or disappointing the celebrity spotters.
Directly across the street, the SoHo branch of the Guggenheim Museum lacks the distinctive architecture of its uptown parent or its Bilbao sibling. Instead it is cast in the same style as its neighboring buildings, blending in, as the Mercer tries to do.
The hotel's instant popularity and the curiosity that engendered meant that the lobby was open only to guests and their guests. Obvious but tastefully attired security men bracketed each side of the plain black entrance door in the side street. They, not the parentheses, were fending off the voyeurs. Start spreading the news.