21c Brooklyn — a ground-up hotel building for a growing cultural district

We designed this 12-story hotel and cultural building to both “stand out” and to blend in with the BAM cultural district. On one hand its program was unusual: a hotel in a predominantly cultural quarter dominated by the Brooklyn Academy of Music. On the other hand, this hotel was also intended to provide a cultural experience: it includes a museum of contemporary art, and provides needed rehearsal space to the Mark Morris Dance Group. Accordingly, we designed a building of evident presence that nonetheless looks “at home” in downtown Brooklyn.