Moxy NYC Chelsea opened in Manhattan. The newly-constructed, 35-story hotel features 349 guest rooms, a rooftop lounge and two event rooms. The newly-constructed building's architecture riffs off the neighborhood's retro-industrial style in the heart of the Chelsea Flower Market. The hotel blends into the flower shops that surround it, with a soaring three-story glass atrium revealing the vertical gardens within.
Guests enter through the overgrown Putnam & Putnam Flower Shop, designed by Yabu Pushelberg, which is envisioned as a "botanical library," with planter boxes suspended from the 15-foot wall, reachable by a wheeled ladder.
Just beyond the flower shop, a bright yellow neon sign spelling out the words "MEET" and "GREET" beckons guests into Moxy's take on the check-in area. Four butcher blocks, alluding to the nearby Meatpacking District, are suspended from the 12-foot ceiling above, acting as check-in kiosks. Just beyond check-in is the Moxy Digital Guestbook streaming videos and images taken within Moxy hotels or tagged #atthemoxy.
The accommodations feature floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows. For the design, Yabu Pushelberg replicates the clever functionality they created for Moxy Times Square, leavened with wit and humanized with a sense of craft.
In all three room types — King, Double/Double and Quad Bunk — the furniture, which includes a writing desk and chair/luggage rack, can be folded up and hung up on Moxy's signature peg wall when not in use. Other space-saving gambits include under-bed storage and a lava-stone sink and vanity area placed outside the bathroom. Additional bedroom features nod to the Flower District, like reading lamps that resemble garden lanterns and faucets that recall hose reels.
Unique to Moxy Chelsea is the over-the-top MONDO Suite, an entertainment suite located on the 32nd floor. The room features double-height 18-foot ceilings and a wall of industrial-style windows looking out onto the Empire State Building. The suite can be combined with one or two adjoining king rooms.
Francesco Panella, owner of Antica Pesa, the legendary trattoria in Rome and its counterpart in Brooklyn, along with TAO Group, created a new dining and drinking concepts for the hotel and include Feroce Ristorante, Feroce Caffè, and Bar Feroce.
The menu at Feroce Ristorante embraces both traditional dishes and modern interpretations utilizing ingredients from historic brands and small producers across Italy as well as local purveyors in New York. In front of the restaurant is Feroce Caffè, with glass airplane hangar-style doors that can be raised all the way up, opening the space entirely to the sidewalk, as in Italy. It also features a vintage doughnut machine that wafts tempting aromas onto the sidewalk, luring locals in off the street. The hotel entrance has its own dedicated window counter connecting to the caffè, so guests can pick up fresh-baked doughnuts and coffee as they come and go.
Panella also created the menu at Bar Feroce, an Italian snack bar and lounge offering a modern twist on traditional Roman comfort dishes, oven-fired pizzas, and classic cocktails. On Bar Feroce's all-season, alfresco garden terrace, The Backyard.
The Fleur Room, Moxy Chelsea's rooftop lounge on the 35th floor has panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline, from the Statue of Liberty to the Empire State building. The design features a copper-clad bar, glass chandeliers that resemble giant water droplets, and a massive disco ball salvaged from the notorious 1980s L.A. nightclub Vertigo. The real showstopper: The lounge's glass walls descend at the touch of a button, transforming the space into an alfresco sky veranda.
"With the opening of Moxy Chelsea, the Moxy Hotels brand continues to boldly reinvent the hospitality scene," says Toni Stoeckl, global brand leader, Moxy Hotels, and vice president, Distinctive Select Service Brands, Marriott International. "When you walk into a Moxy, you know you're getting a killer bar experience with fun, playful programming; an in-the-know Crew; stylish and functional bedrooms; and experiential moments you'll want to share with friends during your trip. Moxy Chelsea offers all of that, with a distinctly bold, New York twist."
Information is based off a news release from Moxy NYC Chelsea.
