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MVRDV’s vibrant Manhattan high-rise is studio’s first accomplished within the US

The Radio Tower and Hotel, the first completed US design by Dutch architecture firm MVRDV, has opened in Manhattan with colourful, irregularly stacked structures.

It was designed jointly by Dutch firm MVRDV and local firm Stonehill Taylor, who acted as the lead architect. The 23-story tower was completed this year and opened in September, four years after the project started in 2018.

The radio tower and hotel feature stacked colorful boxes

The primary occupier of the building in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan is a 221-room hotel. The tower also contains a restaurant, shopping and office space for rent.

The different volumes of the building were dimensioned in such a way that they each have the same scale as the surrounding neighborhood buildings.

The building includes different rectilinear volumes

Each was also clad in a different color of brick, ranging from yellow, blue, orange, and green. According to the architects, this prevents the building construction from “overwhelming” the adjacent streets.

“The property is designed to stand out from the crowd and serve as a welcoming beacon for out-of-towners coming to Manhattan,” said Stonehill Taylor.

It is the first full-service hotel in Washington Heights, Manhattan

According to MVRDV, the colorful bricks in green, yellow, blue, orange and magenta also stand for the “diverse and lively” character of the district.

“The design of Radio Hotel and Tower is inspired by this character – we took the smaller blocks that are typical of the neighborhood and stacked them into a vertical village,” said MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas.

Colored accents can be found in the common rooms

According to the team, the Radio Hotel is the first full-service hotel to be built in Washington Heights.

“Although the neighborhood is the fifth largest in New York City, the Radio Hotel is the first-ever full-service hotel to open in the area,” said Stonehill Taylor.

The guest rooms have a restrained interior

Visitors to the building have access to a ground-floor courtyard that includes a small park, benches, and cafe tables.

A new Dominican restaurant, Jalao, occupies part of the ground floor and is open to both hotel guests and the general public.

The roof offers views of the surrounding neighborhood

A rooftop bar and observation deck offer views of the surrounding neighborhood and the nearby George Washington Bridge.

“The roof offers an expansive, 360-degree view of Lower Manhattan and Queens while providing a landmark at the George Washington Bridge’s connection to the Bronx,” the team said.

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The hotel’s guest rooms feature restrained interiors in the sleeping areas. Bathrooms, however, have light-colored walls and tiling that nod to the building’s colorful facade.

Similar pops of color can be found throughout the common spaces, including the lobby, corridors, and restrooms.

The hotel is MVRDV’s first project in the United States

Other upcoming projects for the company include contributing to the development of San Francisco’s Mission Rock district and an office building in Detroit dubbed the “Glass Mural,” whose facade is painted with vivid, cartoon-like graphics.

The Dutch company was founded in 1993 by Winy Maas, Nathalie de Vries and Jacob van Rijs.

The photograph is by Ossip van Duivenbode.

Project credits:

Stonehill Taylor design team: Paul Taylor (Managing Director), Steve Oakley (Director), Patrick Hebert (Architect), Victoria Janok-Scarpaci (Architect)
MVRDV design team: Fedor Bron, Mick van Gemert, Mark van den Ouden, Samuel Delgado, Ronald Kam, Fouad Addou, Daniele Zonta, Yassin Matni, Giuseppe Carosini and Giuseppe Campo Antico
landscape architect: Johanna Pertz
Interior design: APD Workshop, Simple Architecture
Client: Youngwoo & Partners

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