SIXTY SoHo

Time was, a hotel’s life span was measured out in fractions of a century; now just staying around for a decade is a genuine achievement. Having opened towards the end of the early wave of downtown Manhattan boutique hotels, SIXTY SoHo, some years in, can now rightly be called an established classic.

The location doesn’t hurt, down one of SoHo’s swankier streets, and a recent multi-million-dollar renovation by the London-based designer Tara Bernerd has left the interiors looking more vibrant than ever. The soaring loft-style guest rooms are still as quintessentially downtown as they come, equal parts luxury-hotel sheen and boutique-hotel funk, with high-end Italian linens, Dean & Deluca pantries (we used to call them minibars) and bathrooms that manage to be decadent and heavily marbled and yet youthfully stylish at the same time.

Of course the rooms aren’t the whole story. A place like this lives and dies by its public spaces, which, in this case, are impeccable. This is the luxury boutique as it ought to be — plush but not precious, hip but not off-putting, and an authentic fixture in the nightlife of lower Manhattan.