Built in 1909 by the architect Walker & Morris as the Beaux-Arts home of the Battery Maritime Building, the cast-iron and steel ferry terminal at the foot of Manhattan has long been one of the harbor's most ornate civic structures — its green-painted colonnade and filigree metalwork facing the same waters that once carried commuters to Governors Island. Casa Cipriani New York, which claimed the building's upper floors in 2021, had the rare advantage of a shell already charged with history, and the design team — led by Thierry Despont, the French-American architect and decorator responsible for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty's interior — leaned into that inheritance rather than competing with it. The 47 rooms and suites carry Despont's characteristic register: lacquered black millwork frames the original tall windows, walls in burnt sienna and deep tobacco velvet ground the palette without overwhelming it, and bedroom furniture runs to high-gloss walnut case pieces and upholstered headboards in ivory linen. The bar and restaurant, branded as the 10 Corso Como of the Cipriani world, are rendered in oxblood lacquer panels and mirrored ceilings, leather-topped stools at a curved counter evoking a certain mid-century Venetian confidence. On the roof, a marble-topped outdoor bar frames the lower Manhattan skyline — One World Trade visible above the parapet — while the ornamental columns of the terminal's upper loggia remain visible through the guestroom doors, insisting that the building, not the brand, is the primary fact here.

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