vip in the city

The Gershwin Hotel

A couple of months ago, AC mentioned an event that takes place every Autumn on the rooftop of The Gershwin Hotel: The Finnish Sauna Fest. For one night, the hotel recreates a Finnish sauna under a massive tent, from which fest attendees sip chilled vodka, and admire the Manhattan skyline (and more discreetly: their fellow revelers’ towel-clad forms) while Finnish DJs spin tunes.

Montreal hotelier Urs Jakob, whose family immigrated to the United States from Switzerland, has a history of promoting the Finnish aesthetic. Jakob acquired what was in 1993 another condemned welfare hotel and renovated it over the next several years into its current form. In 1997, he commissioned Finnish artist Stefan Lindfors to create an installation for the building’s façade. And so was born the hotel’s now signature permanent exterior sculpture installation: “Tongues & Flames“: interior-lit stainless steel frames covered with fiberglass and clear-cast resin, that protrude whimsically out the front of the 13-story hotel, evoking… well, you know. The first two tongues/flames bracketing the Gershwin’s main entrance were unveiled in Summer 1997.

No information yet on Finnish Sauna Fest 2006…