Washington Heights Welcomes Boutique Shabbos-friendly Hotel
On July 25th, Washington Heights welcomed its first full-service boutique hotel, Radio Hotel and Tower, a 23-story mixed-use development building located at 181st and Amsterdam, a short walk from Yeshiva University. Designed as a Shabbos-friendly hotel (sorry, not kosher), it will, nonetheless, in many ways fill the needs of the local Orthodox-Jewish community. In addition to traditional rooms, the hotel includes space for retail establishments, offices, and events.
The building features a multi-colored ceramic brick façade, giving the building a LEGO-like feel with brightly colored boxy segments. It is a tapestry, representing the many ethnic colors of the area affectionately referred to as the Heights.
It also offers dramatic panoramic views of downtown Manhattan, the George Washington Bridge, and the Harlem River
The creative team responsible for the hotel includes design by MVRDV with executive architects Stonehill & Taylor and Youngwoo & Associates.
“Our intention with Radio Tower & Hotel was to become a part of—to strengthen, even—the character of a neighborhood that is wonderful in its color, diversity, and atmosphere,” explains Winy Mass, a MVRDV founding partner.
Unlike many developments that claim to focus on diversity and inclusion but gravitate toward low-income housing, Radio Hotel was clearly designed to embrace all groups in the Heights, and the Orthodox community is no exception.
The project developers at Youngwoo & Associates worked closely with Y.U. to incorporate suitable Shabbos-friendly solutions into their design. For example, instead of using a Shabbos elevator, they provided access to the first four stories of the hotel using an open staircase. They designed single-occupancy rooms split by a corridor which can be used to separate male and female guests of Y.U.-sponsored events. These rooms feature manual key locks and mini-fridges without light bulbs.
Radio Hotel is the first such lodging to open in the Heights since 2015. It is also the largest commercial investment of its kind in the neighborhood. The hotel features 10,000 square feet of event space, 175,000 square feet of office and retail space, and a 170-spot underground public parking garage that will be available to the community.
Radio Hotel has been in development since 2013 when the permits were filed. They broke ground in 2018.
“Nothing sends a better signal to the recovery of our city than a hotel,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams at the ribbon-cutting event. “New York is thriving. You don’t have to go to downtown Manhattan to get the Manhattan experience and feeling here. We will feed the economy of this community.”
Radio Hotel located at 2420 Amsterdam Avenue, is accepting reservations. The phone number (they say their lines are always open) is 929-688-4880, and the email address is info@theradiohotel.com.
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