After we posted yesterday's sneak peak of the design for the new Cooper Square Hotel going up on The Bowery, an interested citizen sent us this super-secret rendering of the tower that's rising on that site. Er, wow. So that's what Studio Carlos Zapata seems to have in store for that edge of the East Village. Once Cooper Union's old Hewitt Building comes down across the street and Thomas Mayne's new Psychedelic Pleasure Palace goes up in its place, this stretch will be a veritable wall of bright shiny glass—a perfect match for the Avalon'd stretch of the Bowery several blocks south.
[The Cooper Square Hotel plans an outdoor bar for this area along 5th Street]
The developers of the hotel, the Peckmoss Group, originally told the neighbors that this area at the corner of 5th and The Bowery would be a lush garden spot. But it seems the plants might get in the way of the hotel's party plans. The latest word is that the area will get just a wee bit of greenery. But mainly it will be an outdoor lounge—cocktails and ambient music and all. There will be another outdoor bar just above on the second floor. And yet a third bar in the basement. All right outside the neighbors' windows.
One consolation: with Studio Carlos Zapata in charge of the design all these spaces should be very nice to look at. We reported on another Zapata-designed (but still unbuilt) project a while back. It might give an indication of what's going up here. Below is what they proposed for a 26-story condo on 23rd Street just west of Fifth Avenue.
[Studio Carlos Zapata's unbuilt plan for a condo development by Horizen Global]
While we're at it let's take a look at some of the interiors that the Zapata gang has done around the world. One thing is for sure. These guys really do know how to play with space.
[A Zapata design for a residence in Golden Beach, Florida]
[Two views of a house in Quito, Ecuador]
· Thumbs Up: Cooper Square Hotel Revealed! [Curbed]
· Cooper Union Pleasure Palace Update: No LIC! [Curbed]
· By All That is Holy in SoFi [Curbed]