Reality shows about hotels definitely don't work, but we have a suspicion that at least one documentary film about a hotel will be good. "Hotel Gramercy Park" has been playing this week at the Tribeca Film Festival, and it has its final screening tonight.
Director Douglas Keeve went inside the downtown landmark as Ian Schrager prepared the hotel for its grand re-opening. Keeve gives previous owners, the Weissberg family, plenty of screen time, and he tells the story of why the hotel has such a prominent place in New York's history.
If you're not gonna make the screening tonight, Jaunted has some ideas for enjoying the hotel and the surrounding neighborhood, including its namesake private park.
So a while back we heard some rumors that the Edition Hotel from our older-man crush Bill Marriott and boutique pioneer Ian Schrager would open in Washington DC in a former First Church of Christ Scientist church at Columbia Road and Euclid Street.
It looks like those rumors are getting closer and closer to truths. Again our tipster Lee W wrote us to say that the Dupont Current interviewed a developer who has plans for the site.
The details of the project is a 9-story boutiques hotel rising behind the First Church of Christ Scientist, with 150 guest rooms, a restaurant, one-to-two stories of penthouse condos, and "4,000 square feet of community space" to be able to build more on the site. The church itself will remain intact as the lobby and restaurant area.
While the developer Brian Friedman wouldn't name the hotel brands that he was working with, the reporter surmises it could be an Edition Hotel.
Interestingly, the building behind the church currently houses the Washington City Paper which is fitting for the Edition Hotel brand.
However, Lee W is psyched that:
Either way, DC might finally get an actually cool hotel!
Edition Hotels was formally announced this past January at the ALIS conference in Los Angeles and Marriott has created a news video on the event and uploaded it to YouTube. (Notice their customized page!)
There's nothing much new here that we haven't heard before about Edition Hotels but we do see a lot. Bill and Ian both speak on camera and are extremely excited about the project. Btw, Ian has found a perfect tan shade. And Marriott's Chief Financial Officer Arne Sorenson gets some screen time to talk about the planned nine locations and expects half of the Edition Hotels to be outside of the U.S.
The developers of Edition Paris and Edition Chicago also speak out, (the young one uses the word "synergy!) which makes us wonder if these two will be the first to open.
Then there's just a lot of party shots. Marriott threw a pretty swank party at the Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills with Cristal champagne, caviar on ice blocks, exotic flower arrangements and servers and bartenders pretty enough to work in some of Ian's hotels.
We can't tell if it's because we actually heard Bill Marriott talk instead of blog or if we just like a good party, but now we're excited again about Edition Hotels. (Which after the logo reveal was much-needed.) Now, if only we could jump in our time-travel machine to 2010.
It's been a while since we checked in with Edition Hotels after an initial flurry of hotel announcements and today Andrew Calvo has discovered the logo for the Bill Marriott-Ian Schrager love child.
And....here it is.
And...we're kinda bored.
Sure the sideways O is a nice touch but it does look like old newspaper font. Maybe in 20 years it will be nice to stay at an Edition Hotel and reminisce about the golden age of newspapers but for now this is pretty dull.
It's actually something we expect from Marriott but not from Schrager. Then again, Marriott's footing the bill. Here's hoping the hotels are better than this.
Last week we linked to an article from USAToday that said Washington DC's first Edition will be located on the "18th Street Corridor", well thanks to a great tip from Lee W, we juuuusssttt might have an idea as to exactly where Washington DC's first Edition Hotel will be located.
Apparently the locked down and closed First Church of Christ Scientist located at 1770 Euclid Street NW (a block away from 18th Street) was supposed to be converted into a condo building, but since the District's Historic Preservation Review Board wouldn't allow it, the developer, Brian Friedman, decided to build a boutique hotel instead.
Lee W writes:
A church would be quite a dramatic place for a boutique hotel in Washington, and really bring a lot of class to the neighborhood, though there are some great restaurants and bars in the area. But this site seems to make the most sense.
The plans include demolishing the Washington City Paper building located next to the former church then expanding the church building, while keeping its appearance on par with the church's aesthetics.
We'll see if this site does end up being an Edition or not - but one thing is for sure - converting a church into an Edition Hotel would fit perfectly with Ian Schrager's goal of making each Edition unique.
Does this mean we'll get morning church services along with our complimentary continental breakfast? I think that's one Schrager innovation Bill Marriott would go for.
Here's what Bill Marriott asked his secretary to type up and hand to the tech department to put on his blog about the buzz surrounding Edition:
We have other agreements in the works for hotels in more U.S., European and Caribbean destinations, but we're not ready to talk about them yet. In fact, interest from developers has been overwhelming right from the start and it's gaining momentum.
You know we were really skeptical about this partnership at the start. But then we realized it's something being put together by the two biggest hoteliers in the world. So it should be good. And we confess, we are really liking the name Edition.
This will be the view from the Edition South Beach
Now that we know about Edition Hotels, details be popping up all over the place about where these hotels will strike next.
As the NYPost reported last month, the old South Beach Marriott will be converted into an Edition Hotel and opening in 2010. The Miami Herald has the detes:
The Edition will sit about 16 blocks south of the Delano in the more remote and tranquil section of South Beach. "I actually like south of Fifth Street because it has some of that old Miami Beach charm," Schrager said. "The streets are a little bit narrower down there. I like the scale very much."
Schrager also hearts South Beach immensely saying he would love to open up hotels there at every price point. Hmm, maybe there is a Courtyard by Schrager in the works as well.
For now, the South Beach Marriott is still open for guests.
Thanks to tipster Kal B who may or may not be a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, we have now learned some emerging details for the Edition Hotel in Chicago.
Edition as we told you yesterday is the name of the luxury brand of hotels from the unlikely Bill Marriott-Ian Schrager partnership.
The Chi-town paper reports that 250-room hotel will be located on 150 E. Ontario Street, just off Magnificent Mile. But don't get too excited about this yet as you will have to wait a while:
Construction on the $240 million project will begin this year, with an opening expected in 2011. The Art Deco-style tower will include a limited number of branded high-end condominiums as well....
We then skipped over to the developer's site (Monaco Development) and found this rendering. Additionally, Andrew Calvo over at Passions of a Zealot has determined that the domain name "www.EditionHotels.com" was purchased by the Ian Schrager Company in November 2007. Let's hope he expensed that to Marriott.
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by pbb
