New design features are evident throughout Morgans' public spaces. A sampling of these features includes: A "Living-Room" Lobby, with textured taupe-colored glass walls with overlaid bronze mullions, featuring a custom Putman-designed wool rug of black, rich camel and taupe in a bold three-dimensional cubist pattern; floors in three varied shades of imported Italian granite in different finishes; groupings of antique French leather club chairs, including a teak and caned plantation chair from the '40s, all culled from Paris' top flea markets; Putman-designed dark wood end tables. Spherical-shaped desk lamps in nickel-plated brass are created by Félix Aublet in 1925. Candles in the evening coupled with black-and-white checkerboard patterned wool throws loosely draped over the French club chairs further accentuate the "lived-in" feel. Morgans is currently undergoing renovations of its bar and restaurant. The new concepts should be introduced Fall, 2012.
Guest accommodations
Like everything else in Morgans, the 114 guest rooms steered away from formulaic institutional design. To update guest lodgings, Ms. Putman began in the hotel corridors, which are covered in wool carpet in rich taupe with a black-and-white checkerboard patterned border. Guest room doors are of French custom-birdseye maple. With only four to eight rooms per floor, each hallway contributes to the hotel's residential feel. Inside the room, the walls are painted with a mixture of four muted tones, producing an effect like that of an "Impressionist wall painting" — an unusual backdrop for the specially commissioned black and white photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. In addition to a regular closet, each room features a four-drawer dresser cabinet with full-length lighted wardrobe mirror. Inside the bathroom, unconventional features include customized stainless steel airplane-like sinks and hospital fixtures, floor-to-ceiling shower doors and partitions in 3/4" glass and poured -in-lace granite floors. Morgans' duplex penthouse suite is a 19th-floor suite that comes complete with its own greenhouse, kitchen, multimedia room with 60" Sony color television, curved staircase and two terraces with city views. Decorated in the same spirit as all Morgans' guest rooms, the suite offers a classic black wood bench by Bertola; and Ecart steel tube and opaline glasscoffee tables.
Building history
Morgans Hotel began as the Hotel Duane, a 1927 structure intended for long-term residents, designed by architect Andrew J. Thomas. According to an article of the era, "In design the exterior of the building indicates a free interpretation of the Italian Romanesque style harmonizing very well with the Fraternity Clubs building at the north, designed in a similar style." When initially opened, the lobby and guest rooms showed "a rather free interpretation of Spanish Renaissance decoration." Prior to its 1984 renovation, the hotel had operated under the name, Executive Hotel. The building was purchased in July 2017 by Shel Capital and Kash Group. As of 2018, the hotel is closed.
