The Hotel-The Sailors' Boarding House: Navy Lodge Manhattan

Abstract

Navy Lodge Manhattan is a Sailors' Boarding House segment that refreshes enlisted sailors. It is part of The Hotel, a collective project that studies the hotel, both as a building type and as a place of hospitality, through a collection of fourteen individual contributions inside one skyscraper. The project imagines hospitality as a realm of exchange that condenses the diversity of the city through an assortment of guests, staff, and the broader public.

The hotel is a function of temporality and hospitality. The study questions the requirements for an architecture of hospitality to welcome, host, and entertain. As an architecture of temporality—an architecture that is dynamic and ever-changing, embodying a sense of transience and constant activity—the hotel allows for experimentation, while anticipating adaptation to meet the changing demands of its temporary residents. The hotel, as type, is understood beyond its curated front. It is, instead, a place of anonymity and exchange, of served and serving, a place characterized by short stays in a lasting structure.

The skyscraper, as a formal and monumental object, appears to contrast the hotel’s temporality. In its autonomy, the skyscraper is a landmark in the skyline. Located in Midtown Manhattan—on the former site of Hotel Pennsylvania and adjacent to Penn Station—this project is a reflection on the metropolis of New York City.

The Hotel consists of the design of the skyscraper as landmark—The Metropolitan—and the hotel as tenant—One Hotel.

Collective propositions:
1. The Hotel embraces the frenetic energy of New York City while opposing its outward expansion.
2. The Metropolitan will outlast One Hotel.
3. One Hotel accommodates fourteen types of guests, and its staff.
4. One Hotel shares accommodation, amenities, systems, and services with a 24/7 cycle.
5. The Hotel sets a standard for an architecture of hospitality.

The Sailors' Boarding House Segment Propositions:
1. The growing popularity of the annual New York Fleet Week and other major events contributes to the vital presence of sailors in the city.
2. A US. Navy–operated retreat in Midtown Manhattan relieves sailors from the difficulty of finding affordable accommodations for both short and long-term stays.
3. The Sailors’ Boarding House segment provides a gender-integrated home for male and female sailors smoothing the transition from duty to leave.
4. The presence of the sailors in the rhythm of the bustling hotel and the temporary exposure to other guests forms a mutually instructive encounter between them.
5. The Sailors’ Boarding House segment validates the United States Navy as a thriving organization that cherishes its personnel and the civilians it serves, and encourages recruitment.