Governors Island NYC

One of the projects unveiled at the annual Hotel & Spa Forum in Paris last month was the QC Terme – a 70,000-square-foot European hydrotherapy spa on Governors Island, NYC.

The project is for Quadrio Curzio, a group from Milan, Italy, with five other European spa locations. Our proposal was selected from among 30 international firms competing for the project with the Governors Island Trust.

The overview for the Island is to create a destination of wellness and relaxation gardens and a respite from the hyperactive New York City environment. It will be a romantic and restorative escape for New Yorkers to visit this “wellness island,” which has a considerable historical presence in New York City. Governors Island, in Upper New York Harbor, contains a historic fort that was built during the American Revolution.

This is a fascinating project. It will include three separate buildings that are centered around a courtyard of outdoor pools. The buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. We’re taking a preservation stance regarding these buildings, formerly occupied by the Coast Guard, and will now be turned into a wellness campus.

QC Terme, Governors Island

A 5-minute ferry ride from either Brooklyn or Manhattan will take you to the Island. On the ferry ride over, visitors and clients will receive delicious herbal tea and a relaxing foot massage while passing the Statue of Liberty on the way over. They will remove their street shoes and change into slippers. Guests will be welcomed to the Island and escorted on a golf cart to one of 3 buildings that form a wellness campus. The campus contains outdoor therapy pools that look back onto views of Manhattan.

Probably North America’s most ambitious spa and wellness project, it will incorporate thermal healing pools that can be used year-round. These pools offer various water temperatures and minerals that provide restorative capabilities for guests, providing healing modalities for several maladies.

The project is a classic European spa with extensive offerings of various treatments, from massages and facials to take the healing waters with Kneipp* thermal walks with clients traversing different pools of hot and cold water with a 90-degree temperature differential that can boost your immune system.

After the check-in experience, you will go to the men’s and women’s changing rooms, which are very opulent with steam, sauna and whirlpools, elegant wood lockers and abundant relaxation areas. From there, guests can experience either wet or dry treatment areas. Wet treatments encompass both indoor and outdoor pools, and dry treatments include massages, facials and more exotic body treatments.

Before and after treatments, there will be an assortment of lounges for relaxation, as well as a café and a more upscale restaurant. We will be working with a chef and nutritionist to design very healthy, savoury meals.

Guests can come and stay for several hours or a number of days with 3-5 day packages. A dozen guest rooms will be integrated within an upper attic loft, with a rustic “Wellness Hotel” as part of a second phase to include suites, rooms, and wellness villas accommodating longer stays.

We are still in the design phase but expect to begin construction before January 2015.

*Dr. Sebastian Kneipp was a Bavarian priest who developed proprietary healing treatments that worked by exposing a patient to different environments of hot and cold that would increase circulation and purify the blood.

Robert Henry
roberthenry@rdh-architects.com
www.rdh-architects.com
212.533.4145