Discipline : Interior Design
Categories :
Accommodation, Restaurant & Bar / Boutique Hotel
: Grand Winner
The renovation of W New York - Union Square represents a milestone in Rockwell Group’s 25-year relationship with the global hotel brand. We designed their flagship property, W New York, in 1998, and have collaborated with W over the years to help shape the brand. Additionally, this project marks the debut of the new W brand design concept developed by Rockwell Group for Marriott.
In 2000, Rockwell Group designed the original W New York - Union Square—the brand’s second property. We transformed the historic Guardian Life Building, which graces the Northeast corner of Union Square, into a romantic, light filled conservatory offering panoramic views of the park and its life. Our original design concept took its cues and craftsmanship from the existing building—a magnificent Beaux-Arts style property completed in 1911 that incorporates design motifs from traditional European architecture. The grand four-story mansard roof and other features tie the building’s design to French architecture, from both the Second Empire style and the modern French mode that dominated Parisian architecture of the 1890’s.
For this latest renovation, Rockwell Group was inspired by the nearby Union Square Park and New York City itself. We embraced the mash-up of modern gestures and historical spaces: Strong geometries mingle with contemporary art, mansard roofs coexist with farm-to-table vegetable stalls and artisanal baked goods, while the material palette draws from the seasonality of Union Square—the colors and textures that change from month-to-month.
Throughout its long past and continuing to this day, Union Square was—and is—a place of performance, play, and social activism, an intersection of neighborhoods, a place for self-expression. It transitions with the seasons and with the decades, bringing fresh colors, ideas, and cultures.
The energy and transformation of the park is mirrored inside the hotel and restaurant. Public and outdoor art found outside its walls are a thread that runs throughout the design of the hotel itself. Seasonality, freshness, and spontaneity elevate W Union Square’s new design.
