In an period when what’s latest and quickest typically will get the highlight, The Lowell, quietly holding court docket on a leafy block on New York City’s Upper (*47*) Side for the reason that Twenties, stays a bastion of sophistication and magnificence. Sometimes it’s possible you’ll want to wait a couple of minutes for one of many two elevators that service the lodge’s 74 rooms and suites, all reimagined by Michael S. Smith, the designer behind the White House updates throughout Obama’s presidency. But that’s okay; when you wait, you possibly can fairly actually cease and scent the flowers—attractive recent bouquets are positioned all through the lodge. There are actual room keys and precise mild switches to flick, analog vestiges from less complicated days that mockingly make issues simpler than the most recent improvements. There are dozens of pretty, throwback touches, such because the Club Room, a classy convivial area off the foyer and adjoining to the lodge’s French restaurant, Majorelle, with oak parquet flooring, a hearth, and a small bar, for the unique use of lodge friends and their companions till 5 p.m., when the general public can be a part of. And whereas this neighborhood would possibly by no means be probably the most avant-garde sweep of Manhattan, it isn’t completely caught in amber. Previously downtown manufacturers (Foundrae, Khaite, Ulla Johnson, Toteme) have opened outposts on close by Madison Avenue, and the Frick Collection, a couple of blocks to the north, just lately revealed an enormous renovation. It looks as if the storied Upper (*47*) could be getting into one other Gilded Age. From $1300. —Rebecca Misner