Hotel Mela (New York City, New York)

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164-foot, 15-story hotel completed in 1923. Designed by Rouse & Goldstone, it opened as the King Edward Hotel, was later converted to residential as the Langwell Apartments, then to office space in 1984, and then to a hotel in 2005, re-opening as the Hotel Mela after a full renovation. Back in the original hotel’s heyday, legendary cornet player and jazz composer Bix Beiderbecke — who recorded with Tommy Dorsey — lived in Room 605, where he had a piano in his room. The new hotel has 232 guest rooms.

The facade is clad in buff-colored brick above a 3-story base. The ground floor is faced in black polished granite, with a stainless-steel and glass restaurant at the east, a main entrance with revolving doors in the center, and two more sets of commercial doors at the west. The main entrance is topped by a modern canopy of green frosted glass and metal. The 2nd-3rd floors are limestone, with six bays of paired windows. A pair of flagpoles project from the 2nd floor, and the base is capped by a simple cornice.

The upper floors also have paired windows, with elaborately ornamented brick spandrels. Slightly-projecting brick pilasters frame the windows, running uninterrupted to the 11th floor, where they end in small capitals and the windows are round-arched. Another cornice caps the 11th floor. The top floors have matching windows and spandrels, with the two end bays on each side setting back above the 13th floor, and the two middle bays setting back above the 15th floor; each setback is capped by a bracketed cornice. The ground floor is occupied by Gatsby's Landing restaurant, and The Long Room gastropub.

www.hotelmela.com/