Pendry Manhattan West – a glass wave above the old rail yards

On West 33rd Street, where the old rail yards behind Penn Station now carry the plazas of Manhattan West, Pendry Manhattan West rises as a rippling wall of dark-blue glass and black granite. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as the hotel component of the Manhattan West development, the 23-storey tower ripples with waves of dark blue glass banded by ribbons of black granite, its undulating shape letting guests in the 164-room hotel look out over Manhattan with panoramic views that would otherwise be impeded. It opened in September 2021 as Pendry Hotels & Resorts' first hotel in New York City, developed in collaboration with Brookfield Properties. Inside, 164 rooms, including 30 suites, are each dressed by Gachot Studios. The MICHELIN Guide awards the hotel Two Keys, and its house dining address, Ci Siamo, carries a MICHELIN Plate for its live-fire Italian cooking just across the plaza.

01The house

The tower stands on one of New York's stranger building sites: a deck engineered over the active rail tracks that feed Penn Station. Developer Brookfield Properties, working from a master plan first drawn up in the 1990s, turned the land around it into a seven-million-square-foot, mixed-use campus bounded by Ninth and Tenth Avenues and West 31st and 33rd Streets. The Pendry is one of three Manhattan West buildings designed by SOM, its curtain wall built by contractor Fabbrica with granite quarried by A. Lacroix and cladding by IDA Exterior Systems, completed on 5 January 2021. The system alternates curved and flat glass panels, set apart from the flatly glazed towers around it, their dark reflective tint shielding guests' privacy while opening wide views back out over the city.

Lighting designer L'Observatoire International, led by Hervé Descottes, worked to complement the undulating SOM façade with discreetly placed fixtures and light built into wall panelling and millwork, aiming for warmth rather than the cold glass of its neighbours. Gachot Studios then took the interiors the rest of the way, merging the West Coast Light and Space Movement of the 1960s and '70s with a modern New York sense of elegance for a brand built in California.

02Rooms and suites

Pendry Manhattan West holds 164 guest rooms, including 30 suites, each featuring warm, contemporary interiors by Gachot Studios with thoughtfully designed spaces, services and touches throughout. The guest room experience brings a calming sensibility to the city's bustling environment with a neutral colour palette, warm details and textures and the modern amenities synonymous with Pendry's contemporary luxury sensibility.

Insider tip

Ci Siamo, the house MICHELIN restaurant, sits across the plaza rather than inside the hotel.

The Studio Suites turn an entire wall into floor-to-ceiling glass for higher-floor views across the skyline, pair a king bed dressed in Fili D'Oro linens with an open-plan living area, and lead into a marble bathroom with an oval soaking tub, a separate walk-in shower and double vanities, in roughly 47 square metres. The hotel's 30 suites proper go further again, with expansive space and remarkable skyline views of New York City.

03Where to eat

Ci Siamo, the hotel's MICHELIN-listed dining address, sits a short walk away in the Manhattan West plaza. Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group brought chef Hillary Sterling, a James Beard semifinalist, to the site in 2021, building her Italian-inflected menu around a wood-burning oven and an open fire. Dishes such as caramelised onion torta layered with balsamic and pecorino toscana, and cavatelli allo scoglio with crab, chilli and vermouth, keep tables filled from lunch through late night, alongside an all-Italian wine list and the house Ci Siamo martini, built from two gins, blanc and dry vermouth and orange bitters.

Inside the hotel itself, Zou Zou's serves a lively, modern Eastern Mediterranean menu drawing on the flavours of Lebanon, Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The room, from restaurant group Quality Branded and designed by AvroKO, seats 75 around an open kitchen built on a wood-fired hearth, its dark woods, off-white plasters and blue-and-green tiles borrowing arches and domes from the Levant; weekend brunch brings a pistachio babka braid and an 'everything' brunch borek. Zou Zou's, cocktail lounge Chez Zou, Bar Pendry and the Garden Room make up the hotel's four in-house food and beverage destinations, alongside Vista Lounge and in-room dining.

04The bar

Bar Pendry plays it as a classic cocktail room with a nod to the present: small bites, hand-crafted drinks and a curated wine and beer list in a dim, clubby space just off the lobby, open Sunday and Monday from 4pm to midnight and Tuesday to Saturday from 4pm to 1am. It sits alongside Chez Zou as the hotel's second cocktail address, giving guests a choice between two very different moods without leaving the building.

05Wellness

There is no spa here, but guests get a 24/7, 1,700 square foot fitness centre featuring all-new Technogym equipment and Peloton bikes, as well as an intimate Movement Studio for light stretching, personal yoga and physical activity. For those who would rather run than lift, the concierge team points guests toward the free RunGo app's audio-guided routes through the surrounding streets and down to the Hudson River.

06The neighbourhood

Pendry Manhattan West enjoys easy access to an array of attractions, including some of the finest shopping, dining and culture in New York and the redeveloped Empire Station Complex, which includes Madison Square Garden and Moynihan Train Hall. Manhattan West itself forms an entirely new neighbourhood, bounded by Ninth and Tenth Avenues and West 31st and 33rd Streets, master-planned by SOM as part of the wider revitalisation of the Far West Side. The development around it holds a Whole Foods, Danny Meyer's Daily Provisions, a winter ice rink and a variety theatre, part of the huge Hudson Yards Redevelopment that has changed the face of Midtown's far west side.

07Making the most of a stay

Seasonal offers have also paired suite stays with Broadway orchestra tickets and a cast meet-and-greet over cocktails at Bar Pendry. Reserve Ci Siamo ahead, since the restaurant sits tucked into the plaza behind Daily Provisions and is, by its own admission, a little tricky to find on a first visit.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.