The High Line Hotel

Forty steps from the High Line's western stairway at 20th Street, this Chelsea property occupies a former General Theological Seminary building, its Gothic Revival brick and iron gates predating the elevated rail line by nearly a century. Rooms keep tall arched windows and radiator heating original to the seminary dorms.

The lobby's fireplace lounge doubles as a working library; Chelsea Market sits six blocks south, the gallery block of West 20th-24th Streets closer still. A four-star base suited to design-focused travelers over families, given narrow stairwells and no pool.

Subway access runs via the C/E at 23rd Street, four minutes on foot.