HGU hotel review - New York, USA

NoMad continues to march towards becoming Manhattan’s next neighbourhood du jour with the opening of HGU New York. The previously off-the-beaten district sandwiched between Madison Square Park and Herald Square has recently become popular with hoteliers, and HGU is just the latest in a line of properties to make NoMad its home base. 

The recently unveiled hotel occupies a Beaux-Arts building from 1905, but today, it’s all about modern interiors with the kind of eclectic, artsy style that wouldn’t look out place inside the glamorous New York apartment of a local luminary. Overseen by designers Peter Guzy of Asfour Guzy Architects and DD Allen of Pierce Allen Design, there’s a soft, barebones quality to the decor, with rooms relying mostly on texture to define the space’s pared down aesthetics. Hand-woven patchwork Turkish rugs are topped with beds layered with blankets and fur throws with cone-shaped lighting fixtures hanging overhead. While the bathrooms are nearly all white.

It’s in 1905 Lounge where the HGU’s visual narrative is at its most dynamic; marble fireplace, warm leather chairs, sunburst chandeliers, shocking red walls, and tweed couches combine to give it a private-club feel. This is also where drawings, paintings, and sculptures by contemporary artists like Jamie Roadkill, Liz Markus, and LF Schultz can be viewed, thanks to the hotel’s collaboration with Chelsea art destination Gallery 151.