For a long time now, I’ve been dying to see the interiors of the regal-looking Gothic buildings that are part of the cloistered seminary on Tenth Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets. And eureka! I was inside the other morning taking a tour with hotelier Klaus Ortlieb, who oversaw operations for the High Line Hotel, which he soft-opened this week along with MCR Development and the Brodsky Organization. Ortlieb also oversaw the Cooper Square (now the Standard, East Village) and the Hlemmur Square hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland. The building, originally constructed in 1895 as student housing for the (still-functioning) General Theological Seminary, now offers 60 guest rooms along with a private garden and a dramatic events and meeting space in the old refectory within Hoffman Hall. Equally dramatic: the stairwell in Hoffman Hall adjacent to the hotel building. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Here’s the other end of the refectory. The remaining seminary students who still live on the grounds have their midday meal here, hence the tables and chairs. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Interior-design firm Roman and Williams conceptualized the guest rooms, each one unique. This room has a seating alcove (shown here). Photo: Wendy Goodman
The antique and contemporary furnishings complement the Gothic architecture. Photo: Wendy Goodman
The structure of each room has been retained. Note the original fireplace here. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Here is Ortlieb (right) standing in the lobby entrance with Doug Zell, the founder and co-CEO of the Intelligentsia Coffee Bar, now operating its first East Coast outpost in the hotel. After hotel guests check in wirelessly via an iPad, they can relax in the private courtyard while marveling at what was once the site of Twas the Night Before Christmas author Clement Clarke Moore’s apple orchard when the river came right up to the banks of what is now Tenth Avenue. Moore gifted the land to the Episcopal Church in 1817 for the construction of its first theological seminary. Photo: Wendy Goodman
