- - The original note follows - -
From: ()
Subject: New Four Seasons Hotel - NYC
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 00:35:48 GMT
Has anybody had the chance to make an on-site inspection of the new
Four Season's Hotel in New York City? Designed by I. M. Pei, it feels like
a grand tribute to the old hotels of New York City's Jazz Age. Zelda
Fitzgerald may indeed have danced in the fountain in front of the Plaza
Hotel, but if she were alive today, my money would have her sipping gin
fizz in one of the generous suites of this new hotel.
Inside, the feeling is one of art-nouveau sophistication, but that is
hardly all. The lobby FEELS grand and imposing. The very reception desk
looks like a sacrficial altar, and the heavy walls and rich golden tones
evoke all the atmosphere of an Egyptian temple. This is not the old
English
chintz and countryside clubbishness of some of our other, more familiar
Four Seasons. Pei has done something extraordinary for the Hotel chain,
which has succeeded--prior to this--in providing guests with the cozy
comforts
of a tasteful country home. His new Four Seasons reminds us that hotels
are especially grand when they give us an elegance and sophistication that
could never be reproduced at home. As you might imagine, then, this is a
hotel to be in when the occassion calls for champagne, or we have just
declared war upon enemies abroad. It's large enough in spirit to host
inagural balls and launch coup d'etat's within tiny banana republics.
Walking in, one half expects to see the flash of old fashioned reporter's
bulbs or the profile of a silver-screen beauty queen peeking from behind a
menu.
What Pei, his interior designers, and the Four Seasons Hotel chain have
done
is give us a hotel that quotes the best of the old and the best of the new.
It is like riding on the Titantic, but with the blessed assurance that the
capable staff is at the helm and guiding the magnificent ship away from the
icey bergs and into warmer climes at last.
From: ()
Subject: New Four Seasons Hotel - NYC
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 00:35:48 GMT
Has anybody had the chance to make an on-site inspection of the new
Four Season's Hotel in New York City? Designed by I. M. Pei, it feels like
a grand tribute to the old hotels of New York City's Jazz Age. Zelda
Fitzgerald may indeed have danced in the fountain in front of the Plaza
Hotel, but if she were alive today, my money would have her sipping gin
fizz in one of the generous suites of this new hotel.
Inside, the feeling is one of art-nouveau sophistication, but that is
hardly all. The lobby FEELS grand and imposing. The very reception desk
looks like a sacrficial altar, and the heavy walls and rich golden tones
evoke all the atmosphere of an Egyptian temple. This is not the old
English
chintz and countryside clubbishness of some of our other, more familiar
Four Seasons. Pei has done something extraordinary for the Hotel chain,
which has succeeded--prior to this--in providing guests with the cozy
comforts
of a tasteful country home. His new Four Seasons reminds us that hotels
are especially grand when they give us an elegance and sophistication that
could never be reproduced at home. As you might imagine, then, this is a
hotel to be in when the occassion calls for champagne, or we have just
declared war upon enemies abroad. It's large enough in spirit to host
inagural balls and launch coup d'etat's within tiny banana republics.
Walking in, one half expects to see the flash of old fashioned reporter's
bulbs or the profile of a silver-screen beauty queen peeking from behind a
menu.
What Pei, his interior designers, and the Four Seasons Hotel chain have
done
is give us a hotel that quotes the best of the old and the best of the new.
It is like riding on the Titantic, but with the blessed assurance that the
capable staff is at the helm and guiding the magnificent ship away from the
icey bergs and into warmer climes at last.