Hotel on Rivington

Lower East Side

The quarter of New York known as the Lower East Side runs from the Manhattan Bridge up to 14^th Street along the East River and covers the entire southeast part of the island. For some it’s adjacent to and for others it includes the quarters of Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho, Noho and the East Village. For the majority of immigrants, it was their first neighborhood. The Germans came in the 1860s. Jews from eastern Europe arrived in the early 20^th century followed by Russians, Greeks, Romanians, Poles, Italians, Ukrainians and finally, Puerto Ricans after World War II. All of these immigrants of varied origins crammed into shabby tenement apartments and lived in precarious conditions often without running water, gas or toilets, and sometimes without windows. It was not uncommon for families or groups of twelve to live in a small one or two bedroom flat. The miserable living conditions produced the best and the worst. Al Capone grew up here as did George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. This immigrant neighborhood where a melting pot of cultures struggled for survival is now one of Manhattan’s trendiest quarters. Starving artists attracted by the low rents and the mixed nature of the neighborhood settled here and opened small art galleries. As a center for nightlife, the Lower East Side has a great many restaurants and trendy bars on Rivington, Broome, Essex, Clinton, and Ludlow streets as well as the Bowery. Rents have soared in the small brick apartment houses, and the latest inhabitants include Jim Jarmusch, Lou Reed and Moby who opened a tearoom here called the Teany, an ideal place for brunch.

A crystal refuge

In direct contrast to the rest of the Lower East Side, the Hotel on Rivington’s immense 21-story multi-colored tinted glass silhouette towers over the red brick buildings of the neighborhood.

The hotel’s rooms have extraordinary views of Manhattan. Created by several renowned designers, the interior is even more surprising than the outside. To reach the reception area, guests follow a red carpet through clouds, which are the work of Marcel Wanders, a well known Dutch designer. The entrance hall with its black felt pool table, its gray angled couches and its design newspapers scattered around is the work of the designer, Piero Lissoni. Imagined in a spirit of luxury, elegance, modernity and sensuality, the rooms were entrusted to the French architect and designer, India Mahdavi.

Conceived as glass cubes with immense angular windows, the higher floors offer guests a magnificent view of Manhattan. The sofas and chairs are covered with velvet. The bedding comes from the Frette house, the mattresses are Swedish and the mosaic bathroom tiles are in Bisazza glass. The height of luxury here is of course to reserve a room on the top floor of the hotel in order to enjoy the maddest and most incredible view of Manhattan and the high speed leather covered elevators that take you there.

Some of the bathrooms also have angular glass walls that give you the impression of taking a bath above the city…not recommended for anyone who suffers from agoraphobia!

For dinner, the hotel’s Thor restaurant designed by Marcel Wanders is the place to go. Once comfortably installed on a leather seat, under the black Philippe Starck Baccarat chandeliers, guests can enjoy a European type menu guided by the seasons. The seven-meter high glass walls face the neighboring Lower East Side buildings. At the end of the evening, the 105 Riv lounge bar, with its décor worthy of a Fellini movie is the best place to go. It’s a meeting place for trendy New Yorkers and one of the most popular fun places in the city.

It was in the nearby New Museum of Contemporary Art and Katz’s Delicatessen that the legendary “fake orgasm scene” in “When Harry Met Sally” was filmed.