LUMA Hotel | New York, NY
LUMA Hotel NYC is a new boutique brand by Stanford Hotels located on West 41st Street. The hotel reception, lounge, bar, and the restaurant Ortzi - operated by Chef Jose Garces - were designed by Cass Calder Smith|CCS Architecture + Design. The hotel is located a stone’s throw from the nodes of Bryant Park, busy Sixth Avenue, and just slightly further from Times Square.
These nodes of busy urbanism were the inspiration to create a place of counterpoint for guests and patrons to enjoy a sense of reprieve, relaxation, and natural materials. The concept of LUMA brings out the compatibility of the natural material and the man-made where the program of hotel reception merges with that of restaurant and bar. The design verges on a calmly composed space mingling with the sophistication of stone and steel, of glass and wood.
LUMA means Light - and it is the soft glow accent in the reception lobby that first welcome guests. It invitingly washes across the slabs of Claro Walnut planks that wrap the room while raw concrete columns elegantly pierce the blue-black of the tall graphic ceiling; its image drawn from photography of city lights at night.
Upon approaching the reception pods, guests are treated to a concave backlit wall where apertures of light are expressed through a half-tone image; the perforations precisely cut through blackened steel. As if secretly hidden around the corner, the lobby bar stands centrally located as an anchor of activity. The granite stone floor, like pavers in the park, stretches across the space connecting the façade on 41st St with the façade of the restaurant dining room within. Between the bar and the exterior facade is the casual bar dining area, it’s tall seating sets the eye level with pedestrians on the sidewalk. When open, the façade’s full-span pivot window floats overhead almost converting the dining area into an outdoor patio.
Ortzi’s kitchen and main dining room are located within the rear of the ground floor space. A sleek blackened steel and brass facade separate the hotel lounge from the restaurant dining room. Weighted but elegant natural materials counterbalance with the loft-like expanse of the room. Its open exhibition kitchen with a satin brass hood enclosure complements a set of raw concrete columns. The midnight-blue clay tiles juxtapose the bright white-washed wainscot of white oak boards. In the Chef’s dining alcove, the full-height wine wall sets the backdrop where one can get subtle peeks of the kitchen action through a patterned glass window. Wood coffers with concealed acoustic properties softly glow above a custom blackened-steel beam spanning the space. Its thin brass accent light exposing its luminous traits. As many a loft in NYC, large pieces of art draw attention to the extents of the space. The backlit panels collaborate with a refined steel mesh recalling the Basque origins of the cuisine.