You can call the Gramercy Park Hotel a “hip hotel” if you want to — it’s just that these days hip means something very different from what it used to. Nowadays interiors as cold and white as upholstered ice are commonplace, and a hotel just isn’t a proper boutique unless its lobby is overflowing with forced architectural whimsy and its bar is overflowing with the sort of people who exist only to be photographed at parties.

That sort of thing used to be cool, as ludicrous as it sounds. But the new cool looks something like this: not the desiccated atmosphere of a furniture showroom but rather an eclectic, bohemian approach, like someplace a very successful artist might live — someone like, say, Julian Schnabel, who by an extraordinary coincidence happens to have designed the interiors at the Gramercy Park Hotel, along with the famous British architect John Pawson. And instead of a velvet rope lined with vapid party people, you’ll have some genuine exclusivity about the place: a bar for drinks and socializing, not staged photo ops.

If this is indeed the new face of the boutique hotel, then the coming years, as competitors scramble to imitate the place, will be happy ones: we’re all for bigger, more livable rooms, bathrooms spacious enough to function properly, professional service, an art collection straight out of MoMA, and a tinge of nostalgia for the refined glamour of prewar (or at least pre-disco) Manhattan.

Among the Gramercy Park’s attractions is Maialino, by the award-winning restaurateur Danny Meyer (Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe, Shake Shack), with designs by David Rockwell and inspired by Meyer’s love of Italy. The hotel also offers a members-only Roof Club and Garden, as well as the Rose and Jade bars, the spa and fitness center and, of course, the park: guests have access to Gramercy Park itself, the only private park in Manhattan.

Style: Modern Design

Atmosphere: Lively

184 Rooms - Rates start at US$ 260