319-321 West 38th Street (Renderings via LK Design Bureau)
As the New York City hotel industry reels from an unprecedented shutdown due to the spread and containment of COVID-19, hotel companies are seeking to minimize the virus' financial impact by furloughing workers and shutting their doors for an unknown period of time. The New York Post reports that at the city's largest hotel, The Hilton New York Midtown, will be closed until at least July. With other large hotels such as The Baccarat, Park Hyatt, and the Peninsula closing their doors across the city and country, experts predict some 80% of NYC hotel staffers will be laid off in the coming weeks.
Recently, the city announced a plan to work with certain hotel owners to turn their floors into temporary hospitals to ease the burden on medical facilities. The New York Observer reports that approximately 60 shuttered hotels across the state are preparing to offer rooms for medical uses. Another well-intentioned gesture came from the Four Seasons Hotel which will be allowing doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers to stay at the hotel for free.
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Back in December, the city's tourism arm, NYC & Company reported that 113 new developments are in the pipeline that would bring 21,300 new hotel rooms to the city in the coming years. Among the 12,900 rooms that werse set to open in Manhattan was a long-planned 366-room hotel at 319 West 38th Street in the Garment District.
Situated between Eighth and Ninth avenues, two small apartment buildings were being dismantled just before the state halted all non-essential construction work. The tower, designed by Gene Kaufman Architects would spread across two lots (319-321) and soar 26 stories, 249 feet tall above Manhattan. Rendering from the structural engineers of LK Design Bureau with Genpro, show an uneventful design of large windows, several setbacks, and an unattractive mechanical bulkhead. Shown in these renderings are likely the prior 2014 version of the project prepared by Peter Poon Architects that was to rise 22 floors.
An illustration posted at the project site shows a taller and slightly more streamlined design. There will be between three and eight hotel rooms per floor. Permits filed in late December 2019 have yet to be approved.
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