Public, "The People's Hotel" Opens its doors in The Lower

**A lush and inviting courtyard at Public. Ian Schrager’s Transformative Hotel in The Lower East Side**

Luxury for the masses. That’s what PUBLIC (with its $150 per night entry price point on rooms) the new hotel by the man who pioneered the boutique hotel concept, Ian Schragger plans to bring to the trendy lower east side on June 7, 2017. PUBLIC was designed by award-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, and it boasts a restaurant and grab-and-go marketplace helmed by Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Guests will no doubt enjoy their experiences in the “LUXURY FOR ALL” hotel the moment they arrive in the lobby which serves as a “community” space, encouraging work and social activities, a modular, multimedia venue that can serve as a nightclub, art gallery, cultural center, performance space, screening room or intimate concert venue, a nightclub and terrace, and a serene outdoor garden designed by Madison Cox.

Public Arts, the first new idea since Studio 54 forty years ago and the embodiment of a nighttime renaissance, is another new and creative offering at the hotel. It’s a progressive, avant-garde multimedia performance space like no other, that will be home to the most cutting-edge cultural programming including film screenings, theatrical and dance productions, intimate musical performances, art exhibitions, lectures, talks, readings, product launches, comedy and amateur nights, and even hot sweaty dancing!

“PUBLIC’s fundamental premise is LUXURY FOR ALL. It is built on four key pillars: service, style, unique experience, and value. However, it’s not luxury as we traditionally know it, but luxury reflecting a new definition. Luxury is no longer about things or how much something costs. It is not a business classification, a price point or based on scarcity. Luxury is now about experiences and how something makes you feel. Luxury is being democratized and is now for everyone”.

“I wanted to create a hotel for my generation, not my parents’, and one that reflected my tastes and sensibilities as well as popular culture at the time. I was responding to cultural shifts that were emerging. I see the exact same opportunity now. That is the reason for PUBLIC,” says Ian Schrager.

“Times change. People change. Culture changes. Luxury as we once knew it has changed. Hotels have not. A new way of living requires a new kind of hotel. There has not been a new idea in the lifestyle hotel space since Ian Schrager’s Morgans, Royalton and Paramount hotels over 25 years ago. Every hotel since then has been derivative of those. The time is right, in this new milieu, for a disruption in hospitality as there clearly is a dislocation in the market. It is the same type of dislocation and void that led Schrager to conceptualize Morgans back in 1982 which created a cultural revolution and changed the industry”.

The 3 bars, Diego, The Roof and Lobby Bar each have their own unique vibe and personality so depending on the time, you might end up hitting all three on the same night or just one, depending on your mood. Lushly landscaped gardens, multiple communal workspaces, and private event rooms, both indoor and outdoor atop the building with jaw-dropping 360-degree unobstructed views of the city, the spaces provide the ultimate in socializing, entertaining, working and even just people watching.

“Service and comfort are at the heart of PUBLIC and were completely rethought for this new brand response to new desires and needs. PUBLIC captures a vast array of today’s UNIVERSALLY APPEALING SERVICES with great precision while doing away with those that are obsolete and superfluous”.