W New York Downtown
While in New York City last month, I spent a night at the new W New York hotel, downtown in Wall Street. Like all W's, this one was peppered with self-consciously 'cool' design-y touches, some of which grated a bit. That said, I was particularly impressed with two elements of the design: the undulating, glowing ceiling in the lobby (or, excuse me, the "living room"), and the built-in furniture in the guestrooms.
According to Gray Shealy, Director of Global Brand Design for W Hotels, this hotel's design, or "narrative," is "inspired by the 'ripple effect' of energy and light manifested in striking, curvilinear forms." This effect is "meant to inspire and reinvigorate energy into New York's Financial District. These forward-looking forms, including the undulating lamella ceiling in the living room and the curves within the guestroom millwork, are all expressive of this concept, and use LED lighting technology to inspire a transformative mood in the property for our guests."
Was I transformed? Not really. But I really did like that undulating ceiling, designed and prefabricated by Graft Labs in Los Angeles. It made the space feel more intimate, futuristic, and also, cleverly, hid the ductwork overhead, as shown below.
The guestrooms echo the public spaces, with curvy built-ins that make efficient use of the tight floor plan and also create plenty of storage, and, in some cases, morph into headboards.
Inset lighting glows from behind the built-ins, washing the walls with a bright yellow hue.
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weird looking and uncomfortable.
Suspended ceilings hung below ducts and other services are nothing new, so that aspect of it is really not that clever....construct like this work well in spaces of movement, where you experience them for just moments...I wonder what's the feeling of sitting in this "living room" for any length of time...I think it would be a bit much...
This just seems like one of those gimmicky concepts, very highbrow in language, but when all's said and done, just a way to draw in the uninitiated into the "cool" world of "design", the haute cuisine of hotel design instead of a good old fashioned diner, where you're served what you need in a comfortable fashion, where it all makes sense.
They completely ripped off the ceiling from a restaurant, Banq, that Office dA did in Boston a few years ago. The restaurant changed hands recently (now called Ginger Park), check it out and see an even better executed version. http://www.officeda.com/
Graft designed that ceiling 4 years ago.
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