Tall & Urban News

Excavation has begun at 150 West 48th Street in Midtown, the site of 974-room hotel designed by Gene Kaufman Architect. The 34-story project is being developed by Sam Chang of McSam Hotel Group, who purchased the lot for US$140 million from Rockefeller Group in early 2019 and secured a US$250 million construction loan. Rooms will occupy a total of 300,216 square feet (28,000 square meters), for an average of 308 square feet (29 square meters) apiece.

Since permits were filed in December 2019, two excavators currently sit below street level and a substantial amount of earth has been removed from the site.

The rendering on the construction fence shows a lively pattern of beige, brown, and black-colored brick masonry walls surrounding an orderly grid of windows on the northern elevation. The massing is composed of three overlapping sections with floor-to-ceiling glass at their edges, and intermittent expansive sections of glass paneling are placed roughly every three to five levels in between the fenestration. The ground floor and main entrance are covered by a large rectangular canopy with multiple strips of light illuminating the sidewalk and signage. There will also be a cellar and a 20-foot (6-meter) rear yard.

150 West 48th Street is steps from the 47-50 Streets Rockefeller Center subway station, serviced by the B, D, F, and M trains and the 49th Street station, serviced by the N, R, and W trains. The project is one of several upcoming hotels in the vicinity of Times Square and is by far the largest new hotel in New York since the opening of the nearby Marriott Marquis, designed by John Portman & Associates, in 1985. It will be one of the largest hotels overall in the city in terms of room count.

A completion date for 150 West 48th Street has not been announced.

For more on this story, go to New York YIMBY.