W Times Square Hotel (New York City, New York)

583-foot, 53-story postmodern hotel completed in 2001. Designed by M.Arch Architects with Frank Williams & Associates, the main hotel tower faces 47th Street, but the base extends to Broadway, topped by a 295-foot sign tower adjacent to the building's east facade (one of the largest in Times Square). At the base of this sign tower are Blue Fin and Dos Caminos restaurants, clad in glass and stainless steel. The interior was designed by the Rockwell Group.

The hotel tower is nearly square in plan (except for on the north side), set back and rising from a 6-story podium base. The entrances on 47th Street are recessed, set behind large stainless-steel piers. Above the ground floor, the base is clad in metal panels with vertical stripes in various shades of light blue and grey. Randomly-placed thin, vertical metal fins of different lengths protrude from the facade; above the square marquee topping the main entrance they form a large "W". The fins forming the "W" are red on their east sides and silver on the west.

The tower portion is clad in beige and grey pre-cast concrete, six bays wide on the north and south sides. The three eastern bays project out on the north facade, up to a setback at the 28th floor. Above, the 2nd & 3rd bays from the east project out from the rest of the facade, while the other three facades are flat. The east and west facades both have end bays with windows; the middle section of the east facade is covered by a signboard running almost the full height of the tower; the middle of the west facade is concrete, beige at the lower floors, and tan at the upper floors, with exposed floorplates.

The slightly-recessed mechanical penthouse on the roof is topped by a tall, 4-sided sign with a "W" on each side; the four sides each angle outward at the tops. A water tower is enclosed behind the rooftop signage. The hotel contains 509 guest rooms.

www.wnewyorktimessquare.com/

marcharch.com/w-hotel

 hotelskyscraper2001_constructionpostmodern (architecture)