The original proposal for the expansion of the Cosmopolitan Hotel was criticized by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, quoting it as ‘bland’ and ‘generic’. The all-glass retail space on the ground floor of the new building, and the use of metal cladding instead of brick on the façade of the top floor had been subject to criticism.
Architects have included some changes in the plan by extending the bricks to the top and adding more pronounced columns and historic details. The new design of the six-story addition has been unanimously approved by the commission.
The new addition to the 1844-built hotel will be constructed at the corner of West Broadway and Reade Street. The design will offer a planned new look for the hotel’s ground-floor commercial spaces and it is considered to be the most dramatic changes carried out at the hotel in almost a century.
The new extension is designed to house 25 additional rooms and will replace a two-story stucco building at 101 West Broadway. The existing hotel will get a wider entrance displacing Cosmopolitan Café. The outer columns of the retail space will be clad in ribbed glass outlined in lengths of deep-brown steel. The top of the building will be covered in bricks instead of metal.
Architect Matthew Gottsegen’s original plans were to connect the new building and the existing hotel by including similar modern features on both. But based on the commissions’ feedback, historic elements to the original Cosmopolitan building are restored with an intention to make the old more distinct from the new.
