215 Pearl: Downtown's Newest Dual-Marriott in the Works

Permits have been filed with the Department of Buildings for another new hotel in Lower Manhattan. 215 Pearl Street will have 39 stories and 320 hotel rooms, although the permits are pending due to the review process.

The building will be occupied by two Marriott hotels, a Residence Inn and a Courtyard. The Residence Inn will take up the building’s upper floors and have 120 rooms, while the Courtyard will be on the bottom floors and have 200 rooms.

The architect of record, Nobutaka Ashihara, actually designed another dual-Marriott hotel that’s currently rising in the city as well–1715 Broadway.

215 Pearl Street, Image from Nobutaka Ashihara Architects

The design is rather plain, and as the building won’t even top 400 feet, that won’t be a problem. There is one major issue though, and that’s the blank wall facing the street at the bottom of the building.

It seems possible that the rendering is simply showing extremely reflective glass, although that seems unlikely.

In this hotel’s case, the blank wall is along Pearl Street. It’s not like anything could be built adjacent, so there’s absolutely no reason the design should incorporate such a feature.

With oversights like these, it would be appreciated if City Planning focused on aesthetics relating to zoning instead of just square footage and setbacks. It’s up to Bloomberg to put a halt to bad architecture, although the war on soda has apparently taken precedence for now.

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