ASTOR PLACE HOTEL, USA, NEW YORK, 1999

Boutique Ian Schrager hotel in Manhattan in collaboration with Herzog and de Meuron

Could mankind’s love of prismatic form be one of the losses of 9/11? Are we condemned by neo-caveman to regress to the level of the cave dweller? Our addiction to comfort can only terminate at the cave. In retrospect, the history of Astor Place is spooky. It began as an effort by two European architects to conceive a boutique hotel in Manhattan for the inventor of the type – Ian Schrager. It turned, through the combined effects of the client’s insecurity, financial considerations, and the architects’ uncanny premonition, from an initial proliferation of miniature WTCs into, finally, a vertical piece of Afghanistan rock, perforated by inhabited caves fifteen months before 9/11.
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FACTS

Project:
Boutique Ian Schrager hotel in Manhattan in collaboration with Herzog and de Meuron

Client:
Ian Schrager Hotels

Year:
1999

Status:
Commission

Type:
Hotel

Location:
New York, USA

Site:
Empty lot at Astor Place in Manhattan

Program:
Hotel with 260 rooms, lobby, health club, lounge, restaurant, bar, urban plaza, (total area: 14,000m2)

CREDITS

Principals:
Jacques Herzog (H&dM), Rem Koolhaas, Pierre de Meuron (H&dM)

Project Managers:
Harry Guger (H&dM), Dan Wood

Team:
François Charbonnet (H&dM), Anja Ehrenfeld (H&dM), Hans Focketyn, Alain Fouraux, Fenna Haakma Wagenaar, David Moore, Christopher Pannett (H&dM), Stephan Segessenmann (H&dM), Stan Vandriessche (H&dM), Adrien Verschuere (H&dM)