Julian Schnabel not that impressed with Gramercy Park Hotel

Where: 2 Lexington Avenue [map], New York, ny, United States, 10012

8/03/2006 at 4:27 PM
Tags: Gramercy Park Hotel, Ian Schrager, Hotel Hype, Hotel Openings

How excited is Julian Schnabel about the imminent Gramercy opening? Good question. He recently took the NY Times around the soon to be opened Gramercy Park Hotel, a hotel he helped design, and didn't seem all that impressed. Here are some choice quotes from his interview:

· I don't really feel like talking about this.

· I'm not a designer, but I've always built things. Basically I'm a painter, and this is something that really isn't that hard to do."

· Was I thinking grand hotel? Yes, but I didn't want to reinvent the wheel. I just want to make things feel right.

· "I built a place that I'd like to be in," the reluctant decorator said.

· [Upon deciding where a Warhol piece should hang]at length Mr. Schnabel said to his client [Schrager], "It's your place," adding, in an expression punctuated by an expletive, that it was all the same to him.

Ok, first off our eleventh grade Pre-Calculus teacher, who was also quite crotchety, said "this is something that really isn't that hard to do." Ever since then we have run for the hills whenever someone uttered that phrase. Second, it doesn't really sound like this Schnabel guy is pushing the whole "game changing" thing Schraeger talked about months ago, does it?

Either Schnabel really could care in the least, or he didn't get the "game changing" memo. One way or another we are guessing it won't be long before Schrager takes away his golden park key.

What do y'all think of the photos? tips@hotelchatter.com.

Photo: Michael Weschler/NY Times

Related Stories:
· Julian Schnabel, Reluctant Decorator [NY Times]
· Gramercy Park Hotel coverage [HotelChatter]