By BARBARA BOHN , MANAGING EDITOR
Three “ studios ” — flexible , multi- purpose rooms with state-ofthe-art AV equipment — can be combined for meetings , events or private parties .
The Toronto firm of Yabu Pushelberg frequently designs what partner George Yabu calls “ the best of the best of the top of the market ”: Luxury in hotels and retail , including a yacht and a private jet or two . While they have tended to avoid “ the big , wide middle ,” Yabu says the 612-room Moxy Times Square offered some absorbing creative challenges .
The choice of designer “ was very instrumental in terms of what we thought of the brand ,” Mitchell Hochberg told HOTELS Editor in Chief Jeff Weinstein earlier this year . Hochberg is president of New York real estate investor and developer Lightstone , which owns the Moxy and is on track to open three more in the city ( next up is a 350-key version opening in May in the NoMad district ).
With no doorman , no room service and no spa , Moxy offers five F & B experiences on a “ select-service chassis ,” he says . Rates at the hotel , whose building dates to 1906 , start at US $ 139 . The rooms have nine types , varying from 120 to 350 square feet – a tight fit , on a tight budget , even with redevelopment totaling about US $ 400 million . Stonehill & Taylor were the architects .
Hochberg says Lightstone had been considering how to do a more affordable hotel in New York City and in 2013 started a conversation with Marriott International about bringing a “ more American-friendly version ” of its Moxy , which had opened in Europe , to the U . S . Yabu Pushelberg ’ s design is the basis of the brand standards , Hochberg says . The result opened in September .
December 2017 hotelsmag . com 43