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A tour through AC Hotel New York Times Square is a study in space designed as a stage. Brimming with sensory juxtapositions, architect David Helpern took the project to bring the European hotel to the Big Apple, weaving it together as a study in contemporary classicism rooted in AC’s Spanish heritage. The result is a bewildering, and expectedly dramatic, experience that brings guests from the city’s streets into an intimate, safe and comforting place for both body and spirit.
“In many ways hotels have a lot to do with theatre, and we are creating a stage set. It’s theatrical. And how do people experience theatre, how do people experience a hotel, there’s a lot of commonality,” says Helpern. “What we are doing is balancing the drama of coming into something, which has wonderful volumes in it and plenty of transparency with trying to create spaces that are also intimate and comfortable.”
Looking up at the hotel’s facade, one sees a dizzying series of unlikely angles that cut back off Eighth Avenue. Standing in the shadow of the New York Times’ building, Helpern wanted the AC exterior to work in conversation with its contemporary neighborhood, yet be a memorable newcomer to the block. As luck had it, the city’s zoning laws played a big part in the creative execution of exterior design.
Details are the foundation of any AC experience
“The building has a glass wall for the base of the building. That glass wall angles back, then we go fairly straight up for quite a few stories and then at the top we angle back again,” says Helpern. “We took a look at the zoning and we saw the rules as an opportunity, as they do require a building be set back in order to let light and air into the street level.”
The result is not only a stunning exterior, but a truly unique experience inside. The hotel itself is set back from the sidewalk to give guests a sense of being warmly received. Passersby are welcomed by a Spanish-inspired sidewalk restaurant, along with a series of alluring sculptures, and can see the hotel’s interior through its glass walls. Uniquely modern, the interior also hints at its Catalan roots, lending onlookers a glimpse behind the hotel’s curtain.
As you move through the entrance, all of a sudden you’re hit with the drama of this 26-foot high space over the lobby. When you walk the streets of New York, you look through the show windows in the department stores, and through glass storefronts. As you see in, the people inside see out and that creates interest and it also creates a sense of safety.”
Comfort and safety are key elements of the AC Hotel New York Times Square, despite its stylistic combination of stark minimalism and dazzling theatrics. Upon entry, the lobby continues the theme with potent melange of drama and earthen hospitality. The marble floors– aggregate terrazzo– nod to the hotel’s Spanish roots. But rather than the small flecks of marble commonly seen in these types of Southern European floors, Helpern and his team took the hotel’s themes a few intricate steps further underfoot.
“The floor has large pieces of marble in it instead of tiny little pieces, so that it has richness to it. And it also allowed us to carry out the angular theme that you see vertically, horizontally, because when you make terrazzo you have to put in metal banding to separate the marble,” says Helpern. “We were able to carry out the theme very subtly, as it made an angular and unusual pattern. Also the way that the pattern is organized orientates people from the entrance to the reception.”
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In that way, the design guides the tired traveler to what he or she needs most- into a comfortable, supremely designed room upstairs. Of course, every guest is not necessarily in search of bed. There is a restaurant and seating area for those who wish to relax and plug in, and there is also the crowning, intimate space in the lobby: the AC Library.
“We created intimate spaces in the library in terms of the materials and the furnishings. The books themselves are larger volumes, which add to a combination of drama and spaciousness and the same time intimacy and comfort,” he adds. “ And I think that that’s a hard goal to achieve, but I believe that in AC Hotel New York Times Square, we’ve done that. You have the drama of the large space and the intimacy of the seating areas, when you combine that you have the excitement of being in a hotel that is special and unique with the comfort that you would expect in a first class hotel, and AC provides both.”
Beyond the lobby, take the elevator up. Get off at the top floor, and the AC Bar, a space that invites the outdoors in, with a side of sweeping views of the city. Helpern designed the space so that both sides of the terrace’s north-facing side open, transforming the space into an outdoor extension of the hotel’s themes.
“It becomes this pavilion in the sky. In the winter time it’s warm and it’s cozy with these fabulous views, in the summer time it’s open, the breezes come through and it really feels like a pavilion,” he says.
Details are the foundation of any AC experience, and the New York Times Square property is certainly no exception. From the exquisite artwork lining the walls, to the fabrics used in furniture and window dressings, to the cocktails, signature scent, food and well beyond, each detail in the hotel comes together in orchestra with Helpern’s design. Cosmopolitan, yet timeless, European, yet distinctly New York– and above all things, dramatic– we welcome you to AC Hotel New York Times Square.
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