The world’s biggest hotel company is betting that factory-built guest rooms are a key to juicing revenue -- and helping guests get a better night’s sleep.
Marriott International Inc. is laying plans for what it says will be the tallest modular hotel in the world, in Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood. Its 168 guest rooms will be assembled in a factory in Poland, shipped overseas and trucked into New York in the middle of the night, when the city streets can accommodate the oversized loads.
— Bloomberg
Marriott International hopes to spearhead a new movement of prefabricated tall buildings with the development of its 26-story, $65 million AC Hotel New York NoMad, announcing that "once erected over a 90-day period, the 360-foot-tall tower will represent a milestone for Marriott’s ongoing initiative to encourage hotel developers in North America to embrace modular for new construction projects."
"The 168-room, 26-story AC Hotel New York NoMad is scheduled to rise at 842 Sixth Avenue with prefabricated guestrooms arriving at the hotel site fully constructed, inside and out," explains the project description. "Besides finished, painted walls, each 'module' will contain a fully outfitted guest room – with beds, sheets, pillows, flooring and even toiletries. The hotel’s roof and rooftop bar are expected to be produced using modular construction, and its more customized public areas such as the restaurant and lobby are expected to be constructed using traditional methods."
The project is designed by Danny Forster & Architecture. "This hotel takes every advantage of off-site manufacturing, as you might expect," says the firm's founder, Danny Forster, who many may also remember as the host of the Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering (Archinect interviewed Forster in 2006). "But it does so in a way that defies expectation. We wanted to demonstrate that modular building can do more than just harness the efficiencies of the factory. It can produce a graceful and iconic tower. And yes, it can do so at the rate of an entire floor a day."
More details on the architects' website.
2 Comments
I'm surprised people haven't jumped on this one. Units made abroad—at a loss of how many more jobs here?
"It can produce a graceful and iconic tower."
If I see the word "iconic" one more time I'm going to throw up.
Sounds a lot like what US Steel and Disney tried in the early 70s.
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