The Three Key honor is the highest hotel honor in the Michelin Guide. It’s hard enough to get One Key (80) or Two Key (33), but only 11 hotels in the U.S. have achieved Three Key. Four of them can be found in New York City.
Three Key hotels excel on all five criteria inspectors use to judge hotels. But for this series, we thought it appropriate to focus on just one of those criteria: architecture and interior design, the most photogenic of the five criteria.
Below, take a look at the interior and exterior of each of the four Three Key Hotels in New York City.
© Casa Cipriani New York
© Casa Cipriani New York
Casa Cipriani Financial District
Let’s start with the exterior. The Battery Maritime Building is a charming former ferry terminal built in 1909 in a luxurious Beaux-Arts style. It is undeniably beautiful and an example of the luxurious transportation hub that defined a different era of New York. In the ballroom, you can look out the windows and see the platform where people and horses once boarded ferries bound for Brooklyn.
The rooms and suites are perfect examples of luxury Italian design, but a glimpse of the original metalwork and other building features (such as the centuries-old columns for which certain rooms were designed) will make you wonder where you are. I’ll never forget it. We believe that the waterscape itself is a design feature. Views overlooking the river offer glimpses of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.
Book Casa Cipriani with the Michelin Guide →
© Whitby Hotel, Firmdale Hotels
© Whitby Hotel, Firmdale Hotels
whitby hotel midtown
The Firmdale Group has won two Three Keys in New York City. Like the Crosby Street Hotel (below), we built the Whitby from the ground up with large windows and plenty of natural light. A particularly unique hotel is the stunning Whitby Suite, which has terraces on both sides. A gem of the city. The hotel’s interior is another remarkable example of owner and interior designer Kit Kemp’s boundless creativity. With this project, she wanted to create a “breath of fresh air in midtown Manhattan.” According to her (and we’re sure), this area can feel a little too serious.
The entire hotel is filled with fabrics and patterns, and the artwork is enchanting and wonderfully selected. A rainbow-colored loom hangs above the front. The grandfather clock between the elevators is actually a work of art, and inside you can see a real “grandfather” drawing the hands to mark the minutes. And above the bar hangs 52 handmade British baskets in one of his most original displays I’ve ever seen.
Book Whitby with the Michelin Guide →
Aman New York Midtown
The Crown Building was built in 1921 and had a no less famous tenant than the Museum of Modern Art from 1929 to 1932. Today, this Beaux Arts jewel with its gold-plated top (the eponymous “crown”) is home to another of his lauded hotels, Aman New York. The hotel is located on the upper floors and the lobby is on his 14th floor. Head to your suite (all suites here, ranging in size from 745 square feet to 2,000 square feet), where interiors inspired by Japanese minimalism are painted in muted tones and generous views of the city. You can see that it is supported by
Rooms are of the highest quality in the world, rivaled by an equally stylish spa and common areas including a garden terrace, lounge bar, speakeasy-style jazz club, and Italian and Japanese restaurants.
Book Aman New York with the Michelin Guide →
© Crosby Street Hotel, Firmdale Hotels
© Crosby Street Hotel, Firmdale Hotels
Crosby Street Hotel Soho
The Crosby Street Hotel, the first Firmdale hotel in the United States, opened in 2009. It is the result of a ground-up construction that transforms an empty parking lot into a beautiful piece of architecture that reflects the neighborhood’s history as a warehouse district. Farmdale founders Tim and Kit Kemp designed their dream space from the beginning. It’s the perfect canvas for interior designer Kit Kemp, who works on nearly every inch of Firmdale’s visually appealing hotel.
The Firmdale Hotel is, in short, a work of art. Kemp’s space is filled with pattern and color. Crosby had two muses. The first is “art inspired by letters.” That’s why you can find certain pieces that are actually made up of words, such as a giant head sculpture made entirely of letters. The second muse is a nod to the city’s obsession with dogs. Luxurious canine teeth dominate the sweet space.
Book Crosby Street Hotel with Michelin Guide →
Hero image: © Aman New York
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