Schrager Reinventing City Living
NEW YORK, NY, June 6, 2005. It should be the art of living, not the job of living. That's the idea behind every aspect of 50 Gramercy Park North at the Gramercy Park Hotel, a new and sophisticated concept in urban living created by Ian Schrager. Effortless luxury living is a simple idea -- and yet it has never been realized in modern times. We live in a complex, fast-moving time, and enjoying luxuries is often complicated by the arrangements and management required to make them available. Ian Schrager is about to change that by introducing at 50 Gramercy Park North a level of service, privileges and amenities never before offered in apartment living. He will deliver the pleasures of New York's inimitable lifestyle, without the worries, hassles and inconveniences that are so often the price of it. It's nothing short of creating a new way to live in New York City.
The effortless luxury residence: an apartment that offers all the benefits of ownership, the services of a unique five-star, world class hotel, plus an innovative concept of executive lifestyle management that provides a completely staffed household without the bother of managing it or the full expense of maintaining it.
50 Gramercy Park North at the Gramercy Park Hotel will not only offer top level services, but also provide the expert management required to maintain it.
The same energy and commitment to excellence which Ian Schrager brought to reinventing the nightclub and the hotel, he now brings to city living. The 23 residences at 50 Gramercy Park North at the Gramercy Park Hotel are not merely residences with traditional hotel services. That has been done before. They are homes with on-premises "lifestyle managers." The expert management staff will macro-manage and micromanage, not only providing concierge service, housekeeping and room service, but acting as an executive resource, with an intimate grasp of one's tastes and needs. They will handle day-to-day necessities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, such as flowers, grocery and personal shopping, laundry pick-up and delivery, babysitting or pet care. But, most importantly, will be equally prepared to handle special tasks from arranging for renovations, coordinating catering services, event planning for meetings, parties and private dinners to IT support ... and any other unlikely request. They will provide extraordinary expertise, flexibility and ingenuity in catering to residents needs. This whole idea is a response to a modern dilemma: a home with the work taken out of it, a refuge, not a second career. It is urban residential living rethought for the 21st century.
50 Gramercy Park North has only 23 residences -- one suitable to every life style. They have been designed by the eminent British architect John Pawson who has created superbly sleek new spaces. The serene simplicity of Pawson's design offers a perfect canvas upon which owners can create individual worlds, reflecting their own tastes, sensibilities and lifestyle. The living spaces are organized as a series of innovative gathering places, discarding the old formal model of the luxury apartment for the flowing energy of the modern loft space. They are spaces for intimate gatherings as well as gracious large scale entertaining. All apartments feature floor to ceiling windows, park views, John Pawson custom designed bathrooms and kitchens, and the chic refinement of white oak floors, cherry wood and Travertine surfaces. In addition, many of the apartments offer wood burning fireplaces, ceilings that reach 12' 4", bedrooms and living rooms that face the park and outdoor spaces. The palette and quality of materials used in the apartments is superlative and the concept behind their design is ingenious.
Gramercy Park is an island of serenity, a unique private enclave in the heart of New York City. Each one-of-a-kind apartment opens on to the lush green of Gramercy Park, the city's only private park, to which each owner has access to the highly-coveted key. The historic park is surrounded by some of New York's most delightful architectural treasures: Stanford White's The Players, the Gothic Revival National Arts Club, the Stuyvesant Fish House where John Barrymore lived, 36 Gramercy Park East, a neo-Gothic fantasy of terra cotta where gargoyles stand guard high over the greenery, and of course the Gramercy Park Hotel designed by Robert T. Lyons. Ian Schrager wants the hotel to act as a private clubhouse for the owners of 50 Gramercy Park North, and for the park to act as their backyard.
The neighborhood of Gramercy Park is alive with legend and history. Astors, Morgans, Rockefellers and Roosevelts lived here. The streets were walked by such historic figures as Washington Irving, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton and John F Kennedy. The Gramercy Park Hotel is one of New York's truly legendary hotels. Humphrey Bogart was married there, S.J. Perelman lived there because the neighborhood reminded him of London, and the Yankee Babe Ruth liked to drink at its famous bar. Gramercy Park echoes the New York of a quieter, gentler time. It is a refuge, an oasis, sorely lacking in the bustle of New York's relentless grid. It's nothing like any other place in New York City.
Gramercy Park is New York's most village-like neighborhood. Everything one needs is within walking distance. You can walk to the East Village or the West Village, to Union Square, the Lower East Side, Soho, Noho and the hip boutiques and restaurants of Nolita. It's a healthy stroll directly across town to the art galleries of Chelsea and the Meat Packing District. Right around the corner is Park Avenue's row of French bistros and Third Avenue's legendary delis. It's hard to believe that such tranquility is a short taxi ride from the commotion of Midtown Manhattan. Not only is Gramercy Park convenient to Midtown, you could say that Gramercy Park is the real "Midtown." You're at Centerpoint in the functional center of New York City. You couldn't get a better location.
Ian Schrager is more social scientist than conventional businessman. His passionate commitment is to the modern lifestyle by turning an uncanny instinct for seeing the future into places which manifest a certain time, place and spirit. At 50 Gramercy Park North he wanted to blur the distinction between residential and hotel living by taking the best from each to create a new genre. "I am still passionate about continuing to rethink and shake things up, coming up with breakthrough concepts and going off into unchartered territory ... I wanted to change the way people live ... to introduce a revolutionary new concept in urban living. 50 Gramercy Park North at the Gramercy Park Hotel is my first endeavor in that regard." - Ian Schrager
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