Hotel on Rivington New York City

project 00105

The Hotel on Rivington is comprised of 111 guest rooms over 22 glazed floors on Manhattan's Lower East Side. 

When Grzywinski+Pons received the commission for the project, the massing was already decided and the structural design complete. Originally meant to be a stucco-clad rental apartment development, we were tasked to redesign the building for the new program with as little interruption to the development schedule as possible. With a new program, incumbent limitations and the necessity of a run-and-gun approach, this job was a unique hybrid of concurrent renovation and new construction. We decided to take advantage of the peerless views of New York City afforded by the building's height and location which would be protected in perpetuity and sheathed the tower in a pixelated glass mosaic of varying opacities and zinc cladding — alternately concealing and revealing both the city and the guest, to and from one another.

We conceived the 22 story building to simultaneously serve the skyline and inform the room experience, designing concurrently from the inside out and the outside in.

The envelope is fenestrated to express the interior plan and vice-versa. The interactive nature of the building with the city and the guests is one of its most intriguing qualities. For example, if a guest chooses to shower and simultaneously enjoy arguably the best views of Manhattan, he or she chooses to exhibit his or herself to the city. Of course, the more modest can enjoy a private bathing experience by simply pulling a curtain. Our opt-in exhibitionistic approach to hospitality inspired many subsequent hotel designs in New York and beyond.