The 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge is a meditation on the Brooklyn waterfront's evolutionary stages. Firstly, it addresses the contemporary identity and brand of Brooklyn that is recognized both locally and internationally. In addition to connecting to the contemporary identity of Brooklyn, the hotel nods to the historic, hardworking, shipping roots of the Brooklyn waterfront in materials such as rope and the bleached aged wood of the piers. INC looked at historic wharfs, wharf architecture, and materiality to capture the industrial ancestry of the waterfront. The integration of crates, palettes, moving blankets, valves, and levers, links back to INC's fascination of tools and purpose built artifacts. Lastly, the hotel's 100% natural focus is a meditation on the waterfront prior to its urban use. Indigenous species are used in the park in front of the hotel as an homage to the nature that dominated the land so many years back. The hotel is less designed and more assembled with the help of local artists.
The 194-key hotel is a best-in-class example of green design and development starting with a public-private partnership to create the park, finance its development and support a brand with biophilic design as its central mission. This hotel is LEED Gold and it uses 100 percent wind power energy.
The Brooklyn Bridge Park has been a game changer. It transformed a brownfield coastal wasteland into a vibrant natural habitat with seven distinct ecosystems that support a dense population of newly returned wildlife. Our goal was to pull the park directly into the hotel with greenery and physical materials. Design strategies were applied that connected to the natural beauty just outside the window. We looked to the materiality, rock formations, beach heads, wharf, and plant structures surrounding the site for inspiration.