Aman New York – stillness inside the gilded Crown Building

On the corner where Fifth Avenue meets 57th Street, under a finial that has watched over Midtown since 1921, Aman New York occupies the upper floors of one of Manhattan's most storied towers. Built for the philanthropist August Heckscher and designed by Warren & Wetmore, the architects behind Grand Central Terminal, the building served briefly as the first home of the Museum of Modern Art, which opened there in 1929 with works by Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat and van Gogh. Restoration work led by architect Jean-Michel Gathy of Denniston began in 2017, and in August 2022 the building reopened as Aman's second urban hotel: 83 suites, two restaurants, a three-floor spa and a subterranean jazz club folded into the old Beaux-Arts office tower. The MICHELIN Guide awards it Three Keys, and The World's 50 Best Hotels has ranked it among the finest in the world two years running.

01The house

The Crown Building's history reads like a short history of American wealth itself. Constructed between 1920 and 1922 for philanthropist August Heckscher, the structure was designed by Warren and Wetmore as an office building, rising as one of the finest examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in the city. In 1929 it became the first home of the Museum of Modern Art, where director Alfred H. Barr Jr, backed by the Rockefeller family, opened the institution with 101 works by Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat and van Gogh.

Above its ornamental crown once perched a 12-foot gold-plated weathervane shaped like a rooster, nicknamed Le Coq d'Or, which stood as a civic landmark until it was melted down in 1942 to support the war effort. The building was renamed the Crown Building in 1983, when lighting designer Douglas Leigh was commissioned to gild and illuminate its façade. Nearly four decades later, Aman's long-time collaborator Jean-Michel Gathy of Denniston led a restoration that began in 2017, reopening the tower's upper floors as Aman New York in August 2022 — the brand's first urban hotel in the United States.

02Rooms and suites

The hotel occupies the Crown Building from the seventh floor upward, with 83 suites below 22 private Aman Residences at the pinnacle, each looking over Central Park. Every suite has a working fireplace — more than 200 across the property, a first for a New York hotel — alongside deep soaking tubs and Japanese-inspired interiors where latticed rice-paper panels divide open-plan rooms and Hasegawa Tōhaku's Pine Tree murals accent cream-toned walls.

Insider tip

Book the Spa Houses and Akari's omakase counter well in advance; both seat very few guests.

Categories run from the 67-square-metre Deluxe Suite on 56th Street up to the Aman Suite, the hotel's largest at up to 257 square metres, and extend into residential-style Homes with their own kitchens and dedicated lift access — the largest, a Three-Bedroom Home, spans the entire 24th floor at 585 square metres. All stays include butler service, a complimentary private bar, daily breakfast at Arva or in-suite, and flexible check-in subject to availability.

03Where to eat

The hotel's dining floor sits on the 14th level, home to two signature restaurants. Arva takes its name from the Latin for cultivated land and draws on Italy's rustic cucina del raccolto, or harvest-kitchen, tradition, serving dishes such as homemade tagliolini with Ronny Brook butter and black summer truffle. Akari turns to Japan's washoku tradition, recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, with a dedicated Hinoki wood counter where the chef crafts a bespoke multi-course omakase menu in front of diners.

Beyond the two restaurants, the Lounge Bar serves cicchetti and sharing plates by working fireplaces, while the year-round Garden Terrace opens its retractable glass roof over firepits and a corner bar looking straight onto the crossroads of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. Access to the hotel's restaurants is currently limited to overnight guests and members of the Aman Club.

04The bar and The Jazz Club

After dark, the hotel's subterranean Jazz Club reintroduces a quintessentially New York concept, the speakeasy, with live musical programming, cocktails and small plates staged nightly below street level — one of the few parts of the hotel open to non-guests.

Upstairs, the Aman Club occupies its own dedicated spaces, including a private lounge and cigar terrace, and gives members priority reservations at the Jazz Club alongside access to the spa and restaurants. Membership is invitation-only and reportedly costs around 200,000 dollars to join plus 15,000 dollars a year, making it among the most expensive private clubs in the city.

05Spa and wellbeing

Aman Spa New York spreads across three floors and more than 2,300 square metres, built around a 20-metre heated indoor pool lined with fire pits and daybeds. Two private Spa Houses, one built around a marble hammam and the other a wood-clad banya, each have their own double treatment room, terrace, hot bath and cold plunge for guests who want to book the space entirely for themselves.

Elsewhere, seven treatment rooms, a cryotherapy chamber and a Contrast Therapy Suite combining infrared sauna, red-light therapy and cold plunge sit alongside a hair and nail salon, a reformer Pilates studio and a window-lined fitness centre over 56th Street. On-call doctors run personalised health programmes, and the hotel has built guest experiences around its Global Wellness Ambassadors — a half-day Strength and Recovery session devised with Maria Sharapova, and a three-day Detoxification Programme created with Novak Djokovic.

06The neighbourhood

Aman New York sits one block south of Central Park, at the crossroads of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street — the heart of what is often called Billionaires' Row, facing Bergdorf Goodman and a short walk from the Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall. The Crown Building's lower floors still house flagship stores for some of the world's most recognised luxury brands, a last trace of the tower's century as a retail and gallery address before Aman took over its upper storeys.

07Making the most of a stay

Every stay includes daily breakfast at Arva or in-suite, a complimentary house car for drop-offs within a 20-block radius, and full access to the three-floor wellness facility including the pool, sauna and steam room. Check-in and check-out times are flexible, subject to availability, and the spa's pool, gym and changing rooms run from 6am to 10pm daily, with the fitness centre accessible around the clock. Reserve the Spa Houses or an omakase seat at Akari well ahead of arrival — both are among the smallest, most sought-after spaces in the building.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.