The Fifth Avenue Hotel by Martin Brudnizki

Location: New York, United StatesType: HotelYear: 2023Architect: Martin Brudnizki Design Studio + Perkins EastmanPhotographer: William Abranowicz

The Fifth Avenue Hotel by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio and Perkins Eastman

The Fifth Avenue Hotel is the conversion of a 1907 Renaissance palazzo on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 28th Street in New York, originally designed by McKim, Mead & White as the Second National Bank, into a luxury hotel with 153 rooms and suites, a restaurant in the former banking hall and a cocktail bar. The interiors are by the London and New York studio Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, and the architects Perkins Eastman restored the historic building and added a new glass tower behind it. Developed by the hotelier Alex Ohebshalom and his company Flâneur Hospitality, the hotel opened in 2023.

Double-height entrance of The Fifth Avenue Hotel, a tall black steel and glass screen with open doors onto a lobby with a crystal chandelier and a mirrored wall sculpture, beside a red armchair

A Gilded Age mansion and a 1907 bank

The site was once home to one of the last mansions of the Gilded Age. In the late 19th century the house of Charlotte Goodridge at 250 Fifth Avenue hosted receptions and musical evenings as part of New York’s social season. In 1907 it was replaced by a five-storey brick and limestone palazzo in the Italian Renaissance style, designed by McKim, Mead & White for the Second National Bank, the firm behind the Brooklyn Museum, Columbia University and the original Pennsylvania Station. The bank later passed to National City Bank, the forerunner of Citibank, and the building now stands in the Madison Square North Historic District in NoMad.

The Portrait Bar at The Fifth Avenue Hotel, a wood-panelled room hung with portraits, a carved stone fireplace, red velvet banquettes and a backlit bar

Restoring the Mansion and adding a tower

Perkins Eastman worked with the design architects PBDW Architects on the conversion. Research by PBDW turned up a 1911 New York Times report of plans for a tall loft building on the site, and in 2012 the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a tower set back from the street on top of the bank’s two-storey rear wing. Dezeen describes it as a 24-storey glass tower, with precast concrete and stone cladding. The historic bank, known as the Mansion, was restored in a project that took seven years, including reconstructed penthouse suites, and the two parts were planned together so that the tower reflects New York today while the Mansion keeps its historic narrative.

Bedroom at The Fifth Avenue Hotel divided from its sitting area by green arched glazed screens, a navy upholstered headboard and gold-curtained windows beyond

Bohemian romanticism and the glamour of the Gilded Age

Drawing on the history of the neighbourhood, Martin Brudnizki set out to capture “Bohemian romanticism and the glamour of the gilded age” while keeping a contemporary edge, imagining the characters who once walked along Fifth Avenue and the parties held in its mansions. “We wanted to create a space that felt as though its interiors had been brought together over time, pulling items from our muse’s travels and adventures from across the globe,” he told Dezeen. The more classical interiors of the Mansion respond to the details of the bank, while the tower has a more modern touch, and the two are tied together by a shared palette of colours, furniture and fittings.

Corner bedroom at The Fifth Avenue Hotel with buttercup-yellow curtains and pelmets, green walls, star-shaped ceiling lights and a writing desk by the window

The lobby, Café Carmellini and the Portrait Bar

Guests arrive in a double-height lobby with walls of faceted antique mirror panels, marble floors and grand arched windows. The former banking hall now holds Café Carmellini, chef Andrew Carmellini’s two-storey restaurant, with bespoke blue velvet banquettes around two sculptural trees, beveled mirror panelling, high-gloss timber, bronze and seeded glass chandeliers, Juliet balconies for mezzanine dining and an open kitchen of marble counters and blue ceramic tiles. The Portrait Bar is a dark wood-panelled room hung with more than 50 portraits, with antique mirrors, marble, brass and a carved stone fireplace.

Two scalloped navy velvet headboards at The Fifth Avenue Hotel beneath green plaster cartouches, with a pleated pink lampshade on a blue and white porcelain base

Garden greens, buttercup yellow and peony pink

The rooms and suites use a palette of garden greens, buttercup yellow and peony pink with gold accents, with bold patterns and textures layered in what Brudnizki calls a “harmonious and fun way”. Pagoda-style table lamps, custom wardrobes informed by traditional Chinese cabinets, antique inlaid side tables, Murano glass chandeliers and star-like ceiling lights give them a global, collected feel, while arched glazed screens that echo the windows of the lobby divide the sleeping and sitting areas. The aim, in Brudnizki’s words, was a “truly eclectic and layered project” that feels as though it has been there since the Gilded Age.

Sitting nook at The Fifth Avenue Hotel with a blue velvet banquette and yellow cushions, a fluted blue table, framed artworks under brass picture lights and an inlaid black cabinet

Team and credits

The Fifth Avenue Hotel is owned by Alex Ohebshalom and operated by Flâneur Hospitality. The interiors are by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, Perkins Eastman was the architect of record for the restoration and the new tower, with PBDW Architects as design architect, and the original 1907 building is by McKim, Mead & White. The photography is by William Abranowicz.