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First Look: Huge Artwork In The Lobby, Plus A Sneak Peek Inside The Guestrooms At Conrad New York

Where: 102 N End Ave [map], New York, NY, United States, 10282-1236

Still aiming for an "early 2012" opening, Conrad New York is finally ready to offer us a glimpse inside its 463-room Financial District property. Above is the 14-story-high Sol LeWitt mural, "Loopy Doopy," rendered in shades of purple and blue, that hangs dramatically above the lobby.

Facing it is another large-scale work, designed by Monica Ponce de Leon, and installed by Feature Walters: this one, a two-tiered wall sculpture entitled "Veil" that required 77 tons of aluminum and 16 miles of Vectran cable. We like how the fat, squiggly lines of the sculpture play off of Sol LeWitt's painting—almost as if the arms had come alive inside the lobby.

See below for a snapshot from inside one of the guest rooms!

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Hotel Bars / DC Hotels / First Look / Hotel Openings / → All Tags

Your First Look at The Jefferson Hotel's Quill Bar

Where: 1200 16TH AND M ST NW [map], Washington, DC, United States, 20036

We popped into DC's shiny-new Jefferson Hotel this week for a nightcap at the hotel's bar, Quill. And true to hype, Quill delivered with a high-class vibe and top-shelf cocktails. We snapped a few (admittedly not amazing) photos of the bar and entryway.

A few highlights from our experience:

Even though we're younger and far less moneyed than the Jefferson's chi-chi target clientele, everyone we encountered — from the doorman to the bartender — struck us as genuinely appreciative of our patronage.

We ordered off the signature cocktail list ($15 each; pictures below), including one called the Master Mind that involved chatting with the bartender about our preferences and mood. He came up with a refreshing berry-infused vodka and ginger liqueur cocktail with mint, basil, cucumber, and a foamy pineapple puree topping. Our date ordered the Agave, a tequila, white peach puree, pineapple, cointreau, and vanilla sugar elixir.

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Hotel News / Snapshot / Hotel Openings / First Look / Manhattan Hotels / Times Square Hotels / Vikram Chatwal / → All Tags

First Look Inside Vikram Chatwal's Stay.Hotel in Times Square

This morning, we brought you news of today's opening of Vikram Chatwal's Times Square property Stay.Hotel (the period is apparently part of the name).

Within hours, a sneaky Midtown tipster was kind enough to send along a couple snapshots and give us the lowdown on the scene:

In true Vikram fashion, they are still doing plenty of work on opening day. Looked mostly like a staff walk-through day, though guests appeared to be there.

The lobby is split into two areas -- bright and vibrant check in and some sort of timber ceiling bar area [Ed: we're guessing that's the Aspen Social Lounge], very trippy. Lobby/bar is actually respectably spacious for a Times Square hotel. And it is kind of nice to see some trippy hotel interior designs in these gloomy financial days for NYC.

Two more shots after the jump.

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