“Samarkand at the Waldorf": Donald Deskey's Marco Polo Club
An Exotic Oasis in Midtown Manhattan, 1960
Walking through the Dorothy Liebes exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt (sadly now closed but you can check out my newsletter on it, their virtual show, and the accompanying book), when I came across the section on the Marco Polo Club my heart skipped a beat. I knew of and had long admired photos of the Marco Polo Club after learning about it in Donald Deskey: Decorative Designs and Interiors, by David Hanks and Jennifer Toher—somehow the sole monograph yet written on the great designer’s work, it is rare and usually quite expensive but worth picking up a copy if you come across one. Best known as the visionary behind the interior of Radio City Music Hall, Deskey was an industrial designer who, over his over fifty-year career, designed everything from “window displays, lighting fixtures, textiles, rugs, furniture and glass to modular houses and office systems”—even Crest toothpaste packaging and the iconic Tide bullseye.
While it is easy to admire a long-lost interior from some photos, it is quite another to find oneself face-to-face with one of the pieces designed for and featured within—one of the elements that contributed to the emphatic whole. On display in the exhibition was a sumptuous power-loomed drapery panel designed by Liebes, alongside an illustrated brochure.
The Marco Polo Club was situated within the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Described as a “private club for the international business traveler,” Deskey was commissioned to create a space that was “a sumptuous, conservative, and quiet rendezvous” on a limited budget. Using rich tones of magenta, orange, purple, blue, and gold, Deskey “sought to create a dramatic and luxurious atmosphere pinpointed with richly colored lights, echoing the romance of the lands Marco Polo explored”—drawing heavily on Venetian art and architecture. Divided into four areas across three levels, Deskey brought together a team of talented artisans to create an exquisite total environment—carefully designed from the uniforms to the glassware handblown in Guadalajara, Mexico.
From Lexington Avenue, visitors entered and were greeted with a wall of dark grey Italian marble mounted with the club’s emblem, “a Venetian-style bronze, agate-eyed lion, similar to those that cap the tall granite pillars in the Piazza San Marco,” designed by Deskey. After entering through a rough-hewn oak door, guests walked across white and beige precast ceramic tiles to enter the cocktail lounge. Against a wall of “white and neutral colored Italian marble chips” was placed a fountain by Edward Chavez of sculptured “bronze, copper, and glass set in aqua and turquoise glass bricks illuminated from below”—all sparkle and glitter, a theme that was further enhanced by a wall of Dorothy Liebes’ scarlet red and gold Lurex drapes.
“Donald Deskey Associates rebuild medieval Venice and the Eastern trade routes for the Marco Polo Club, caravanserai for corporate Kublai Khans.” - Interiors (September 1960)
Downstairs, the dining room was truly the pièce de resistance. At its entrance was a monumental ceramic wall, designed by Deskey and his employee Russell Heston. “Inspired by the Doges' Palace in Venice, the wall, made of highly fired, over-glazed clay, was twenty-seven feet wide, and ten feet high” and composed of 210 arches, “staggered to facilitate the flow of light.” It was executed by ceramicist Harris G. Strong. Along another wall was a mural painted by the American artist Edgar Miller, while a second “mural tracing the travel routes of Marco Polo was placed on the second-level alcove, adjacent to a wall of Italian travertine cut in large blocks with apertures for plants.” Hanging above were large chandeliers composed of handblown glass with “polyhedronal sides in tones of mauve, topaz, and crystal,” designed by the noted Muranese glass manufacturer Paolo Venini. It was a riot of rich colour and texture: “Custom V’Soske carpets were in shades of blue and purple; chairs were upholstered in purple-striped Thaibok silks, Liebes’s power-loomed nylon fabrics in red and magenta, and fabrics by Jack Lenor Larsen” as well as “drapes in “Titian topaz-gold, Veronese amethyst-red, [and] Tiepolo garnet-purple” by textile producer L. Anton Maix (known for collaborating with artists and architects on limited-edition fabrics).
The men's restroom was decorated with a collage of travel posters, described by Hanks and Toher as “appropriate for the theme of the club as well as being an economical solution” to the tight budget.
The club opened on June 1, 1960, with a cocktail party given by its board of governors; former President Herbert Hoover was honorary governor. Only men could become members of the club and there was apparently a limit of 1,000 members—entrance was restricted to just men until 4 pm, after which members could bring women as guests for cocktails and dinner. The dues were $250-initiation and $250 per annum ($2,605 today, accounting for inflation). The menu appears to have been traditional, not drawing from the Silk Road of its décor—one 1969 New York Times article mentions whole baby lamb enjoyed alongside terrapin, souffle potatoes, and asparagus. During the 1964 New York World’s Fair, the Waldorf-Astoria built an outpost of the club at the Queen’s Fair site atop the Better Living Center, though it is unclear if Deskey and the other artisans were involved in its design.
The Marco Polo Club was still open in the Waldorf-Astoria until at least the late 1990s—by 1992, the membership fees were up to $ 1,200 a year. It is unclear how much of the original design remained through the years; Hanks and Toher wrote that in 1987 “major parts of Deskey's original design have been altered.” Left empty for many years prior to the Waldorf’s closure in 2017, photos of the space show stained glass windows inset on beige walls with dark wood trim—the complete opposite of Deskey’s original vision. As all of the contents of the hotel were later sold at auction, those stained-glass windows are now for sale on an architectural salvage dealer’s website—while I’ve been unable to find any original records of them, I do believe it is possible that they were created for the space by Edgar Miller (the artist responsible for the murals, who was known for his stained-glass work) and then hidden from view by Liebes’ drapes.
Called “Samarkand at the Waldorf,” the Marco Polo Club was once a shimmering oasis in midtown Manhattan—a place for the titans of business to escape into luxury redolent of centuries-long part, evocative of discovery and travel and trade.
Fabulous!!! Another destination for when I manage to get my personal Tardis to function…