NEW YORK CITY—New York hoteliers Sean MacPherson, Ira Drukier, and Richard Born are making their Lower East Side debut with a new 184-room hotel. The trio rescued a derelict building that had been abandoned by its original developers after the financial crash and transformed it into The Ludlow. The hotel’s solid brick façade and factory casement windows make it fit seamlessly onto its historic block.
The experience starts at the Ludlow’s red-brick entryway. Steel and glass doors open to oak paneled-walls and marble mosaic floors. A grand distressed-limestone fireplace dominates the lobby lounge.
The Ludlow will create an inviting public space on its ground floor. The lobby atrium harks back to the days when downtown lofts would house happening clubs or one-off parties. “Those spaces were magnets, and we’re hoping this one will be,” MacPherson says. “We’d like to function as a living room for the neighborhood.”
Flooded with light, the ground floor is designed with windows and glass walls to offer clear views from the Ludlow St. entrance straight through to the bluestone-paved back courtyard.
The Ludlow’s restaurant, Dirty French, will be the first French restaurant from Major Food Group. Operating from breakfast til late, Dirty French will feature rebooted, provocative Gallic classics. Major Food Group partners Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi, and Jeff Zalaznick will personally oversee the restaurant.
Upstairs feels private and personal with furniture and artisan touches hand-picked by MacPherson. Hardwood floors and handmade silk rugs complement artisan-crafted Moroccan pendant lamps and Indo-Portuguese style beds. “Tree-trunk” nightstands in petrified wood come from Brooklyn furniture temple Organic Modernism.
Sean MacPherson and BD Hotels’ other New York properties include the Marlton, the Jane, the Bowery, and the Maritime.
