Some hotels follow the trends. The Manner, on Thompson Street, follows a feeling: Milan in the 1950s, New York in the 1970s, and a long dinner that nobody wants to end. It opened in September 2024 as the first hotel of its kind from Standard International, and it is the most European address in SoHo.
The interiors are by Hannes Peer, an architect from Milan known for private homes, working with Verena Haller, chief design officer at Standard. This is his first hotel, and it shows in the best way. It feels like someone’s apartment, a collector’s apartment, not a lobby.
Peer looked at Milanese modernism, Gio Ponti, Osvaldo Borsani, and gave it a Manhattan edge. As a girl from Milan, I recognized it at once: the marble staircase, the bronze, the mirrors that make every room a little theater.
Pompeian red walls. Bronze-framed mirrors. Mahoganized wood, smoked glass, a faceted metal fireplace hood. Then, in the rooms, the voice drops: ochre, sand and a pale sky blue, grounded by dark wood and navy lacquer.
It is a lesson in contrast. Warm and cool, glossy and matte, Italian and New York. Nothing matches. Everything belongs.
There are 97 rooms and suites, and not one television. I love that. Instead: full-height mirrors, marble bathrooms, Italian fabrics, custom chandeliers, and music built into the walls.
At the top, a duplex penthouse on the 12th and 13th floors pays tribute to Halston and his Olympic Tower offices: deep red, a double-height window, a travertine fireplace and a terrace wrapped around the skyline. Very 1970s. Very glamorous.
Every corner has a maker. Ceramic columns and bubble tiles by Ben Medansky in The Apartment, a wink at Gio Ponti’s Parco dei Principi in Sorrento. A terracotta frieze by Giovanni de Francesco in the lobby, a totem by Nicholas Shurey, a painted ceiling by Alex Proba, and a mural by Elvira Solana in the restaurant.
The Otter is the all-day restaurant, and it is all about seafood, simply prepared. Burnt-orange banquettes, navy panels, inlaid oak floors. Upstairs, Sloane’s pours cocktails in a dark green room with red lacquered tables and a gilded alcove. The Apartment, the lounge for hotel guests only, was created with chef Alex Stupak.
Studio Joelle designs restaurants, bars and hotels, and this is the kind of project that makes me want to start sketching. Peer proves that a hotel can feel like a home if every object has a story and a maker.
What I take home: color can be bold if the materials are noble. Mirrors are architecture. And a room without a television is a room where people talk.
Photos: Chris Mottalini, Nico Schinco, Joelle Maslaton Oster
Hotel: The Manner
Address: 58 Thompson Street, SoHo, New York
Interiors: Hannes Peer Architecture
Group: Standard International
Joelle Maslaton Oster
A designer's eye on where to stay, what to live with, and who makes it. Stay here, with my perks.
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