Lots of visitors to New York would love to stay close to the clubs and restaurants of the Lower East Side and other nearby neighborhoods, but until fairly recently there were just not many rooms available here, outside of a few scattered guesthouses and very small hotels.
It wasn’t until 2004, when The Hotel on Rivington went up, that a more luxurious option became available. At the time, THOR got a huge amount of press for its looks—this light-blue glass tower made no attempt to blend in with the five-story tenements and other 19th-century buildings that were its neighbors. (Since then, it doesn’t stick out quite as much as it once did. A handful of other glassy buildings have arisen nearby, and more are on their way.)
Don’t come here if your idea of luxury requires a lobby the size of the one in Grand Hotel—THOR makes its priorities clear by using its ground floor for a lounge and restaurant. To get to the actual lobby, you have to go up a story, to what Europeans call the 1st floor but what we Americans insist on calling the 2nd floor.
Whatever floor you claim it’s on, the tiny lobby is little more than a way station toward yet another lounge, this time one with an impressive pool table and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto Rivington and one of my favorite places for empty calories, Economy Candy. (A visit here is never wasted.).
Those floor-to-ceiling windows turn up again—they’re in every room, even in the bathrooms. It’s almost as if the city itself serves as the rooms’ “art.” Again, THOR is not a place for people whose idea of luxury is a lot of frills. The flatscreen TVs and closets, for instance, are built into the walls, and what little furniture there is (a coffee table, armchairs covered in dark velour) has only a smidge of color and pattern.
None of this high design and understated luxury comes cheap. It never does. THOR’s rooms start at around $500 for double occupancy in high season, but you may be able to swing a slight deal during the heat of summer.
Hotel on Rivington; 107 Rivington Street; New York
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