The Newbury Boston: A Venerated Hotel Starts Anew

08.08.2023 - 13:33 / forbes.com

Time to start thinking ahead. In a mere few months, you can be enjoying the services of a fireplace butler to warm up your soul. Maybe we should more accurately call them fireplace sommeliers, since, like their wine brethren, they will select just the right wood—oak, cherry, maple, or birch?—aged just the right time to your taste preference. All you need to do is book one of 42 suites at the completely remade and rebranded Newbury Boston hotel.

Long famous for its sweeping views of the Boston Public Garden and the Boston Common beyond, the Leading Hotels of the World property possesses one of the most stellar hotel histories of not only Back Bay, but of all Boston. And your fireplace is a throwback to the hotel’s 1927 origins as one of the first Ritz-Carltons. While the late-twenties proved not to be the most auspicious of periods to launch, ultimately over most of the last century, royalty of the crown-wearing kind, as well as of the Tinseltown and theater variety, along with celebrated writers and socialites, all came to feel at home at the Ritz.

Now managed by the Highgate hospitality group, the Newbury brought in several renowned designers to work their magic in maintaining those historic bones—just admire the wonderful brass mailbox in the lobby that any prewar building worth its salt still has in place—while bringing the space into a new era of aesthetic choices.

To wit, you can thank Jeffrey Beers International for the modern lobby with its Nero Dorato marble floors. Yet, as you move up, you respect how the firm’s work itself respects historical elements; that holds true right down to the elegant banister on the sweeping stairs that lead to the second floor public spaces where the original dining room’s beloved cobalt blue chandeliers still hang.

Completely reimagined by Champalimaud Design, all 286 rooms—of which 90 are suites—are where marble meets muted blues and greys in fabrics and furnishings. Artist Veronica Lawlor contributed festive Boston-detailed illustrations for each room (the hotel’s fine art collection will be highlighted in a coming post). A nice touch as well is a copy in each room of Robert McCloskey’s popular 1940s illustrated children’s book Make Way for Ducklings, whose mallard characters live in the Public Garden.

Another splashly Newbury addition, Contessa rooftop restaurant from the Major Food Group has quickly become one of Boston’s most dramatic and proverbial see and be seen dining spaces. Starting nearly a century ago, Boston swells would have been up there dancing in the open air to Jazz Age music and later swing bands. Now, the wrap-around venue is all under a glass-enclosed, retractable roof. Thanks to designer Ken Fulk, its bright interior is filled with blue and