It’s a dazzling February morning when I first catch sight of Warren Street Hotel and, despite the sub-zero temperatures, everyone on the streets of Tribeca is wearing sunglasses. The hotel’s cerulean steel facade, which is topped with a sunshine yellow box, is a perfect match for the bright blue sky.

“It’s such a happy colour,” says Minnie Kemp, Firmdale Hotels’ design director and daughter of founders Tim and Kit Kemp, when I meet her for a tour. The team landed on the blue exterior in the middle of lockdown. “Everything was so gloomy,” Kit Kemp tells me on the phone later. “We thought: let’s add a bit of colour, a bit of style, a bit of cheer.”