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New York City — Oct. 15, 2015 — 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 next month at 585 Eighth Ave. between 38th and 39th streets.
Located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, the 35-story, 103,100-square-foot hotel has been developed by IMDN Holdings LLC.
Guests will enter the hotel through a 2,200-square-foot landscaped public plaza with a 33-foot-high greenwall and café-style seating complete with custom tables and lamps that evoke the area’s Garment Center past. The 10,000 square feet 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 centers; a 350-square-foot bar/lounge; a function room that accommodates up to 30 people; complimentary high-speed Internet service; and a full-service, 2,400-square-foot location of Rattle n Hum Craft Beer Bar & Kitchen. The latter is known for its variety of craft beers, specialty bottles, and traditional cask pump.
The hotel’s interiors have been designed by Hotel Depot Services; landscape design is by Eberlin & Eberlin.
Gene Kaufman, founder and principal, Gene Kaufman Architect, said, “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.”
The architecture firm 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 St. in New York City’s Financial District — the world’s tallest Holiday Inn — and the Crowne Plaza JFK Airport New York.
The airport facility 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.
The latest IHG locations to be designed by Gene Kaufman Architect — Holiday Inn Brooklyn-Nevins Station at 300 Schermerhorn St. and EVEN Hotel Brooklyn at 40 Nevins St. — will open later this fall. Both are in the heart of downtown Brooklyn, near the Barclay’s Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and an eclectic mix of shopping, dining, and entertainment venues.
Holiday Inn Brooklyn-Nevins Station will be a contemporary 90,000-square-foot, 246-room hotel with 15 floors offering more than 3,000 square feet of meeting and event space. The health-conscious features of the 202-room EVEN Hotel Brooklyn will include a 24/7 fitness center three to four times the size of a typical hotel gym; in-room “fitness zones” with cork flooring and personal exercise equipment; and a variety of healthy food and beverage options.
Gene Kaufman Architect (GKA) is known in the real estate and private development arenas for high-caliber, high-impact designs that are innovative and highly efficient. For more information, visit www.gkapc.com.
