The Newly Reopened Waldorf Astoria Hotel Woos and Wows

The Waldorf Astoria hotel, occupying a full city block between Park and Lexington avenues from East 49th to East 50th streets, recently reopened to acclaim after an eight-year renovation. A cherished meeting place for the glamorous and notorious alike, the Waldorf Astoria contains some of the finest and most culturally significant Art Deco interiors in New York City.

In December 2016, the new owners of the iconic hotel, Anbang Insurance Group Company, based in China, announced plans to turn three-quarters of the hotel’s 1,413 guest rooms into condominiums. It didn’t quite work out that way.

In March 2017, before the renovation began, New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to landmark the hotel’s “most lavish public spaces, including interconnected rooms and corridors on the ground, first, second, and third floors.” This was due in large part to the efforts of the Art Deco Society of New York, which lobbied (pun intended) in partnership with the Historic Districts Council of New York and Art Deco societies around the world, including the Art Deco Society of California, for interior landmarking for the famous building. The hotel’s exterior had already achieved city landmark status in 1993.

The architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill collaborated with interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon and a team of skilled preservationists and craftspeople to meticulously restore the hotel’s iconic exterior and interior spaces. They introduced contemporary design updates, state-of-the-art technology, and modern amenities, while preserving the hotel’s palatial features.

Linda Zagaria, vice-president of the Art Deco Society of New York, gave me a tour of the main floor, pointing out gloriously preserved and restored features such as the intricate mosaic tile floor in the grand Park Avenue lobby, by the French artist Louis Rigal, which had been covered with carpeting in the 1960s and ’70s. The mosaic was restored in 1983, and now it gleams anew. Every room and vista is exquisitely beautiful. Linda said, “They really did an incredible job bringing the ‘Unofficial Palace’ back to life.”

It didn’t survive the renovation, but Linda showed me where The Empire Room used to be located. The restaurant was the largest and most lavishly adorned room in the Waldorf, with satin hangings, upholstery, and marble pillars, all of pale green. Next we wandered over to Peacock Alley, where we admired the painstakingly restored clock that Queen Victoria commissioned for the Chicago Exposition of 1893, and of course Cole Porter’s Steinway piano. Porter lived at the hotel from 1939 to 1964. During this period he wrote dozens of songs, including “From This Moment On” and “Too Darn Hot.”

There was a wait to be seated in the reimagined Peacock Alley bar (run by acclaimed mixologist Jeff Bell of Please Don’t Tell), so Linda and I elected to have cocktails at Yoshoku, a vast and spacious Japanese restaurant near the Park Avenue entrance, with many private nooks for dining and divining. Expect to lighten your wallet as you lift your spirits. Wine by the glass ranges from $22 to $58, and cocktails start at $30. The service is, of course, exceptional.

Afterward, we peeked in at the quieter bar at Lex Yard, a two-level restaurant accessible via Lexington Avenue. Lex Yard was named after the secret train track that used to be located underneath the hotel—Track 61. You can dine à la carte or enjoy chef Michael Anthony’s set seasonal menu featuring four savory courses and dessert.

The Waldorf Astoria is renowned for its namesake Waldorf Salad. But did you know that the hotel’s culinary team also invented room service, first offered to prominent guests to dine in privacy and comfort, and now a standard for travelers around the world? In case you’re wondering, New York Post restaurant critic Steve Cuozzo says that Michael Anthony’s reinvention of the 100-year-old recipe, “not only improves on the country-clubby original, it lives up to the entire hotel’s spectacular, oft-delayed, $2-billion transformation.” Wow, that’s weighty salad!

The Met Gala also began at the Waldorf, in 1948, when pioneering style and fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert hosted donors there to raise money for the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute. Fittingly (sorry, another pun), British designer Nicholas Oakwell’s studio, NO Uniform, put glorious color and style into the new hotel employee uniforms. Security guard Pedro Rodriguez proudly displayed his Waldorf blue uniform. “It’s a blue-green mix,” he explained, “not too navy blue, not too royal.” The uniforms for other staff roles incorporate Waldorf blue as well. However, the NO Uniform designer amped up the wow factor for hostesses in Peacock Alley. They wear flashing floor-length gold gowns that surely outshine all but the peackockiest and dandiest guests.

The hotel has 375 rooms designed by the aforementioned Pierre-Yves Rochon. Above the hotel are 375 private residences, ranging from studios to four bedrooms, with interiors designed by Jean-Louis Deniot. The homes range from $1.875 million to $16.875 million. You might find a bargain hotel room there for $1,500 per night.

To catch a glimpse of the grand old dame before the renovation, Linda advises us to view Week-End at the Waldorf, a 1945 film starring Ginger Rogers, Walter Pidgeon, Lana Turner, Robert Benchley, and Van Johnson. The opening scene is filmed in the hotel’s Park Avenue entrance.

Karen Rempel is a New York-based writer, model, and artist who writes a monthly column for Straus News.