First he founded Studio 54. Now he’s reinventing the hotel industry
by Christine Muhlke · Australian Financial ReviewChristine Muhlke
May 15, 2026 – 5.15am
A few months shy of his 80th birthday, Ian Schrager is plotting his next revolution. He is, after all, the New Yorker who glamorised staying up all night with his business partner, the late Steve Rubell, with whom he co-founded legendary nightclub Studio 54. After the two spent time in jail for tax evasion, they went from staying up all night to sleeping in, creating Morgans, the world’s first boutique hotel.
They showed the world that hotel lobbies could be social spaces and that their associated restaurants could be celebrity hot spots, such as the Royalton New York, which Madonna, Julia Roberts and Matt Dillon all frequented. In the mid-1990s, Schrager forged the “urban resort” model at the Delano in Miami Beach and Mondrian West Hollywood.
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