The Warren Street Hotel is a bright blue building on an otherwise industrial TriBeCa block. Yet it’s a stylish thumb rather than a sore one: the color feels refreshing amid all the drab steel and weathered brick, easily catching the the eye of whoever happen to walk by, even on the dreariest Manhattan day. Peek into the windows, and you’ll see that the lobby is bursting with Memphis Group-inspired colors and patterns, while the restaurant has art descending from the ceiling. In an era of spa-like, “stealth wealth” interiors, this place embraces everything but; instead, imagine Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell became a cultured multi-billionaire, bought a hotel, and let his imagination run wild.
The eccentrically glamorous property is the third hotel in New York City by Tim and Kit Kemp, who also own SoHo’s The Crosby Street and Midtown’s The Whitby. (All three fall under the banner of Firmdale Hotels, founded by the Kemps in 1985.) “The hotel has a big personality,” says Kit, who designed Warren Street Hotel along with her two daughters. “We always say color makes you happy—it spices up your life.” She’s the one who decided on the statement exterior: “We felt our building had to bring back sunshine into our lives, so we decided on a summer blue sky with a bright yellow hat sitting on top of the building,” she says.
Inside, Kit decided to express that boldness not with paint, but through wallpaper, upholsteries, and rugs—a conscious choice that serves as a nod to TriBeCa’s history as a textile manufacturing hub at the turn of the century. “That has been a great inspiration to us when designing the hotel, as we live and breathe textiles,” she says. Many of the fabrics were custom-made by Kit’s own design studio.
Then there’s the art: The Warren Street hotel has over 800 works from artists like Wendell Castle, Gareth Devonald Smith, Martha Freud, Tony Cragg, and Christian Mohaded. Many of the works were commissions that took several years to come to fruition. For example, in the hotel’s “Orangery,” where afternoon tea is served, Freud’s porcelain pots lie under cast bronze magnolia chandeliers, while Robina Jack ceramics adorn the walls.
The 69 guest rooms are all designed differently, but several embrace dainty botanical prints—an effort by the Kemps to bring nature into a densely urban environment. Fittingly, most suites also have fully landscaped garden terraces, complete with grass, flowers, and trees. “You can sit and admire from your drawing room of a suite, or even sit in the bath and enjoy watching the flowers grow,” Kit says.
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And, downstairs, the 150-seat restaurant is open all day, making it the perfect place for everything from breakfast meetings to happy hours and date nights.
When this writer visited on a Sunday afternoon, the brasserie was bustling for brunch and the lobby was packed with people checking in and out. On a cold March day, this much was clear: The Warren Street Hotel had received a very warm welcome.
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