The 271-room Holiday Inn New York-Times Square South, designed by Gene Kaufman Architect and part of the Intercontinental Hotel Group of hotel brands, will open in November at 585 Eighth Avenue between 38th and 39th Streets. Located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, the 35-storey, 103,100 sf hotel has been developed by IMDN Holdings LLC.
Guests will enter the hotel through a 2,200-sf landscaped public plaza with a 33’-high greenwall and café-style seating complete with custom tables and lamps that evoke the area’s Garment Centre past. The 10,000-sf of bonus floor space created by the public plaza enabled IMDN Holdings to add 25 extra guest rooms to the hotel.
The hotel’s many amenities include striking city views of the city in the double and king-sized rooms; 24-hour business and fitness centres; a 350-sf bar/lounge; a function room that accommodates up to 30 people; complimentary high-speed Internet service; and a full-service, 2,400-sf location of Rattle n Hum Craft Beer Bar & Kitchen, known for its variety of craft beers, its specialty bottles, and its traditional cask pump.
The hotel’s interiors have been designed by Hotel Depot Services and the landscape design is by Eberlin & Eberlin.
Said Gene Kaufman, founder and principal of Gene Kaufman Architect, “This is our eighth hotel on this block and visually the most prominent, with major avenue frontage and an expansive public plaza facing directly on to it. The plaza will generate millions of dollars of extra value for IMDN and incalculable value for the residents and tourists who will be able to use it.”
Gene Kaufman Architect has designed multiple New York City locations for almost every Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) brand, including Holiday Inn; Holiday Inn Express; the long-stay, casual-feel Candlewood Suites; the wellness-focused EVEN Hotels; and the boutique Hotel Indigo.
The firm’s most noteworthy recent IHG projects may be the Holiday Inn at 99 Washington Street in New York City’s Financial District — the world’s tallest Holiday Inn, and the Crowne Plaza® JFK Airport New York. The latter opened after being completely reimagined by the architecture firm. In a striking example of using place to help define space, the firm designed a dark-blue glass façade to simulate sky conditions and incorporated design details in the public spaces that suggest the vapor stream of jets. The lobby’s vista was opened up to offer a direct view through to the airport, adding to the guest experience the visual drama of planes taking flight.
