In 2024, The MICHELIN Guide is announcing the first ever MICHELIN Keys — a brand new distinction that recognizes the most outstanding hotels across the world. Head here for everything you need to know about the new Key distinction, and visit this page to explore the full list of Key hotels in the United States.
The Three Key distinction is the highest hotel honor in The MICHELIN Guide. Earning One Key (80 properties) or Two Keys (33 properties) is difficult enough, but only 11 hotels earned Three Keys in the United States. Of those, four can be found in New York City.
The Three Key hotels excel in all five criteria used to judge hotels by our Inspectors. But in this series, we thought it fitting to focus on just one of those criteria — the most photogenic of the five — architecture and interior design.
Below, take a look at the interiors and exteriors of each of our four Three Key hotels in New York City.
© Casa Cipriani New York
© Casa Cipriani New York
Casa Cipriani
Financial DistrictStart with the exterior: the Battery Maritime Building, a ravishing former ferry terminal from 1909 built in a gorgeous Beaux-Arts style. It’s inarguably beautiful, and an example of the lavish transportation hubs that defined a different era in New York. In the ballroom, you can look out the window and see the platforms where people and horses once boarded their ferries to Brooklyn.
The rooms and suites are perfect examples of Italian luxury design — but with glimpses of original metalwork and other building features (like century-old columns that certain rooms were designed around), you never forget where you are. We consider the water views a design feature in themselves: sweeping views over the river offer glimpses of the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty.
Book Casa Cipriani with The MICHELIN Guide →
© The Whitby Hotel, Firmdale Hotels
© The Whitby Hotel, Firmdale Hotels
Whitby Hotel
MidtownThe Firmdale group earned Three Keys twice in New York City. Like their Crosby Street Hotel (below), they built the Whitby from the ground up, with large windows and plenty of natural light — and we’ll point specifically to the wonderful Whitby Suite, with its terraces on each side, as a particularly unique gem for the city. Inside, the hotel is another remarkable example of owner and interior designer Kit Kemp’s endless creativity. For this project, she wanted to create a “breath of fresh air in Midtown Manhattan” — a neighborhood, she’s said (and we can confirm), that can feel a bit too serious.
The entire hotel is a riot of fabrics and patterns, the artwork fascinating and wonderfully curated. A loom, in a rainbow of colors, hangs above reception. Between the elevators, a grandfather clock is in fact an art piece — inside it, you can see an actual “grandfather” drawing the hands minute by minute. And above the bar, 52 handcrafted British baskets hang in one of the most original displays we’ve ever seen.
Book the Whitby with The MICHELIN Guide →
© Aman New York
© Aman New York
Aman New York
MidtownBuilt in 1921, from 1929 to 1932 the Crown Building hosted a tenant no less prestigious than the Museum of Modern Art. Today, this Beaux-Arts gem with a gilded top (the eponymous “crown”) hosts another lauded resident: the Aman New York. The hotel makes its home in the upper floors, with its lobby on the 14th. Make your way to your suite (they’re all suites here, ranging from 745 to 2,000-square-foot spaces) and you’ll find interiors inspired by Japanese minimalism, painted with muted tones and supported by generous views of the city.
The rooms are some of the highest quality in the world, rivaled only by the equally stylish spa and common areas, including a garden terrace, lounge bar, speakeasy-style Jazz Club, and Italian and Japanese restaurants.
Book Aman New York with The MICHELIN Guide →
© Crosby Street Hotel, Firmdale Hotels
© Crosby Street Hotel, Firmdale Hotels
Crosby Street Hotel
SohoThe first Firmdale hotel in the United States, the Crosby Street Hotel, opened in 2009 — the result of a ground-up construction that transformed an empty parking lot into a beautiful architectural reference to the neighborhood’s history as a warehouse district. From the start, Firmdale founders Tim and Kit Kemp engineered their dream space; it’s the perfect canvas for Kit Kemp, the interior designer behind virtually every nook and cranny of the Firmdale’s visually intoxicating hotels.
The Firmdale hotels are, simply put, works of art. Kemp’s spaces burst with pattern and color. At the Crosby, she had two muses. The first was “art inspired by the written word.” To that effect, you’ll find certain pieces actually constructed by words — like the giant sculpture of a head built only with letters. The second muse is a nod to the city’s obsession with dogs. Regal canines preside over the luscious spaces.
Book the Crosby Street Hotel with The MICHELIN Guide →
Hero Image: © Aman New York
