The New Warren Street Hotel, a Dash of British Whimsy in New York’s Tribeca
Delightfully and deftly dressed by Kit Kemp Design Studio, this new downtown Manhattan bolthole breaks the mould.
With cobblestone streets, industrial architecture, and celebrity appeal, Tribeca continues to be one of New York’s most desirable addresses. Now, there’s another fashionable new hotel to add to the mix. Debuting earlier this year, the new 69-room Warren Street Hotel was created by the founder and creative director of Firmdale Hotels and Kit Kemp Design Studio, Kit Kemp.
Kemp is known for her colourful, eclectic, British style, and here is no exception, with oversized headboards upholstered in boldly patterned textiles, sweet botanical touches, and a quirky and varied colour palette that spans every shade of the rainbow.
From the outside, the 11-floor new build from architects Stonehill Taylor almost resembles an old New York factory with a smart, mercantile exterior of casement windows painted a cheerful shade of teal, save for the very top floors, which pop in sunny yellow.
Inside, creative and spacious guest rooms are accessorized with dress forms, lamps made from wood furniture moulds, and artwork ranging from a diorama of children’s shirt collars to surrealist still life photographs. It’s anything but boring. “There are over 800 artworks in the building which I have curated over the past three years,” Kemp says. “[I] have overseen the placing and hanging of each and every one, [and] we have worked with favourite artists like Gareth Devonald Smith, Martha Freud [great-great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud], and Christian Mohaded over several years to complete the artworks.” Not only does each room feel individually dressed, but the hotel feels different from the other New York sites, SoHo’s Crosby Street Hotel and Midtown’s Whitby Hotel. South-facing rooms on the upper floors have views of the World Trade Center, and five suites have their own very landscaped terrace, which is a real treat in New York.
A boutique hotel in the true sense of the term, it doesn’t have much by way of amenities save for a guest-only drawing room with an honesty bar and a British-accented brasserie (with light-flooded orangery), which is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—as well as afternoon tea. In light of this, the hotel has fostered partnerships with its Tribeca neighbours to make the most of the location. For example, though there’s no gym, guests are able to use the impressive facilities of Nexus Club New York, which spans a full city block and is a four-minute walk away from the hotel.
