Bring on the Bling! Baccarat Hotel & Residences Opens in NYC

It's not just for drinking expensive champagne anymore. Baccarat Hotel & Residences New York has opened its first hotel and global flagship for the 250 year-old Baccarat crystal brand.

Directly across the street from the Museum of Modern Art and steps away from Fifth Avenue's legendary shopping, the hotel occupies the first 12 floors of the split-level tower that rises 550 feet above West 53rd Street. Glowing inside and out, the lower levels of the hotel are veiled by a 125-foot wide corrugated crystal-like curtain.

Baccarat Hotel & Residences New York features 114 sensationally appointed guest rooms and suites and a new modern French restaurant, Chevalier, overseen by Michelin-starred Executive Chef Shea Gallante. Legendary New York restaurateur Charles Masson will curate style and service in Chevalier and in the hotel's second-story lobby salons and bar.

The Bar at Baccarat, just off the opulent Grand Salon, is an epic space featuring barrel-vaulted ceilings, a 60-foot bar and an outdoor terrace overlooking the MoMA. The hotel also features a 50-foot indoor pool, an elite fitness training facility and the first Spa de La Mer in the United States.

Design Beyond Compare

Paris-based interior design firm Gilles & Boissier led the creation of the hotel's interiors, which combine Baccarat's French classic aesthetics with a fanciful modern sensibility.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill served as architects for the 50-story tower, while New York-based designer and member of the Architectural Digest 100, Tony Ingrao, led the residential design. The tower's sixty private residences are accessible through a separate entrance and will have access to all of the hotel's amenities. Celebrated decorator Stephen Sills created the elegant setting for the street-level Chevalier, which also has its own separate entrance.

"We are so thrilled to bring to life the new 'House of Baccarat'- to take this legendary brand which has for centuries stood for perfection in crystal, and has never been compromised, to create its first modern lifestyle hotel masterpiece. I wanted to celebrate light, and to produce a hotel that glowed, and was shimmering, sensual, elegant but still functional, fun, comfortable, and not overly formal," says Barry Sternlicht, Chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, the parent of SH Group, a lifestyle hotel brand management company who will manage the hotel.

"We waited and believe we found the perfect location to launch our first hotel. Our designs pay respect to our neighbors in the property's simple exterior, but we add great drama with other details including a four-foot high always-burning fireplace which represents the furnaces in our manufacturing facilities at Baccarat France.

"Entering the lobby, guests will be mesmerized by a 20-by-25-foot wall adorned with more than 2,000 of Baccarat's most iconic glasses, the Harcourt. Each custom-sized glass has been laid horizontally, and lit by an LED light to create a 24-hour light show. The hotel has every possible amenity a privileged client demands. Our goal is to offer perfection of service that matches Baccarat's perfection in the production of crystal."

More Baccarat craftsmen have received the coveted Meilleurs Ouvriers de France title than any other French company. This rare distinction is bestowed by the French government to artisans that are truly the finest in their fields. This commitment to fine craftsmanship will be woven into every element of service and were woven in the design details of the hotel. General Manager Andrew Turner will lead the Baccarat Hotel & Residences New York.

A Look Inside

The hotel's interiors were conceived by French design duo Gilles & Boissier to combine the classic elegance of a Parisian h�tel Particulier with the contemporary aesthetic of its midtown New York City location. Gilles & Boissier, alongside Starwood Capital's own design team, designed many of the hotel's furnishings including commissioning several never-before-seen works from the Baccarat factories.

Classic pieces were also curated from the brands' archival and contemporary collections for the public spaces and rooms. Additional features include: the beautiful parquet wood flooring; woven rugs; hand-pleated silk wall coverings and stainless ribbed ceilings; mica-coated ceilings and mirror and marble wall treatments. Seventeen custom chandeliers hang throughout the property - many suspended by rough cord rope - while one stand-out chandelier is made exclusively out of wood and hangs in the second-floor bar.

French curators St�phanie and Fr�d�ric Chambre assembled the hotel's art collection, which includes works from important movements over the 250 years since Baccarat's founding. Commissioned original art and one-of-a-kind furniture from renowned French artists Francois Houtin and Armand Jonckers can also be found throughout the hotel.

Accommodations and Amenities

Each of the hotel's 114 guest rooms and suites feels like a private pied-�-terre. Room categories start with the generous Classic King and ascend to the Baccarat Presidential Suite, the hotel's "pi�ce de r�sistance."

All rooms feature floor-to-ceiling windows, sitting areas, and custom jacquard linens by Mascioni. Hidden from the sleeping area by hand-painted French doors, white marble bathrooms boast glass-enclosed showers with oversized showerheads and exclusive amenities created for the hotel by Parisian perfumer Francis Kurkdjian.

A tablet equipped with state-of-the-art technology will control all aspects of the room, including temperature, lighting, and room service. A custom-designed Baccarat red enamel mini bar will offer delights from the French gourmet house Fauchon. On the telephone handset, a button marked "Champagne" will allow guests to order a bottle of their favorite vintage to their rooms accompanied by signature Baccarat fluted glasses. Guests of the luxury suites will have the added feature of complimentary La Mer skincare products and nightly salon services. All guests will have complimentary use of the house car, a vintage Citroen, for transport within 15 blocks of the hotel.

Culinary and Cocktails

Located at street level, the signature contemporary French restaurant Chevalier takes its name from Baccarat's longtime and most beloved creative director, Georges Chevalier, who was responsible for ushering the crystal company into the modern age. The restaurant will redefine the brasserie de luxe in New York City, referencing the original brasseries of Paris, while also showcasing reinterpreted and updated French classics.

Consummate host Charles Masson, late of the beloved Midtown Manhattan French institution La Grenouille, will serve as Chevalier's Restaurant Director. Executive Chef Shea Gallante, who earned a Michelin star for his work at the Manhattan restaurant Cru, helms the kitchen.

Gallante will also oversee the menus for the Grand and Petit Salons, the Bar and seasonal outdoor terrace overlooking MoMA, en-suite dining and the Harmonie Room, the hotel's private-event space. On the hotel's second floor, the Grand and Petit Salons will offer light breakfast fare, afternoon tea, small plates and evening cocktails.

The hotel's bar, inspired by the stables of Versailles, will serve handcrafted cocktails, aperitifs, fine wines and a light bites menu. Throughout the hotel, guests will sip drinks from a kaleidoscope of more than 15,000 pieces of mixed-and-matched Baccarat crystal stemware.

Spa and Fitness

An intimate spa, fitness center and 50-foot indoor pool will open in the month following the hotel's debut. Baccarat has partnered with the ultra-prestigious skincare brand La Mer to create Spa de La Mer, its first spa in the United States. Designed to recall a luxurious European seaside retreat, the four treatment rooms beckon guests and locals who crave revitalizing treatments and soothing respites.

Adjacent to the spa, luxurious day beds in alcoves surround the black-and-white marble-tiled pool, which suggests a sunken ballroom. The walls surrounding the pool will feature the artwork of painter Fran�ois Houtin who is known for his detailed prints of utopian gardens. The forest scene is a tribute to the woods near Baccarat's French-countryside factory.