The Maritime hotel in Chelsea

The Maritime hotel in Chelsea, New York has one of the most recognizable and quirky facades in New York. It has 120 rooms and 4 suites, all decorated in a nautical theme, in line with the building's maritime history. 
 All rooms face westward, looking over the Hudson and New Jersey. You’ll feel like a guest on a retro luxury liner.

Maritime is the only hotel in the city that has porthole windows like a cruise ship. Modernist architect Albert Ledner from New Orlean who had studied under Frank Lloyd Wright designed three buildings for the National Maritime Union in the 1960s.

The project started in 1958, when the port of New York still had plenty of jobs. The fortunes of the union collapsed due to reduced activity in the Port of New York, and the two buildings were sold.

Albert Ledner in his house in New Orleans

In 2001 two nightclub and restaurant entrepreneurs bought the third one for $19 million, and began converting it into a hotel. 
  
The hotel opened in 2003. La Bottega, the Italian bistro with its 10,000-square-foot terrace is the largest outdoor space in any New York hotel.

Albert Ledner had designed over 40 residences in New Orleans. His own house in New Orleans, built in mid-1950s, was flooded for weeks by hurricane Katrina.