Morgans Hotel Group is widely credited as the creator of the first “boutique” hotel and a continuing leader of the hotel industry’s boutique sector. Morgans Hotel Group operates Morgans, Royalton and Hudson in New York, Delano and Shore Club in South Beach, Mondrian in Los Angeles, South Beach and New York, Clift in San Francisco, Ames in Boston, Sanderson and St Martins Lane in London, and a hotel in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Morgans also owns, or has ownership interests in, several of these hotels. Morgans Hotel Group has other property transactions in various stages of completion including a Mondrian at Baha Mar in Nassau, The Bahamas, a Delano in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, a Delano in Cesme, Turkey, a Mondrian in Doha, Qatar and a hotel in New York to be branded with one of MHG’s existing brands.
From its dazzling location at the hub of Covent Garden, West End theatres and Trafalgar Square, St Martins Lane is a dramatic and daring reinvention of the urban resort. Smart, witty and sophisticated, Philippe Starck’s design is a brilliant collision of influences - from the modern to the baroque - that suffuses the hotel with energy, vitality and magic. Entered through improbably tall, luminescent yellow-glass revolving doors—the tallest in London—St Martins Lane’s lobby is a soaring and theatrical space that offers a provocative manipulation of dimension and proportion. Starck presents a visually stunning play on scale, with oversized columns and angled niches painted a deep fluorescent yellow, complemented by Portuguese limestone floors. From its acid-etched, double-height yellow glass facade to its unpredictable plays on vivid color to the dramatic series of columns that appear as shining towers, St Martins Lane’s lobby is a triumph of color and light.
A lavish "Urban Spa" in the heart of London’s West End, Sanderson offers a retreat from the bustle of the city into a world of fantasy and wellbeing. The landmarked 50s building has been transformed by Philippe Starck into a surreal Cocteau-like dream world, epitomizing a “new luxury” that is smart, pared down, and tempered with a healthy dose of wit and irony. With the absence of “normal” walls and a floor-to-ceiling glass facade that diffuses natural light through flowing layers of ethereal sheer curtains, Sanderson’s indoor/outdoor lobby is a layered and sophisticated environment that is totally original. Surrounding an extraordinary landmark Courtyard Garden designed by Philip Hicks, Starck’s visionary style mixes baroque and modern, juxtaposing Salvador Dali’s curvaceous red lips sofa with classic 60s mosaics and hand-carved African furniture with an oversized Louis XV armoire. The result blends wit, magic and surprise in an elegant balancing act of extravagance and pure simplicity.
For more information please visit www.morganshotelgroup.com.