Business Traveler, December/January 2020

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 b u s i n e s s t r a v e l e r u s a c o m 4 0 C O V E R S T O R Y was designed by a group of young artists under the mentorship of Jeff Koons In it see a whimsical working mans vision of SoHo the brawn that built it the brilliance that created it and the culture that now defines it rising up from the streets where it all started The property is a magnet for young artists and designers who gather in the hotel lounge as complimentary wine pours and conversation flows at the end of the day The Edition on Madison Avenue in the Flatiron District focuses on fine art photography It blankets the walls of its lounge and fine dining areas with a curated collection of black and white photographs of prominent figures within baroque gold leaf frames Guests will recognize profiles of Bob Dylan Audrey Hepburn and the Rolling Stones amid iconic street and rooftop scenes that are quintessentially New York At the bottom of Manhattan in Battery Park just around the corner from the new World Trade Center the Conrad New York Downtown has possibly the most impressive lobby in the city when it comes to contemporary art and design Its hard not to be overcome by Sol LeWitts 100 by 80 foot Loopy Doopy in the expansive 15 story atrium Illuminated from the sky by day and by changing tones of indigo and magenta by night this work is the largest by the late artist and puts all patrons wandering the lobbies and room corridors inside the art Shapes of the lobby furnishings windows and stark décor become part of whats inside the frame in a shifting focus of exteriors interiors colors and light that never allows this endeavor to be the same artwork twice There are more than 2000 works throughout the hotels public spaces and 463 luxury guest suites and highly acclaimed pop up galleries are always in motion around the neighborhood Another inspiring find among the citys art hotel habitats is The Chambers where each floor offers its own artistic submersion as blank corridor walls have been turned into canvases for prominent New York artists THE WORLD OF ART Nearby the Peninsula Hotel New York has kept a revolving masterwork collection through recent years curated through Circa 1881 named for the year the French Government withdrew its support for the Salon de Paris and sparked an independence push that led to the modern art movement The Peninsula brand launched a commission based contemporary art program Art in Resonance Hong Kong last March as the Official Hotel Partner of Art Basel Hong Kong There the Hong Kong property unveiled a multi year global art initiative with a stunning array of new immersive commissions at its flagship Artists recently on view in Hong Kong included Iván Navarro b 1967 Chile Janet Echelman b 1966 United States MINAX founded 2005 China and Timothy Paul Myers b 1972 Australia The Displaying original works of art allows a hotel to create the feel and mood it wants ABOVE At the Chambers each floor offers its own artistic submersion RIGHT lobby at the Conrad New York Downtowns Loopy Doopy atrium