To watch the video from the Top Hotel presentation … click here.
The new ground-up Harlem Hyatt House, designed in collaboration with WOCA, will be a 175-key hotel located in Manhattanville on the west side of Harlem at 128th Street and Convent Avenue. Harlem historically lacks green space and parks.
Our primary design purpose was to integrate the building with gardens and green features wherever possible. We begin by transforming the left-over, dead-end street at the end of 128th Street into a pitched triangular greenspace that links the raised Convent Avenue via a stairway to the Hotel.
Our aspirational design welcomes guests into a 3-story ‘hanging garden’ atrium and a rear-yard garden cafe, both of which contribute to the “greening” of Harlem. An alleyway with rotating public art connects the street to the Cafe and provides access to a 2nd-floor “community space.”
We strive to enrich the guest circulation at the urban, architectural, and interior design scale with biophilia and replace hardscape w/ green scape.
The design of the long-term stay hotel rooms brings abundant light thru industrial-type windows that bathe the interiors with natural light. The bedrooms integrate circadian lighting that further enhances guests with their natural biorhythms.
Our rooftop literally sings. We designed a rooftop lounge with views of the surrounding neighborhood. During the day, the rooftop greenhouse structure puts the city in perspective with its wrap-around terraces. At night the space is completely transformed from a sundrenched aviary into an intimate jazz club surrounded by heavy velvet drapes, which cocoon guests. The rooftop elevator lobby leads guests past a pair of water towers that act as sentries, which are illuminated, becoming sculptural cylinders, welcoming guests into the club.
The Harlem Hyatt House design celebrates gardens, light, and neighborhood views by day and Harlem’s rich jazz past with a nocturnal speak-easy pulled out of the basement and leveraged on the roof.