I was recently advised that hoteliers treat New York City much like a separate country within the United States. NYC has its own gravity and way of working. As major (and minor) hotel companies strive to find a little bit of differentiation within an increasingly monolithic industry, the New York Times profiles an architect who is literally creating the bedrock experience from which these hotel brands are competing. And he’s doing it for most of the main competitors, simultaneously.
In his SoHo office, the architect Gene Kaufman is presenting drawings of his latest buildings.
“This one is for Marriott in Chelsea,” he said, pointing to a rendering of a slender, gray tower. “This is a Sheraton on Canal Street. This one’s a Doubletree in the financial district …”
Mr. Kaufman is just getting warmed up.
Many architects would be happy to design a single hotel in Manhattan; his firm, Gene Kaufman Architect, is designing 36 of them. Nearly all are for national brands that are trying to establish beachheads in the city.
Read the entire article here