The Royalton Hotel at 44 West 44th Street was redesigned by Ian Schrager and Philippe Starck in 1988 and in doing so created the template for the Midtown boutique hotel category that the Mercer, the Ace, and every subsequent New York boutique has operated within. The lobby — the sunken seating, the specific lighting, the social configuration of a room designed for looking and being looked at — anticipated the lobby-as-social-destination concept by two decades.
The 168 rooms carry Starck's design intelligence into a contemporary context: the round bathtubs, the working fireplaces in select rooms, the slate bathrooms, and the specific material warmth of a 1988 redesign that has aged better than most of its contemporaries because the quality of the original choices was genuinely high.
The Royalton's 44th Street position between 5th and 6th Avenues places it on the block that connects Times Square to the public library, midway between the Theatre District and the Bryant Park cultural corridor. The lobby has remained the hotel's primary social space through every operational iteration, still capturing the cross-industry Midtown crowd that Schrager's original programme attracted.
For guests who want the boutique hotel category's origin story rather than its current iterations, the Royalton provides the 1988 design at a rate that reflects the building's age relative to the surrounding luxury towers.
The 44th Street position and the lobby's accumulated reputation as a Midtown meeting venue make the Royalton a business hotel for guests whose client relationships were established in the 1990s and early 2000s and for whom the hotel's name carries professional resonance. The design intelligence remains.
The round bathtub, the working fireplace, and the lobby's social programme create a solo stay with the specific character of a hotel that was designed by someone with opinions. For a working week in Midtown that wants design history as its working environment, the Royalton is the origin.
From $250/night; suites from $500/night. Check availability at royaltonhotel.com.
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