Rank: 2
Rates: From $495
Opened: August 2009
The owners of this legendary fixture of Manhattan's Upper East Side gave it a $150 million makeover last year. The early-20th century façade remains the same, but new additions include modern, re-imagined interiors by designer Jacques Grange, a restaurant from Jean Georges Vongerichten that has become a celebrity-sighting hotspot; and touches like mirrored flat-screen TVs in the bathroom.
NEXT: The Jefferson, Washington, D.C.
Last updated December 06 2010: 11:42 AM ET