Park Lane NEW YORK Highgate entrusts acclaimed hospitality designers Yabu Pushelberg with scripting a new tale for Leona Helmsley’s beloved hotel on Central Park South. Words: Ayesha Khan • Photography: © Adrian Gaut
he incredibly ambitious, sometimes crooked, one-
T
In order to script this tale, Highgate entrusted luxury
time convicted felon Leona Helmsley is something of
hospitality darlings Yabu Pushelberg. But here’s the catch,
a New York legend. Dubbed the Queen of Mean for
it was meant to be a purely cosmetic refurb on a shoestring
her tyrannical behaviour and penchant for humiliating and
budget. The studio’s Founding Partner Glenn Pushelberg,
firing employees, Helmsley amassed a sizeable fortune, not
recalls his first reaction to the space: “There was this lobby
as the bored housewife of, but as a determined equal partner
and a wide corridor to the 58th street entrance; we questioned
to billionaire American hotelier and real-estate developer
how we could work with it.”
Harry Helmsley.
developer and designers, it was to create a space that
Postmodern architectural boom, the pair commissioned a
shunned the exclusivity of the traditional uptown hotel. “We
soaring 47-storey skyscraper on Manhattan’s glamorous
live in a time where there is so much social segmentation
Central Park South. At the time, the property offered a break
and divisiveness, but this hotel harkens back to an era when
from the more traditional gilded palaces that were The Ritz-
the proper society lady from Park Avenue would hang-out
Carlton, Essex House and The Plaza. But Helmsley’s interior
with her artist friend in SoHo,” explains George Yabu, fellow
design choices were quite antithetic to its forward-thinking
Founding Partner. “The principal of crossing those societal
façade. Panelled walls, garish chandeliers and gaudy furniture
lines is quite wonderful.”
led the hotel to be considered by some as a missed design
The resulting lobby is a cheery space that doesn’t take
opportunity, and although its neighbours enjoyed a steady
itself too seriously. Splashes of red and green welcome
patronage well into the 2000s, Park Lane began to languish
guests, while whimsical topiaries and ceramic bunny
in obscurity. “The hotel had fallen off the map – it was never
sculptures take inspiration from the park opposite, as does
in any competitive set and no-one really talked about it any
the handcrafted ombre rug by Creative Matters – who also
more,” recalls Managing Director Prince Sanders, who was
supplied the ballroom, events corridor and entry staircase
hired by Highgate to tap into his credentials as a published
with digitally printed carpets.
author to tell Park Lane’s new story.
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If there was one overarching mandate among both
In 1967, during the height of New York’s ambitious
The true star of this, and most other spaces however, is a
