Whoo-hoo, we’re a week into the Tribeca Film Festival and we can hardly remember a time when it wasn’t Tribeca Film Festival time. We’ve now learned how to avoid the blinking-light madness of the red carpet, how to navigate the (sorta crazy) long lines outside the theaters, and that our laminated pass gets entree into clean East Village restrooms. Oh, and the movies!  read more »

So much for "Schrager Hotels."

Contrary to a recent report by the New York Post, godfather of hip hotels Ian Schrager is not pulling a Donald Trump by naming his new chain of trendy inns after himself.

The brand will instead be called "Edition," according to an announcement Tuesday by Mr. Schrager and partner Bill Marriott.  read more »

"We didn't make the product -- the product made us," Ian Schrager told The Observer about becoming a famous hotelier.

What does the godfather of boutique hotels think of the latest wave of aspiring celebrity hoteliers, Robert De Niro, Giorgio Armani and Jay-Z?

"I think when people hear Jay-Z's name, they have a certain level of expectation of the kind of music they're going to hear. I don't think they have a lot of expectation about what kind of hotel they're going to get," he said.  read more »

Ettore Sottsass, the celebrated Italian designer, died at his home in Milan today. He was 90 years old.

Mr. Sottsass is primarily credited with founding the Memphis Group—an influential collective of Italian-based designers, who were primarily concerned with furniture and product—in 1980. Before disbanding in 1988, the work of Memphis scholars was largely characterized as the “New International Style.” According to a Guardian article from 2001, the group was also the primary influence behind the subsequent work of Philippe Starck and Ian Schrager.

A retrospective of Mr. Sottsass’ work opened last September in Trieste, Italy. Entitled “I Want to Know Why,” the exhibition features some 130 of the late designer’s work. Of the show, he is quoted as saying: “I would like the visitors to leave crying, that is with emotion.”

Eccentric designer Philippe Starck apparently doesn't think much of the Royalton Hotel's new look.

“I think if you are lucky enough to own an icon, you shouldn’t kill the icon," Mr. Starck said of the hotel lobby's recent redesign, during an interview with the New York Times.

Mr. Starck, of course, created the Royalton lobby's prior look for hotelier Ian Schrager in 1988, featuring "chair legs shaped like ram’s horns" and "a Champagne bar that conjured up the inside of a genie’s bottle," as the Times put it.

In its heyday, the Starck-designed lobby and restaurant 44 offered a fashionable hangout for media people and celebrities, and some credit the Starck-Schrager partnership at the Royalton with pioneering the whole boutique-hotel craze.

Restaurateur John McDonald, who spearheaded the recent lobby redesign alongside architects Roman & Williams, previously explained his rationale for the total lobby overhaul in an interview with The Observer.  read more »

Gawker mentioned yesterday that sales at Ian Schrager's new condo at 40 Bond Street have looked rather slow. Curbed today notes that flippers of one unit have slashed its sales price. And the Wall Street Journal, also today, notes that Ricky Martin has bought in the building.

So, what's going on, exactly? Are sales slow? Or are they fine?

Judging by the facts, they're fine.

We talked this afternooon with Kirk Rundhaug, the Sunshine Group broker helping run sales at 40 Bond. He said 24 of the building's 28 units have been sold; four remain.

Not bad, considering the slowing Manhattan sales market.

A year and a half after sales started, almost half the residences at 40 Bond Street have been sold.

Eleven units have closed at Ian Schrager and Aby Rosen’s highly anticipated condominium project, according to city records. The seller on these deals has been listed as 40 Bond Street Partners, LLC, and the closing prices range from $2.8 million to $10.5 million.  read more »

New Yorkers have long had a soft spot for The Waldorf-Astoria. Glamorous and storied, the hotel has loomed as a pinnacle of luxury in a town teeming with such.

But is it possible that the hotel where Al Pacino “Hoo Ha’ed!” in Scent of a Woman and where King Jaffe Joffer (played by James Earl Jones) stayed in Coming to America is now one of the better discounts for upscale lodging?  read more »

Last week, the hotelier finally opened a restaurant in his fortress-like Gramercy Park Hotel. Here's what you'll find if you manage to get a reservation.  read more »

The Clocktower at 1 Madison Avenue officially belongs to Lev Leviev.

The building went to contract for $200 million in May to Leviev's Africa Israel, which purchased it from SL Green, Aby Rosen's RFR Holding and Ian Schrager.  read more »