Blogging For a Flogging: Greenwich Hotel

Looky what's back? The Flogging. Its been a while since we've been naughty, but when we are bad, we need to be punished. Now that the Greenwich Hotel and Ago are open to the (paying) public, David Rockwell and his firm have gotten a lot of credit and praise for the design. Undeserved credit, as Rockwell really had nothing to do with the exceptional work. It's time to set the record straight.

We’d like to set the record straight on the proper design credits for Robert De Niro’s new Greenwich Hotel and Ago restaurant. While Rockwell Group originally developed a proposal for the site, those plans were abandoned over 4 years ago. Our firm, Grayling, designed the new building’s exterior, Ago restaurant, all of the Greenwich Hotel’s public spaces and guest corridors and one of the duplex suites (the other duplex suite was done by Rockwell Group).

The building has a rich and detailed creative story that unfolded over several years and involved many talented people (Samantha Crasco, Mikio Shinegawa, Paul Alter of Skolnick Architects, Matt Markowitz). It would be a shame not to give proper credit where it belongs.

We couldn't agree more and apologize for the mistake. In fact we had already discussed this way back when. But let the world know, Grayling did the work, and they did a heck of a job.

DeNiro's Hotel Hits the Web

Newyorkology (via Eater) comes through with the recently launched website for Robert De Niro and friends Greenwich Hotel. Ressies are being accepted for the first 3 weeks of April, when the hotel will then become the de facto home of out of town stars during the Tribeca Film Festival. Glamorous. Metro Travel Guide supplies the rest of the gory details about the rooms and property, including the Shibui Spa that "features a lantern-lit swimming pool and a lounge area". Best news - Ago will be delvireing room service to guests 24/7. Osso bucco all night. That's worth the $725 per night intro rate, right? Right.

A Long Time AGO

Date: February 18, 2007
Location: Downtown

It was at that time and place where DBTH first made it's entrance to the world of rocking your face off. We announced that Robert De Niro had lured his good buddy and business partner Agostino Sciandri from SoCal to open a branch of Ago in his new Greenwich Hotel. We also told you some poor sap would be jamming a bunch of wine corks into a ceiling panel to accentuate the design. Fun stuff right? We think so too. The world picked up on it and the rest is DBTHistory.

Well, the whole shebang is getting close to opening, and we are proud to unveil some quality shots from inside the space. Please pay special notice to the arched ceiling and old world masonry work in the top image, as well as those corks both in the panels and then installed high above in the proceeding frames. Those hand crafted bricks look real good. And for the panels, a Little Birdy has an update, telling us "there are only 100,000 corks and they were gotten from a branch of the Canadian girls scouts that collected and sold them for charity." Naturally.

The Daily Hipster

We are stepping into the way back machine on this one. Almost four months after we announced that Bobby D et al would be installing Ago in the Greenwich Hotel, along with some other choice details, Mr. and Mrs. Rush and Molloy have decided to break the same exact story. Good effort all around. Our original little birdy also notes, "They not only rip you off, but they got it wrong. David Rockwell really didn't design it. The folks at Greyling did." Thanks LB. We can always count on you.

Ago Coming to Town

Robert De Niro's yet to open Downtown Hotel in Tribeca has finalized plans for its lobby restaurant and we have the scoop-du-jour. Ago, the LA and Miami Italian Hotspot, will be occupying the lobby space, and expect celebs and gawkers to make this one the big openings of 2007. The pairing makes perfect sense, since Bobby D and those other Tribeca heavyweights (literally) the Weinstein Brothers were chef Agostino Sciandri original partners when he jumped ship from legendary Brentwood trattoria Toscana to open the first Ago in West Hollywood a few years back.

Our little birdy has also spilled the beans on at least part of the design. Apparently, the ceiling is made of 9 million wine corks. That's 9 with six zeroes worth of corkage that someone had to jam into the ceiling! Our job ain't looking half bad now.