In the constantly evolving landscape of the Hudson Valley, there’s always a new reason to make the trip upstate.
Known as a destination for antiques and decorative arts, Hudson, N.Y., has attracted an influx of boutique retail, restaurants, and upscale hotels like The Maker in recent years. The town’s latest property to open its doors in the creative Hudson River town is Pocketbook Hudson, an experiential hotel and community art space located a few blocks from the main drag of Warren Street.
Pocketbook cofounder Sean Roland, who grew up in the area and has lived in Hudson for over a decade, struck up a friendship with former owner Eleanor Ambos. The “free-spirited decorator” had purchased the 70,000-square-foot building as a storage space for furniture and other design ephemera.
“That kicked off a year of conversations with Eleanor about what her vision and dreams were, and that married with our own interests in hospitality and creating spaces that foster community,” says Roland, pivoting to the questions that guided the project’s evolution after Ambos’ death in 2020. “What is Hudson asking for? What does the building want to be? And how do we do a very ambitious adaptive reuse project — [which is] quite costly — how do we roll all those things together into a business?”
The answer? A little bit of something for everybody. Pocketbook encompasses 46 overnight guest rooms and suites, an Argentine restaurant led by chef Norberto Piattoni and an all-day cocktail lounge and café, several art exhibition spaces and retail shops, and a bath house. Roland recruited a community of partners to help realize the vision, including cofounder Nancy Kim, and real estate partners Gabriel Katz, who also had personal ties to the area, and Jeremy Selman and Vipin Nambiar.
Inside Ambos, the restaurant at Pocketbook.
Courtesy of Adrian Gaut
“We were very focused on the community,” says Selman, who was recruited into the project early in the process. “There’s this blurring of creativity, personal life and professional life that occurs [in Hudson], I just have not experienced anywhere else.” Selman’s other recent hospitality projects include Audrey Gelman’s Six Bells Inn, on the other side of the Hudson River. “We knew we wanted to have spaces in the building where members of the community and guests of the hotel could come together and really see some parts of what made Hudson special.”
While Hudson is already known as a destination for antiques and decorative arts, the retail offerings at Pocketbook offer a slightly more contemporary perspective. The ground floor boutique features local retailers and exclusive hotel product collaborations, while “avant garde” fashion boutique Kasuri, a Hudson fixture, is relocating from its space on Warren Street to the hotel’s second floor. There’s also a design showroom overseen by Hudson local Kenzi Wilbur, which will also feature textiles and wallpapers, and several large art gallery exhibition spaces.
In the coming weeks, the hotel will unveil its Bathing House, a community-minded wellness space with thermal baths, saunas, and spa treatments by local practitioners.
“Winter is long and hard and very dark, and one of the ways to combat that and bring levity and joy is through bathing,” says Roland, adding that the concept was inspired by “global bathing traditions, re-imagined in the context of Hudson and this beautiful brick-and-timber structure.”
The idea of bringing people together influenced the design approach throughout the building, with interiors led by creative firm Charlap Hyman and Herrero. Guest rooms highlight the raw materials of the space — brick walls, exposed industrial elements and wooden beams — anchored by oversized, arched windows. With bathing as a through-line, many of the rooms prominently feature stainless soaking tubs.
A guest room at Pocketbook.
Courtesy of Adrian Gaut
“We did not seek to perfect the building. We sought to allow people to enjoy the building in a new way,” says Selman of the gut renovation. “We tried to imbue that history in all the things that we were doing, whether it was naming conventions or the actual interior design, or how we thought about people engaging with the space.”
Ambos is named in homage to the building’s former owner, and Pocketbook is a nod to the building’s history as a pocketbook manufacturer and textile processing facility, dating back to when the building was built in the late 1800s.
“One of the brand attributes of the project is to be witty and a little bit playful,” says Roland, drawing a connection between the things that fill out a bag, and the things that fill out a weekend in Hudson. “There’s a beautiful restaurant, there’s a bathhouse — you load all the things in your pocketbook that you need for your weekend — and then all of a sudden, that’s a building. It both has this historical significance, but then an unusual and a little bit evocative and playful tilt to it.”
Pocketbook aims to reflect and serve the community, and various local creatives have already added their voice to the project. Tschabalala Self, a Hudson resident, created a large painting for the staircase atrium that ties back to the building’s textile roots, and bathrooms feature local-made products.
“Obviously it’s a big change for the neighborhood,” says Roland, adding that overall community reception has been positive as the building, a longtime Hudson fixture, kicks off its next chapter. “We have neighbors walking in every day saying, ‘wow, this is incredible,’ or, ‘my grandma used to work here. It’s exciting to see it activated again.’”
