Intercontinental Hotel

Intercontinental Hotel

Constrained Courtyard is Larger than Life
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"3000","speed":"300","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}

DETAILS

LocationNew York, New York, USA
ClientTishman Hotel Corp.

Located in the center of the vibrant Times Square district, this new four-star hotel (one of only three in New York City) serves as the base for well-traveled tourists, businessmen and dignitaries from around the world. As a unique product of the hotel’s branding and place-making strategy, the client asked that the courtyard make a memorable first impression on its visitors at check-in and their returns throughout the day. Centrally located at the hotel entrance, the space serves as the lobby’s focal point as well as the backdrop for the two restaurants that flank its sides.

The landscape architect was given full responsibility for the space and conducted market research into the profile of the hotel guests and their expectations, from which the concept of a contemporary Zen-like space evolved; it is one of clean and timeless modernist sensibilities. In line with the designer’s philosophy, the space is designed to offer spiritual and visual refuge and escape from the bustle of the New York City street. The calm is broken only by the provocative sculpture of an aged shrub whose distinctive profile is captured against an illuminated red resin wall. Through careful selection of materials and lighting, the space glows with life throughout the day and night, in dramatic contrast to the darker, somber lobby mood. The fresh garden environment belies its urban constrictions: minimal natural light, access, and structural slabs below.

Despite its challenges and limited scope, the courtyard design has reached for the highest sustainability standards. LED lighting and the recycling of stone and steel materials are but a few examples. In addition, the courtyard has exploited all of the benefits of green roof technology and recycled water for irrigation.

At such a prominent crossroads for world travelers, this small courtyard has risen to its challenge. It has proven once again that the power of design can strongly influence the branding of a place, and has left a large first impression of landscape architecture in the urban hospitality world.

Related Projects

Hunter's Point South Waterfront Park

Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park was envisioned as an international model of urban ecology and a world laboratory for innovative sustainable thinking. The project is a collaboration between Thomas Balsley Associates and WEISS/MANFREDI for the open space and park design with ARUP as the prime consultant and infrastructure designer.

What was once a ba...

Heritage Field at Macombs Dam Park

The Macombs Dam park ensemble consists of a variety of lush, contemporary green spaces in which the community can relax, socialize, and play.  One segment of the landscape is a 13 acre park on the roof of the stadium parking structure, the largest full-service rooftop park every built by the City; another segment is an at-grade park where the now demolished Ya...

Samsung R&D Campus

Comprised of six buildings on two adjacent parcels in the Umyeon neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea, the Samsung R+D design delivers on a complex program requiring a low maintenance landscape that provides restorative outdoor spaces at a variety of scales, visually unity for the campus and an enhancement of safety and security.

Site design focused on th...

Curtis Hixon Park

Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park has been heralded as Tampa’s missing “here” and the crown jewel in the city’s Riverwalk, a bold new urban plan conceived to reactivate the Hillsboro River and downtown Tampa. To ensure that the park takes its place as focal point of this new cultural district, a master plan was prepared from which the park, Riverwalk, and museums a...

Riverside Park South

On the West Side of Manhattan, on the scenic Hudson River shoreline, Riverside Park South is a massive, multi-phase project of sweeping ambition and historic scope. Combining new greenspace, new infrastructure, and the renovation of landmark industrial buildings, the plan—originally devised by Thomas Balsley Associates in 1991—is an extension of Frederick Law ...

Walmart Home Office Landscape Master Plan

What if the vast and varied landscapes of Northwest Arkansas surrounded and thrived all around the future Walmart Home Office Campus, reversing the typical expectations of a corporate headquarters campus? Walmart as a corporation has always celebrated its hometown heritage, and so their mandate for the 350-acre campus follows that same instinct: to preserve na...

51 Astor Place

At the locus of two famous NYC neighborhoods, East Village and Greenwich Village, this new corner plaza takes full advantage of the vibrant urban life generated by nearby NYU and historic Cooper Union across the street. With a strong architectural alignment of banquette seating, this plaza benefits from its urban context by carefully staging the cherished NYC ...

Ambleside Mixed-Use Development

Landscape improvements for this new mixed-use development integrate and enhance the streetscape improvement measures the city of West Vancouver is currently implementing, providing a vibrant and pedestrian friendly landscape along the entire perimeter of the site. The landscape design for the 1300 Block, Marine Drive South at Ambleside Village Centre contribut...

2020-01-10T00:47:28+00:00