Opening Shot is a column that peeks inside new hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops with dreamy interiors.
Designers: Verena Haller and Hannes Peer
Location: New York City
On Offer: Located on a quiet block in SoHo, The Manner is a boutique spinoff from Standard International that captures the hotel group’s energetic culinary and nightlife DNA while serving up a more high-touch guest experience. Transforming the building that formerly housed Sixty SoHo, The Manner strikes a balance between Brutalist rigor and ’70s glamour.
For his first foray into hospitality design, Milanese residential architect Hannes Peer collaborated with Standard International’s design veteran Verena Haller. The duo leaned into dramatic combinations to bring their aesthetic vision to life, starting with Nicholas Shurey’s towering black totems and Giovanni De Francesco’s hand-glazed terracotta frieze in the lobby. Upstairs, The Apartment’s cork-lined ceilings and ceramic-clad columns by Ben Medansky create textural intrigue and serve as a backdrop to the space’s centerpiece—a substantial fireplace and floating hood reminiscent of The Jetsons.
Standout Features: The 97-room property’s communal spaces play a major role in making The Manner feel more like a residence than a hotel. Helmed by James Beard–nominee Alex Stupak, the ground-floor restaurant The Otter elevates seafood classics beneath a sweeping modern Renaissance mural by artist Elvira Solana. A marble staircase off the lobby leads to The Apartment, a guest-only lounge that invites the kind of casual wandering and impromptu socializing of New York’s storied private clubs, complete with honor bar cocktails and velvet-clad nooks for afternoon lingering.
Tucked behind velvet curtains, the jewel-toned cocktail bar Sloane channels Italian architect and designer Carlo Mollino. With dark green walls, red lacquered tables, and a gilded alcove framing the bar counter, it exudes the glamour of a bygone era while hosting nightly cocktail parties with vintage spirits and impeccable acoustics. When the rooftop garden debuts in Spring 2025, it will put the final touch on the pied-à-terre blueprint.
