Speaking to Dezeen, Schrager said that the influx of rich people to New York and other cities threatened their diversity.
"I think that not having diversity in the cities is a bad thing," he said. "And just being rich is not a good thing."
He added: "I think that an area of gentrification and having rich people is fine, as long as the area has diversity, it is a diversity that brings energy and brings greatness to a city.
Ian Schrager told Dezeen that micro-apartments are "potentially a great solution" to reduce diversity in cities
Schrager, one of the most influential hotel and developer residents, spoke amid concerns that the super rich are pricing everyone else outside of Manhattan.
In a column for Dezeen last year, architect Stephen Holl wrote that "astonishingly uneven incomes have begun to take on architectural form," while critic Aaron Betsky wrote that Manhattan is becoming somewhere "there is no place for people Poor, for production or even for conflict. "
There have even been protests in the streets of New York against the eruption of supertall residential buildings that rise in the city.
Architect Steven Holl and critic Aaron Betsky expressed concern about Manhattan's boom in expensive condominium towers
Schrager, who has launched changing nightclubs, hotels and more recently condominium buildings, said a new generation of "micro-apartment" developments could help cities conserve their mix.
The first micro-apartment building in New York, called My Micro NY, has recently been completed. Contains 55 units between 250 and 370 square feet (23 and 35 square meters).
Completed earlier this year, My Micro NY of nArchitects is the first micro-apartment building in New York
The building, at Kips Bay in Manhattan, was the result of a competition initiated by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who saw micro apartments as a way to alleviate the shortage of affordable housing in the city.
"People around the world want to live in New York City, and we must develop a new scalable housing model that is safe, affordable and innovative to meet their needs," Bloomberg said when the Kips Bay contest was launched in 2012.
In the same year, San Francisco city bosses voted to allow the construction of apartments as small as 20 square meters to help alleviate the shortage of affordable housing.
The 55 apartments in My Micro NY range from 23 to 34 square meters with built-in furniture to convert living rooms into bedrooms
Other similar developments are now being built in New York and other cities.
"You know I think these micro-apartments they're building are potentially a great solution," Schrager said. "They're doing it in San Francisco, I think there's a design problem to make these places efficient, and I think that's a very exciting prospect."
The heads of the city of San Francisco voted to allow the development of apartments as small as 20 square meters to cope with the housing shortage of the city
Schrager made the comments in an interview with Dezeen, in which he talked about his career and his collaborations with leading architects and designers such as Arata Isozaki, Philippe Starck and Herzog & de Meuron. Key Schrager projects include Studio 54 and Palladium nightclubs and Morgans hotels, the first boutique hotel, the Royalton and the Delano.
"I think we all do [miss the past.] I think my parents did. You know I remember driving with my parents with them saying they used to. F Scott Fitzgerald said it used to be better, people always say that.
