Element New York Times Square West

 hotel, skyscraper, 2010s construction

443-foot, 39-story modernist hotel completed in 2010. Designed by Gene Kaufman, it is clad in dark-grey brick, set far back from the sidewalk. The ground floor has light-grey metal panels and glass, projecting out to the sidewalk at both ends, where it has services entrances and a vehicle entrance to the underground garage. A "bridge" of metal panels enclosed the middle area, where a small courtyard leads back to the main entrance.

The tower has six bays of double-windows in aluminum frames, with black metal air-conditioning vents at the bottoms. There are band courses across the top and bottom of the 5th floor, where opaque glass panes cover the piers between each window. At the top ten floors, the four east bays are enclosed by a giant white square outline.

The windowless east and west elevations are clad in dark-grey brick with exposed white floor plates, and vertical white bands running up the middle. The rear, north-facing facade is also dark-grey brick and organized into five bays of double-windows and black metal vents. There are also white exposed floor plates on this facade.

www.elementtimessquare.com/