20 Maiden Lane: Another Nightmare from Chang & Kaufman

[lofter1]

New Hotel rising at 20 Maiden Lane


News from LowerManhattan.info:

The McSam Hotel Group, a developer based in Long Island City, Queens, is building a 20-story Wyndham Garden hotel at 20 Maiden Lane (at the intersection of Nassau Street). The hotel will feature 113 guest rooms and is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2008. The McSam Group intends to sell the hotel once construction is completed.

The building is L-shaped and wraps around 3 low-rise buildings that sit on the corner of Maiden Lane / Nassau Street. A rendering of the building at 20 Maiden Lane (aka 51 Nassau Street), looking east down Maiden Lane from across Liberty Place (the large exposure runs along the east side of little Liberty Place) ...



DOB New Building Permit

Owner: Sam Chang / Maiden Hotel, LLC

Architect Gene Kaufman

Stories: 16

Height: 147'

Gross Square Feet: 40,579

[lofter1]

If you can imagine: This one is far worse in reality than what that rendering suggests.

Think of a double-headed bit of Kaufmaniana

Because this new building wraps around the corner properties the always-a-hack Kaufman has given us
sheer walls of concrete bordering and rising above those 2-4 story buildings ...



The landmarked white terracotta Liberty Tower at 55 Liberty Street rises above this new McSam
(with only narrow 49 Nassau Street between them) ...







For the life of me I can not figure out the slotted windows on the "wing" rising above
Maiden Lane (unless it is to save the guests from having to see too much of a nearby POS,
the faux-fortress at 33 Maiden Lane) ...

[ramvid01]

*pulls eyeballs out*

[macreator]

That's just disgusting

[BrooklynRider]

New York City has some of the very worst buildings going up.

Gene Kaufman ought to be tarred and feathered for these offenses.

[NoyokA]

I feel bad for the Liberty Building's blank wall.

[RoldanTTLB]

Sorry to resurrect this without pics, but this was finished a while back, and never shot. It's blander than it looked during construction, and I think that's a good thing. I promise pics tomorrow night.

[RoldanTTLB]

Closure! Also, the buildings in the corner have seen better days. I think there's a perfectly good chance that they are redeveloped over the blank wall some day.

[LeCom]

Where's that crudely drawn Roach Motel jpg when you need one?

[HoveringCheesecake]

Who are these dingy hotels aiming for downtown? The corporations are going to set their people up in the Millennium, the W, or Embassy suites. Not some POS like this.

Most of the tourists stay in Midtown, right?

[ASchwarz]

Who are these dingy hotels aiming for downtown? The corporations are going to set their people up in the Millennium, the W, or Embassy suites. Not some POS like this.

Most of the tourists stay in Midtown, right?

There's a huge shortage of hotel rooms, so there's plenty of demand in multiple neighborhoods. NYC has, by far, the nation's highest hotel occupany rate.

In my Brooklyn neighborhood, all the local hotels charge $200+. Speaking generally, NYC needs more hotels, of all price classes, in all locations.

[HoveringCheesecake]

There's a huge shortage of hotel rooms, so there's plenty of demand in multiple neighborhoods. NYC has, by far, the nation's highest hotel occupany rate.

In my Brooklyn neighborhood, all the local hotels charge $200+. Speaking generally, NYC needs more hotels, of all price classes, in all locations.

Alright, that is fair. This place is a Chang and it's still a dump, though.

[LeCom]

I don't know why, but I actually like this building, against my better instincts. I say some dumb stuff sometimes, I guess.

[BBMW]

Looks a bit like a vertical prison.

Anyone ever stay in one of these? How do they do the interiors?