Radio Tower & Hotel Tops Out at 2420 Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights

Updated rendering of Radio Tower & Hotel - MVRDVUpdated rendering of Radio Tower & Hotel - MVRDV

Construction has topped out on the Radio Tower & Hotel, a 22-story building at 2420 Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights. Designed by MVRDV with executive architect Stonehill & Taylor and developed by Youngwoo & Associates, the building features a ceramic brick façade that breaks away into eight boxy volumes, each with its own distinct color. From top to bottom this includes a vibrant lime green and yellow that transition into subdued blue, red, orange, teal, and magenta materials. Overall, the building’s design draws inspiration from the diversity and vibrancy of the existing neighborhood and is described by MVRDV as a colorful welcome sign to upper Manhattan.

“Our intention with Radio Tower & Hotel was to become a part of—to strengthen, even—the character of a neighborhood that is wonderful in its color, diversity, and atmosphere,” said MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. “Our building shows that new high-rise developments don’t have to overwhelm their surroundings and be disconnected from their neighborhoods. They can be a good neighbor, a friendly neighbor, instead.”

Aerial view of Radio Tower & Hotel - Youngwoo Associates

Aerial view of Radio Tower & Hotel – Youngwoo Associates

Aerial view of Radio Tower & Hotel - Youngwoo Associates

Aerial view of Radio Tower & Hotel – Youngwoo Associates

As previously reported by YIMBY, the building will contain over 100,000 square feet of office space with sweeping, loft-style floor plates. Retail tenants will occupy a portion of the ground floor with the hotel and office components located above. The forthcoming event space forms an L-shape at the tenth floor and will include a large outdoor terrace.

Newly issued renderings illustrate a second terrace above the hotel volume with an outdoor pool deck and a third outdoor space above the 19th floor that will reportedly debut as a restaurant.

The hotel will eventually comprise 212 guest rooms envisioned as a complimentary component to the building’s event space, as well as for visitors traveling to New York Presbyterian Hospital and conferences hosted by the Yeshiva University.

Workshop APD is overseeing the interior design, though no renderings or mockups have been revealed.

Massing diagram illustrates programming within Radio Tower & Hotel - MVRDV

Massing diagram illustrates programming within Radio Tower & Hotel – MVRDV

The development team filed permits for the tower back in 2013 and later broke ground in November 2018. Completion is expected in 2021, with occupancy by the end of the year.

Aerial view of Radio Tower & Hotel - Youngwoo Associates

Aerial view of Radio Tower & Hotel – Youngwoo Associates

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26 Comments on "Radio Tower & Hotel Tops Out at 2420 Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights"

  1. It’s different, but I don’t think it’s too bad. We always dream about and work with LEGO pieces and make MOCs, right? If you don’t understand my reference to a MOC, look it up. ?

  2. Looks dated

  3. Eyesore and nothing for Heights residents. Could we use the pool for a $2.00 use fee? Columbia profiteering off real estate doesn’t help our hood. At very least all workers should unionize

  4. Steven VanHeemst | December 2, 2020 at 1:44 pm | Reply

    A stones throw away from this new hotel is the Washington Bridge. There is a cozy Tunnel to take toward the walkway to this bridge. You can see heroin addicts shooting up and disregarded needles. This is still a great neighborhood but as Wu Tang Clan rapped ” watch your step kid …” I have seen the needles and garbage first hand. No social services..just down and out drug addicts.

  5. Looks like an eyesore.

  6. Blocks my views of everything. Eyesore is best name for this structure

  7. LEGO Carribean style – by colors

  8. Could make for a good got sheets motel and back up for intwrnwtional carribean travelers. A key question is the lot size and codt to acquire.

    At 210 a night or 160. Would u get a discrete lower boro or outerboro “couple” to visit. Plus a hoped for parking concession.

    Thus a recenue from medicsl workers. It could work. The office space could be ideal for small legal, medical prwctices. The type of tenants who dont require huge buildouts and can be ewsily shuffled in and out.

    Long term u may have some design firms who see the proximity to jersey and other bs as an amenity.

  9. I live across the street from this site, i think the neighborhood would of benefited more if it were an affordable housing, a mini mall or a bjs or Costco. There is already a hotel on the block which is also a shelter. There are shelters on every block in Washington Heights, is that also part of your plans?

  10. Wash height real estate at is best!
    How does it benefit our community?
    Will our people be here 20years from now ????????….

  11. You cannot lower the price of housing without building new housing. NYC needs to allow more housing construction at all price points to make the City more affordable. Too much of NY’s housing stock is old and not well maintained. New investments are positive for the City despite the untasteful color choices.

    • The sad and stupid thing about the zoning as it stands is that the *current* apartment buildings – the century-old tenements – are considered “too dense” for the area and with insufficient parking. If we were to raze the neighborhood and rebuild to modern specifications, we’d have *fewer* apartments than when we started!

      As for rezoning it – you saw how big a fight rezoning the auto body shops on the east side of Inwood was. Our biggest problem with the housing crisis in the city is *us.*

  12. It’s a great idea. We need the improvements.

  13. Can you please help us in coney inland housing. Bklyn NY.

  14. I think the Shell station that has been there for over 4 decades best serves it’s purpose as it has close proximity to the highways for residents and passerby’s as well. Why not make it with stores on the first floor so it wont be boring and it can serve people the wait for the Bronx busses? Gee, I don’t think this will be $1,500 a month apartments for Washington Heights residents. It’s more for the snobbish gentrified crowd that will com here to tell us what to do and start complaining to the Police and the community board.

  15. 1050 Anderdon avenue apt 5N bronx NY 10452

  16. Where is The Bronx in all of this ??? People pay a lot of rent in these apartments. Everyone living in NYCHA is not on public assistance and section 8. The federal government has failed NYCHA if officials stop taking the funds and hire qualified people to do the repairs the NYCHA would not be so bad. I grew up in NYCHA and getting a repair done back then was not a problem like it has been the last 10 yrs, the way trash sits in front of building is horrible!!!

  17. They need to repair and upgrade the apartments in Wagner housing developments in Manhattan, NY

  18. I was thinking the same thing. Yikes
    Maybe it’s typed on a phone and auto correct is a problem ??

  19. Hey and blessings looking for a 1 or 2 bedroom for me and my son that’s 13 teen would love to apply

  20. Ashley Talavera | January 21, 2021 at 1:20 pm | Reply

    I would like an application. Upon this wonderful opportunity !!!! Thanks 13473196490

  21. What will the Dominicans do. They will be pushed out like others were.

  22. This building is ugly and does absolutely NOTHING for the neighborhood, EXCEPT MAKE IT MORE CONGESTED! How many hotels, shelters and methadone clinics are going to be built in this area?
    Across the street from this ugly building there is a shelter and hotel, on the other street there is a methadone clinic and on the street next to that, a shelter!

  23. The methadone clinics and shelters wouldn’t be so plentiful if there weren’t residents in the area to fill them. So tired of the denials that half of the problems in these neighborhoods begin with the residents themselves.

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