Hotel of the Week: Kit Kemp’s Latest Color-Filled Destination Opens in Tribeca
Enveloped by a peacock-colored facade, Manhattan’s Warren Street Hotel contains uniquely customized suites and an expressive collection of art
While so many resorts fill their tranquil interiors with neutral furnishings, Firmdale Hotels lures an energetic crowd by leaning into the total opposite—color-rich rooms filled with artfully curated layers of vivacious pattern and exuberant art. This week, the hospitality group opened their third Manhattan property, the Warren Street Hotel, and once again, its interior is a dynamic collage of the embroidered textiles, saturated palettes, and expressive artworks emblematic of Firmdale Hotels founder and creative director Kit Kemp.
“We have sought out and commissioned our favorite artists and sculptors to create original pieces, and curated the very best from our own collections dreamt up in our design studio to fashion a very individual ambience that feels exciting and exclusive to our third New York hotel,” Kemp says in a statement.
Located in the city’s Tribeca neighborhood, Warren Street makes a statement from the get-go, where a striking peacock-color facade reverberates against the adjacent red-brick buildings. On the ground floor, swathed in a cheery marigold hue, a tapestry by mixed-media artist Sanaa Gateja and a cluster of rattan sculptures by Cristián Mohaded set the tone. Among the other works unique to the hotel, constructed in collaboration with the architects Stonehill Taylor, are a Tony Cragg table, Wendell Castle bench, and a dramatic installation by British artist Gareth Devonald Smith that surmounts the bar, already a buzzy evening hotspot.
Guests will want to linger in the cozy all-day brasserie or private dining room, The Orangery, where decadent meals are served on Spode’s Tall Trees china, designed by Kemp, and a collection of handmade ceramics and British craft add to the visually exciting ambiance.
The 69 bedrooms, suites, and residences, each uniquely customized by Kemp alongside her daughters, Willow and Minnie, are awash in the graphic textiles and trims that the designer introduced with Annie Selke and Christopher Farr. Each accommodation is decorated with one of her playful Rockin’ Robin light fixtures from Porta Romana and a cheeky dress form that’s been reimagined in one of the designer’s decorative fabrics, while other light fixtures sport playfully chic John Derian shades.
All of the plush beds feature one of Firmdale’s signature oversize headboards, each upholstered in various combinations of sumptuous fabric, and are dressed in Kit Kemp for Annie Selke bedcovers.
While the hotel made its debut during a torrential downpour, visitors were able to peak at the romantic gardens and terraces cultivated by Brook Landscape. Ready to welcome guests, Warren Street is a dreamy sister property to earlier Firmdale hotels, Crosby Street in Soho and The Whitby in Midtown, and is sure to be a favorite gathering place of Tribeca’s creative crowd.
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