{"id":812361,"date":"2026-05-21T14:21:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/812361\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:21:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:21:35","slug":"weddings-are-taking-over-new-yorks-trophy-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/812361\/","title":{"rendered":"Weddings Are Taking Over New York\u2019s Trophy Offices"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Wedding rentals at Le Jardin Sur Madison, atop an SL Green office building, start around $100,000. Daniel Boulud is the exclusive caterer.
\n Photo: Le Jardin Sur Madison\n <\/p>\n

At a multimillion-dollar wedding, security turnstiles can be a mood killer, even if the turnstiles in question are as sleek and new as the building they guard. The Refinery at Domino<\/a>, on the Williamsburg waterfront, is designed for the workday, for tenants that sell squeeze bottles of olive oil and AI rendering software. But even the abstract art that guests pass on the walk to the elevators \u2014 and the elevators themselves \u2014 can feel off for a wedding upstairs, in the barrel-vaulted Skylight<\/a> ballroom. At least that\u2019s how it felt to Elizabeth Hall on a walk-through of the space for a $2.1 million wedding<\/a> she was planning. So she tapped event designer Josh Birch<\/a>, who hid the lobby art behind a fabric panel; covered the turnstiles with a custom check-in table; and outfitted the elevator with vinyl paneling and patterned carpet. \u201cIt did not look like an elevator; it looked like a room,\u201d says Birch, who has recently thrown so many parties in office buildings that he could hardly remember this particular treatment.<\/p>\n

The office wedding in New York isn\u2019t new, but it\u2019s having a moment. Domino\u2019s so-called \u201cSkylight at the Refinery\u201d rents for $100,000, and that\u2019s just for the space alone \u2014 it costs the same to take over the entire Frick mansion. Hall\u2019s clients chose Domino over the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its rentable Temple of Dendur. \u201cIt\u2019s on a popular streak right now,\u201d she says. At SL Green\u2019s One Madison, an office tower that includes IBM\u2019s new flagship<\/a>, a rooftop tenant lounge that transforms into the venue Le Jardin Sur Madison<\/a> will also set you back $100,000. It\u2019s been so successful that last year, the developer opened<\/a> an even sleeker space at One Vanderbilt on the 72nd floor (the midtown office tower is already home to the Summit observatory). Aspire, the event space on top of One World Trade, rebranded in 2024 as a flashy spot<\/a> to get engaged and recently quoted around $90,000 for its most basic, 100-person wedding package.<\/p>\n

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\n Champagne and caviar in an office elevator.
\n Photo: Julian Ribinik Studios\n <\/p>\n

These venues atop Class-A office buildings are now competing with a much older generation of office venues,\u00a0including the Rainbow Room, that came from the tradition of the private men\u2019s club<\/a>, where employees in the offices downstairs would go up to have lunch. But this early generation of office venues and hotel rooftops, like the one at the St. Regis,<\/a> can feel traditional and expected \u2014 exactly what many couples these days do not want. Pat James, a planner<\/a> who\u2019s thrown weddings<\/a> at Le Jardin Sur Madison and Vesper, a new Williamsburg venue in an office building, says an unfamiliar midtown building might sound more thrilling than, say, \u201c\u2018We\u2019re doing another event at the Pierre,\u2019 which you\u2019ve seen a dozen times.\u201d And when guests arrive, they\u2019re encountering rooms that are designed to pop on social media. \u201cEveryone\u2019s looking for a way to express themselves, and we\u2019re looking for more interesting spaces than just a hotel,\u201d says Birch, the designer, who praised a recent wedding that dressed up a corporate elevator with a caviar and Champagne cart manned by \u201ca really hot server,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in these spaces, you start designing for guest experience, not for beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Emma <\/p>\n

\n A wedding that Josh Birch designed at the Skylight-run venue on the top floor of the Refinery at Domino.
\n Photo: Les Loups\n <\/p>\n

\"Emma <\/p>\n

\"Emma <\/p>\n

\n From left: <\/strong>Photo: Les LoupsPhoto: Les Loups\n <\/p>\n

\n From top: <\/strong>Photo: Les LoupsPhoto: Les Loups\n <\/p>\n

This is good news for commercial developers looking for ways to fill empty floors after the pandemic or just make some quick cash to renovate the lobby. Dave Lombino, the managing director of Two Trees, which developed and runs the Refinery at Domino, said the rooftop space had been designed for an anchor office tenant. \u201cBut it became clear to us the Brooklyn office market wasn\u2019t yet ready for that,\u201d he said. Instead, Two Trees leased half the space to Skylight<\/a>, the venue operator (the other half remains open to tenants). At the Starrett-Lehigh building in Chelsea, the landlord took over a space vacated by Martha Stewart\u2019s company and put in a floor of amenities<\/a> that tenants use by day and planners book after hours. The highlight is the Yacht Club, a restaurant with a 10,000-square-foot terrace on the Hudson River, where the building will host its first wedding this September. It\u2019s all part of a $50 million rebranding of the industrial building as a cultural and commercial hub. And some developers are even consulting with event planners as they build out new amenity spaces. \u201cI don\u2019t think many people did that before the pandemic,\u201d says Neil King, a commercial broker<\/a> who represents landlords with 30 million square feet of office. \u201cIf a space is built in the right way, it can bring in millions a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n From left: <\/strong>A rendering for a new venue opening soon in an office building in Chelsea. Photo: Convene Hospitality GroupA tent-ready deck that\u2019s part of the Starrett-Lehigh building in Chelsea. Photo: Level Ten\n <\/p>\n

\n From top: <\/strong>A rendering for a new venue opening soon in an office building in Chelsea. Photo: Convene Hospitality GroupA tent-ready deck that\u2019s part of … more
\n From top: <\/strong>A rendering for a new venue opening soon in an office building in Chelsea. Photo: Convene Hospitality GroupA tent-ready deck that\u2019s part of the Starrett-Lehigh building in Chelsea. Photo: Level Ten\n <\/p>\n

Party planners also see the potential in empty offices. The Box House Hotel in Greenpoint has been so busy with wedding bookings that its director of events<\/a>, Joe Torres, started eyeing commercial buildings with vacancies nearby for a second venue. \u201cI was thinking office buildings were \u2014 I don\u2019t want to say \u2018desperate\u2019 \u2014 but they need a little love,\u201d says Torres. With the help of a broker, he found a landlord amenable to a deal at 25 Kent<\/a>. It had waterfront views, terraces, roof access, sound-blocking concrete floors, and a certain cultural cachet as the headquarters for Kith, the clothing brand. But the nine-story building was empty enough when Torres toured that he could pick out the floor he wanted and get concessions on a 15-year lease<\/a>, including cash to cover some of the build-out. For $3 million, his team softened the space with wavy acoustic baffles that hid lines of new lights and added rooms where couples can change and have brunch. The cost to book Vesper<\/a> on a peak-season Saturday this year: $15,500.<\/p>\n

An altar set up at Vesper, in a Williamsburg office building. The wavy baffles overhead helped soften the look of the room. They also dampen sound and hide lights.<\/p>\n

The skyline view from Vesper.<\/p>\n

A wedding on the 72nd floor of One Vanderbilt in midtown.<\/p>\n

Looking over the Chrysler at a wedding atop One Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n

The outdoor space at Le Jardin Sur Madison, where one couple built a mandapa dripping in pink flowers for a ceremony.<\/p>\n

\n Photographs by Kyle Dubiel & Pivko Studio, Eric Vitale Photography, Le Jardin Sur Madison\n <\/p>\n

This new class of luxe office venues tends to offer one clear advantage, Torres says: \u201cSome of the tallest real estate.\u201d His Kent Street venue has uninterrupted views over the East River to Manhattan. From the new 72nd-floor venue at One Vanderbilt, the view is even more staggering: It spans lower Manhattan to Central Park, over the spire of the Chrysler to the East River. \u201cIf you have out-of-towners coming in, very excited to see New York, why would they not want to impress their guests with this?\u201d says Marisa Colangelo, the building\u2019s event director, who encourages me to take a selfie mid-tour. Kate Beckman, the co-founder of the site Tulle Together,<\/a> which offers a database of real wedding quotes<\/a> and venue pricing, says there\u2019s an entire category of spaces for those whom she refers to as the \u201cskyline bride,\u201d the type who wants a New York City horizon in their photos and has guests who don\u2019t have tons of time to tour the city. To get that shot, couples sometimes scout venues atop older, dingier offices. In a 1915 corner building on 29th Street, home to textile showrooms, Midtown Loft & Terrace rents its space for\u00a0$13,000 \u2014 $1,000 more than the priciest June Saturday at Brooklyn\u2019s Botanic Garden. A quote for W Loft, on the roof and top floor of a mixed-use Williamsburg building at 240 Kent Avenue, seems cheap at $5,000, but that\u2019s for a bare-bones room without furniture or catering. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say there are deals because you\u2019re in an office space,\u201d Beckman says. \u201cYou\u2019re paying a premium.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckman herself was initially tempted by the $5,000 white-box room at the W Loft in Williamsburg. But she couldn\u2019t get over the prospect of her out-of-town guests in formalwear navigating a building that she said felt designed \u201cfor co-working.\u201d\u00a0(She ended up choosing the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.) But a dull lobby can also add an element of surprise, says planner Amy Lynn<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s something special \u2014\u00a0almost the effect of a speakeasy \u2014 where you\u2019re going through a non-sexy route to get to a place that\u2019s really beautiful.\u201d And like a speakeasy, the office venue is often hidden from the street \u2014 creating a sense of being in the know among guests who stride into a harshly lit lobby asking for some place called Le Jardin Sur Madison<\/a>. \u201cNo one knows we\u2019re here,\u201d says its event director, Laura Oakes. At least, not yet.<\/p>\n

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