The 250-year-old Baccarat crystal brand is moving into new territory. As part of a partnership with private equity real estate firm Starwood Capital Group, the company has debuted its first hotel and global flagship, the Baccarat Hotel & Residences New York.
Directly across the street from the Museum of Modern Art and steps away from Fifth Avenue, the hotel occupies the first 12 floors of a split level tower that rises 550 feet above West 53rd Street. The lower levels of the hotel are veiled by a 125-foot wide corrugated crystal-like curtain.
Baccarat Hotel & Residences New York has 114 guestrooms and suites and a new modern French restaurant, Chevalier, overseen by Michelin-starred Executive Chef Shea Gallante. New York restaurateur Charles Masson will curate style and service in Chevalier and in the hotel's second-story lobby salons and bar. The Bar at Baccarat, just off the Grand Salon, is a space with barrel-vaulted ceilings, a 60-foot bar and an outdoor terrace overlooking the MoMA. The hotel also features a 50-foot indoor pool, an elite fitness training facility and the first Spa de La Mer in the United States.
Paris-based interior design firm Gilles & Boissier led the creation of the hotel's interiors, which combine Baccarat's French classic aesthetics with a modern sensibility. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill served as architects for the 50-story tower, while New York-based designer and member of the Architectural Digest 100, Tony Ingrao, led the residential design. The tower's sixty private residences are accessible through a separate entrance and will have access to all of the hotel's amenities. Decorator Stephen Sills created the setting for the street-level Chevalier, which also has its own separate entrance.
SH Group, a lifestyle hotel brand management company, will manage the hotel.