NEW YORK | 95 Rockwell Place | 418 FT | 38 FLOORS

[NYRebel]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/0...l_district.php

The BAM Cultural District is getting another new tower, this time a hotel. The Post reports that at 200-room hotel will be rising at 95 Rockwell Place, not far from the 32-story apartment building planned by Two Trees. To design the hotel, developer Second Development Services tapped architect Thomas Leeser, who has created such stunners as the Museum of the Moving Image and the 2012 London Olympic Park. The tower looks to rise about 30 stories (the Post article doesn't specify), with angular cutaway strips breaking up the facade. The building will have a basement performing space, rooftop bar, banquet hall, and a restaurant that overlooks an outside arts plaza. SDS expects to begin construction this fall and complete the building within two years.

This hotel looks like it'll be beautiful! Thoughts??

[yankeesfan1000]

This area is getting some cool towers. Lets hope it looks like that, otherwise it could be bad. This thread needs a smiley!

[JayPro]

The cracked facade as shown here IMO can work only if there's a good deal of symmetricality or regularity in the cracking patterns.

This here looks like something already half-savaged by the wrecking ball.

[aquablue]

Originally Posted by JayPro

The cracked facade as shown here IMO can work only if there's a good deal of symmetricality or regularity in the cracking patterns.

This here looks like something already half-savaged by the wrecking ball.

????

Of course not, art is art... there are no rules. Some of the best art is not symmetrical or harmonious.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

bravo to brooklyn.

[THE BIG APPLE]

At least good looking architecture. Funny how it's not Manhattan BUT Brooklyn.

[JayPro]

@aquablue:

I'll gladly concede the point that an organization devoted to the arts has the prerogative to build things that celebrate what they promote.
But I feel compelled to suggest only this, lest we get bogged down in a "beauty and art is in the eye of the beholder" debate.
I just happen to think that this render IMHO doesn't speak all too highly of not only what's largely considered art nowadays, but how the fusion of art and architecture can oftentimes be a hit-or-miss venture.
Gehry @ 8 Spruce St. and 56 Leonard definitely hit the target dead on (some of the proposals I've seen for Melbourne, AUT--amongst other cities worldwide--are downright fascinating, too). This one I'm just not crazy about.
I like the *concept*, I suppose, but the execution thereof doesn't grab me.

2¢, of course. Feel free to disagree.

[NYguy]

Keep it coming Brooklyn.


http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/b...a1YVQTBLF0tBPP

Hotel for BAM and Barclays


By RICH CALDER
February 15, 2013

A growing cultural district that includes the Brooklyn Academy of Music has become such a tourist draw in recent years that it’s finally getting its own hotel, The Post has learned.

Developer Second Development Services, whose projects include Richard Meier’s On Prospect Park, plans to begin construction this fall on a 200-room, full-service hotel at 95 Rockwell Place and to complete it within two years, project manager Gregory Atkins said yesterday.

“The arrival of the Barclays Center coupled with the pipeline of new cultural-district projects in Downtown Brooklyn is driving demand for further hotel development,” said Tucker Reed, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

“As a result, hotel development is jumping across Flatbush Avenue, creating another employment opportunity for the area.”

The hotel is being designed by Thomas Leeser, who has received rave reviews for projects including the London 2012 Olympic Park and Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.

It will include basement performance space, a rooftop bar, banquet hall and a ground-floor restaurant overlooking an outdoor arts plaza currently being built.

Atkins — the former chief of staff for Borough President Marty Markowitz — said the district was long overdue to get a hotel.

The closest hotel is a half mile away on Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn.

The news of the planned hotel comes while the cultural district is in the midst of big changes.

Developer Two Trees Management Co., known largely for its work in DUMBO, is planning a 32-story, 300-plus-unit apartment tower for Flatbush Avenue and Ashland Place with 50,000 square feet of cultural space to be set aside for new movie theaters for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a new branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and a performance area for local artists.

[NYguy]

http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=6595

Rockwell Place Hotel
Leeser Architecture adding a multifaceted tower to the Brooklyn Downtown Cultural District.





Nicole Anderson
4.12.13

As its expansion of the BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn and UrbanGlass complex nears completion, Leeser Architecture is embarking on its next project in the Brooklyn Downtown Cultural District. The Brooklyn-based firm has been tapped to design the new 200-room Rockwell Place Hotel next to The Theater for a New Audience. With the new Barclays Center only a block away and a flood of new arts and cultural venues cropping up in the area, the 30-story hotel will accommodate the growing number of visitors flocking to the borough.

When he conceptualized the design, Thomas Leeser said, he wanted it to be a “marker of how we see Brooklyn.”

For that reason, the building, made of white fritted glass and metal, will feature dramatic asymmetrical fractures in the facade that reinforce a notion of Brooklyn as “multi-faceted” and “modern,” according to Leeser. “It was very important that this building be, on one hand, very ‘contemporary slick,’ but also not perfect,” he said. “Because Brooklyn isn’t perfect.”

The hotel will rise approximately 300 feet and will include a rooftop bar with a small pool, a banquet hall, a ballroom, a performance space on the basement level, and a restaurant on the main floor and mezzanine that looks onto an outdoor arts plaza.

“We wanted to make a statement that Brooklyn is very cutting edge—it is not just the little sister of Manhattan anymore,” said Leeser.

[Fardeb]

I like this one, the lighting should be interesting at night.

Toren, 80 DeKalb and this all upping the quality over there, but all the stuff pushing higher in Brooklyn so far is inoffensive and OK enough, in the end fairly bland though. Hopefully there is something coming that can be both soon.

[Design-mind]

^^^ Agree Brooklyn needs an iconic piece of architecture that defines their skyline and sets them apart from Manhattan.

[NYRebel]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/0...roups.php#more

BAM Cultural District Hotel Plans To Involve Local Arts Groups


In February, plans were announced for a 200-room hotel in the BAM Cultural District, and we chatted with a member of the development to get more details about the 30-story, Thomas Leeser designed tower soon to rise at 95 Rockwell Place. Mitch Garrett, Vice President of Acquisitions and Development at VOS Hospitality, Second Development Services' partner on the project, sent along a few more renderings, telling us the design is trying to "literally fracture the mold" with a sliced facade featuring crevice-like cutouts. Garrett highlighted the hotel's plans to connect with the local community. They hope to partner with an arts group or music venue for the basement performance space, a planned public plaza could feature rotating art exhibits, and the rooftop plaza will likely sell food and drink from local vendors.

Inside, the theme will be that of a "lifestyle boutique," but it was have a yet-to-be-named "major franchise behind it. Just as the design team tried to "fracture the mold" on the exterior, they are forgoing the traditional room layout and design to create rooms that are more unique and angular, which has lead to "some really cool shower spaces." The rooms will be your standard sizes, but there will also be a section of smaller "starving artist" suites (but not that small, they'll still have king size beds) available at lower price points. Garrett said they envision these as "the coolest room you could be in," and they hope to outfit the spaces with artwork from local artists or even enlist artists to paint original pieces directly on the walls. There will be 20 larger suites on the higher floors, with the Presidential Suite occupying the 26th floor.



The development team is currently in the process of getting approvals from the Department of Buildings, but they should break ground in either September or October. Construction will take about and year and a half, so they expect to open in early 2015. Currently, the site is occupied by a five-story structure, which will be partially incorporated into the base of the new building. On the neighboring lot, the Theater for a New Audience is set to open this fall.

[NYguy]

Nice round up of district developments...


http://www.brooklyneagle.com/article...ive-2013-09-18

Brooklyn's 'Lincoln Center', only better? BAM Cultural District plans transformative



Construction's not quite finished at the Theatre for a New Audience. Photo by Lore Croghan



This rendering by H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, displayed on a construction fence, shows what Theatre for a New Audience will look like.





September 18, 2013

......To be or not to be.

For an upscale 201-room boutique hotel on a privately owned site at 95 Rockwell Place, that's a yes, though ground-breaking has been pushed back about a month. For a 56-unit boutique property planned for a privately owned lot at 37 Lafayette Ave. across from BAM, that's a no.

The ground-breaking at 95 Rockwell is expected during the fourth quarter of this year on Thomas Leeser's 26-story design, project executive Greg Atkins told Eye on Real Estate. The purchase of air rights from neighboring Mark Morris Dance Center is expected to close in the next few weeks, he said.

Working with the innovative architect was a real trip: “The process was amazing; he just comes up with these ideas,” Atkins said. “It's fun – but expensive.”

The glass tower – designed to look like it has fractures in it that are filled with glowing light at night – will have exterior walls from the site's existing yellow-brick building incorporated into its base. It will have a “grand entrance” with a bar and restaurant facing the Ashland Place arts plaza in front of the Theatre for a New Audience, he said.

It will also have a rooftop bar and a banquet hall. The developers will look for an arts group or music venue to serve as a partner for performance space in the basement.

[NYRebel]

Sign here: Glam tower near Barclays Center will be a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel



http://www.brooklyneagle.com/article...ion-hotel-2013

Coming soon to Barclays Center: The battle of the trendy hotels.

Lodging-industry leaders are throwing their considerable clout into two Downtown Brooklyn hotels being built close to Brooklyn's popular new arena – and two very different types of attention-grabbing concepts are being deployed.

Both new hotels will seek to capitalize on their proximity to Barclays, which in its recently finished first year in business became the Numero Uno concert venue in America.

One will be part of a high-end Marriott boutique hotel group whose iconic properties include the storied Algonquin. The other will be a new brand of hotel for health-and-fitness-conscious travelers created by InterContinental Hotels Group.

Here's the skinny on 95 Rockwell Place, the glamorous glass tower that's soon to start construction – its developers have hooked up with Marriott. To get the word on InterContinental's trendy new offering, the EVEN Hotel, see related story.

The hotel franchise, or “flag,” at 95 Rockwell Place is the Marriott Autograph Collection, city Department of Finance records reveal.

There's been plenty of press coverage on the fabulous hotel design by high-profile architect Thomas Leeser (including ours). But builder Second Development Services and hotel operator VOS Hospitality haven't publicized their Marriott connection.

It's expected to give them a leg up in launching their swanky 201-room hotel, which will have a rooftop bar, a banquet hall and a performance space in the basement.

“Marriott is known as having the strongest reservation system in the world,” a source said.

Hotels must meet high standards to be brought into the Autograph Collection – and have something unique to offer.

Nice! So it's this hotel, BAM North site 1 and 2 on the same block as this hotel, Two Trees tower across the street, and the Steiner apartment tower! 5 new buildings in this small radius. Exciting times are ahead!! It's pretty evident Brooklyn is HOT!

and this is ONLY in the BAM District!

I want more height but I know that's coming! I fell it. I still feel City Point (phase 3) will be the tallest/signature tower. Until someone else proposes something else. Which I hope will be soon.

[NYguy]

It's good to see things moving forward all around town.

[Camstonisland]

Am I the only one who thinks they need a different design? There's something about the 'sliced up glass box' style that makes me think it looks structurally unstable. One Madison Square Garden (or the Metropolitan Life insurance Building 54 storey extension) and 95 Rockwell look like a chainsaw cut through them. If it were entirely covered in glass, maybe rounded at the corners, it would look better.



just my opinion...

[Hypothalamus]

All She Wants to Do is Dance, Dance: Hotel builder pays big bucks for Mark Morris' air rights
January 29, 2014 - 4:00pm
By Lore Croghan


Air rights from the Mark Morris Dance Center, at bottom left, were sold for $2.84 million to the developers of swanky hotel 95 Rockwell Place. Rendering by Leeser Architecture

Mark Morris Dance Group was paid $2.84 million for air rights that will be used to construct a high-end boutique hotel thisclose to Barclays Center.

The air rights for the Downtown Brooklyn hotel project were purchased by the builders of 95 Rockwell Place, which is being designed by star architect Thomas Leeser. It will be part of the prestigious Marriott Autograph Collection, just like the famed Algonquin.

Eye on Real Estate previously reported that an LLC that includes Brooklyn builder Second Development Services made the deal for the transfer of 47,337 square feet of air rights from the dance center at 3 Lafayette Ave. The new info – about the price paid – has since surfaced in city Finance Department records.

Also revealed in city records: the amount of rent that the owner of the site, the Hertz Family LLC, is charging the hotel developer. The two parties signed a 49-year lease in June 2012 for the site, which is next door to the recently opened Shakespeare-centric Theatre For A New Audience.

In the first year of the lease, the base rent was $600,000.

In the 49th year, it will be $2,268,958. Over the years, the gradually escalating base rent will add up to nearly $62 million.

[chris08876]

Looks like layers of Shale being fracked.

[NYRebel]

BAM hotel tower good to go after securing bridge loan

http://www.rew-online.com/2014/04/28...g-bridge-loan/

A year after plans for a 200-room hotel tower in Brooklyn’s BAM district were first announced, the project is a big step closer to finally getting started.

Investment and advisory firm Post Road Partners has financed a $8.25 million bridge loan for the site with a one-year term. The developer, Second Development Services, plans to use the money to buy air rights for the tower and pay for “certain pre-development costs”.

The 30-story tower, designed by Thomas Leeser, will rise at 95 Rockwell Place in the BAM Cultural District, between the Mark Morris Dance Center and Theatre for a New Audience. Plans for the tower were first reported in February 2013.

“Once completed, the new hotel will be one of the few upscale options in the supply constrained Brooklyn hotel market,” John Todd, managing partner of Post Road Partners, said in a press release.

“The location within the BAM Cultural District is amazing and the Property will be an attractive addition to the public and private investments which have already been made in the immediate area,” added Todd, who worked on the deal with Post Road’s managing partner Karim Demirdache.

The project will be the latest in a flurry of new hotel developments currently under way in Williamsburg and nearby Downtown Brooklyn. In December, InterContinental Hotels Group purchased a Downtown site with plans to build a 204-room hotel.

YES!!!

[Hypothalamus]

Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

Work begins on glam hotel near Barclays Center

By Lore Croghan
May 7, 2014 - 2:00pm


The hotel site, which is under the shroud, is in good company. To its right, there's the Theatre for a New Audience with residential towers beyond it. Photo by Lore Croghan

Work is starting as we speak on the glam hotel that will be Shakespeare's next-door neighbor.

The city Buildings Department issued a demolition permit in late April for the small commercial building at 95 Rockwell Place – which will be mostly torn down and replaced with an eye-popping high-end boutique hotel designed by high-profile architect Thomas Leeser.

After the demolition, “rubble walls” on the sides of the building will be left standing, said Steve Pfister of Second Development Services (SDS), one of the firms partnering on the hotel.

City Finance Department records indicate it will be a Marriott Autograph Collection property, as we previously reported.

It will be directly adjacent to the Shakespeare-centric Theatre for a New Audience, which opened in November to wide acclaim – and three blocks away from Barclays Center.

“This is one of the artsier projects we've done,” Pfister said.

“They're calling this the Lincoln Center of Brooklyn,” he said of the BAM Cultural District where the hotel is going to be located. “It's exciting to be a part of it.”

When we caught up with him the other day, Pfister, who is a construction supervisor for the project, was overseeing garbage removal at the building that had been going on for days.