Project Details
- Project Name
- Bedford Hotel
- Project Types
- Hospitality
- Project Scope
- New Construction
- Size
- 60,000 sq. feet
- Shared by
- Ayda Ayoubi
- Team
-
Ryoko Okada
Eran Chen
Jean Baptiste Berteloot
Kyriakos Kyriakou
Carolina Moscoso
Chia-Min Wang
- Project Status
- Concept Proposal
Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
As the real estate cognoscenti have been quick to note, ODA New York is on a residential hot streak. A dozen multifamily projects completing in 2018 alone will bare the architectural insignia of a firm hellbent on raising residents’ quality of life in urban centers—a calling card that includes techniques to maximize sunlight and green space, and to multiply opportunities for human connection, both planned and serendipitous.
ODA’s is, indeed, a deeply humanistic approach, which makes them ideally suited to the residential sector—but also to any typology where occupants’ health and happiness are part and parcel of a given project’s success. Their latest undertaking for All Year Management, The Bedford Hotel, joins a rapidly growing list of ODA designs in hospitality.
True to precedent by ODA, the five-story, 100-key building set to rise in Crown Heights has been deeply informed by its context. Most immediately, cues come from neighboring Eastern Parkway, completed in 1874 by Olmsted and Vaux—who coined “parkway” to describe what was then the world’s first and only major boulevard to be lined with trees and conceived as a pedestrian promenade.
Providing scenic entree to Prospect Park, Eastern Parkway is referenced, first, in a looping, publicly accessible rooftop terrace crowning The Bedford. Richly landscaped and suffuse with greenery across multiple tiers, the terrace becomes an easy companion to its verdant neighbor—a kind of visual extension of the boulevard’s leafy treescape. At a strategic level, The Bedford’s adjacency to Eastern Parkway has also influenced its shape: The building slopes gradually upwards in the opposite direction, such that most rooms are positioned closer to Union Street, running parallel to the parkway, where the atmosphere is quieter and decidedly residential.
Accessible from the street via an exterior, glass-enclosed staircase, The Bedford’s rooftop will play host to a modish bar constituting one of several open amenities, including a ground floor restaurant and a cafe complete with terrace space. As Crown Heights continues to emerge as a relatively recent locus of the creative renaissance already bringing residents and visitors to Brooklyn in droves, these amenities—steps from the Franklin Avenue subway stop—stand to become key players.
But even amid the present explosion of activity, ODA’s design guarantees the sense of calm retreat and relaxation that are synonymous with successful hospitality. The project is organized around an internal courtyard where the entrance is housed, tucked quietly away from the street. And covered arcades surrounding the courtyard on three sides create a feeling of seclusion—an additional barrier against the surrounding bustle. Contextually, the sequential archways comprising those arcades also serve to evoke the many arches that recur throughout historic Brooklyn.
The relative serenity of The Bedford’s courtyard is enhanced by minimalist landscaping including a small pond and reminiscent of a Zen garden. Indeed, there’s a pervasive minimalism and a kind of aesthetic restraint applied throughout the project—expressed in its clean lines, neat angles, and even materially through planar stretches of poured-in-place concrete that constitute a soothing, charcoal-hued facade. Indoors, the effect is echoed via an emphasis on natural materials: Rooms are brightly suffused with light, floor-to-ceiling oak, a choice that extends into the hallways. Carpeting, in an organic, moss-like motif throughout, redoubles the biotic effect. Eschewing the traditional reception desk, The Bedford instead relies upon two manned marble pedestals poised beside an inviting seating area overlooking the courtyard.
Such attention to detail, which ODA has developed into an art form, extends so logically into hospitality that, much as ODA’s East 44th street has redefined the slender tower, the Bedford stands ready to usher in a new era of hospitality.
“In this project, we incorporated the same values that we believe to be imperative for people to flourish: ample natural light, access to green spaces, and opportunities for connection. Providing those same amenities that work so successfully for residential spaces was a logical step. Towards that end, the Bedford Hotel is conceived as a living and vibrant landscape, a visual extension of the tree lined Eastern Parkway below. Buffered from the street by an almost zen-like courtyard and garden, the hotel has a stacked and terraced rooftop, a living landscape that houses both a public bar and cafe overlooking the neighborhood. The interiors contrast the shadowy concrete of the facade with floor to ceiling white-washed oak and vaulted millwork, offering a zone of serenity and retreat. Creating these opportunities in which people can thrive is always at the forefront of our work, be it commercial or residential, and the Bedford Hotel does just that.” — Eran Chen, Founder and Executive Director of ODA New York