Designed for travelers seeking memories of travel, Graduate Hotels is a handcrafted collection of hotels located in dynamic university-based cities across the country, expanding to the UK in the summer of 2021. Each hotel celebrates and commemorates the optimistic energy of its community while providing an expansive retreat in places where the best days of our lives often take place. The brand’s newest hotel – and debut New York City hotel – has 224 guest rooms in an 18-story building on Roosevelt Island.
Located at the entrance to the Cornell Tech Campus, the hotel was designed by the internationally renowned Snøhetta design firm, the hospitality-focused architecture firm Stonehill Taylor and the in-house design team at Graduate Hotels. The design team blends old school charm and new age, drawing inspiration from the rich history of Roosevelt Island and the future of technology that Cornell Tech Campus embodies. Futuristic and functional merge into a bright, open and always interesting room.
“We are very excited to make our New York debut with the very first hotel on Roosevelt Island and are proud to be part of the innovative Cornell Tech Campus,” said Ben Weprin, Founder and CEO of Graduate Hotels. “Each of our hotels is rooted in the communities it serves and we have taken great care to create a highly personalized hotel experience that honors the island’s rich history and has an authentic connection to the Cornell Tech Campus. More than ever, we re-appreciate exploring our own backyard and look forward to welcoming locals and visitors who want to experience New York from a new and unexpected angle. “
The arrival experience is designed to add Personality and drama in the check-in element the hospitality journey. Upon entering, guests are greeted with a bespoke 12-foot statement sculpture by Hebru Brantley reinterpreting its iconic flyboy character and a neon graduate sign above the front desk, a reimagined vintage apothecary cabinet.
Photo credit: Steve Freihorn
In this area of the hotel, the cooperation between the companies was integral. Stonehill Taylor, who recently participated in a panel discussion on the new era of lifestyle, made sure that the design of the ceiling connected the interior with the outside space as part of the overall campus experience. The unique trapezoidal wedge shape of the ceiling points upwards towards the East River and Manhattan and is based on the outer reveal and facade surfaces to convey the feeling of a mass floating above the floor. Unhindered by lighting, the ceiling is illuminated reflectively by a luminaire along the perimeter of the room. Three quarters of the wall are glass windows and in combination with hard floors the room acoustics proved to be a challenge. The architecture office therefore used materials that both soften the background noise and take up the complex, three-dimensional shape of the ceiling. The wall opposite the floor-to-ceiling windows has 5,000 square meters of shelving with built-in uplight that is reflected from the ceiling above and from the surfaces below.
Photo credit: Steven Freihorn
Allusions to the island’s history can be seen through the corridor behind the reception, which features a gallery of black and white photographs of the Roosevelt family. The spacious lobby is lined with 5,000-foot-long textbooks and floor-to-ceiling windows to create a light and airy space that’s warmed up with Persian-inspired carpets, mid-century lamps, and Cornell Big Red hues everywhere. The lobby is also home to the hotel’s all-day, full-service restaurant with a wraparound bar anchoring the space and a variety of inviting lounge seating.
The 224 guest rooms and suites include a presidential suite with an area of more than 1,100 square meters. The guest rooms contrast the modern architecture with warm design details and offer a familiar living experience paired with an incomparable view of the East River and the Manhattan skyline.
Photo credit: Steve Freihorn
Photo credit: Steve Freihorn
The decor plays with technology over the centuries, such as lamps based on a Morse code of the Cornell battle song, a neon light inspired by a Cornell alum scientific project, floating glass desks and built-in audiovisual equipment. Local elements and allusions to Roosevelt Island are also included in the rooms.
Photo credit: Steven Freihorn
Design highlights include benches upholstered in oil painting-like tapestries of Dutch colonial life, bespoke artwork by Matt Buchholz and Brooklyn-based artist Ashley Cunningham, and a carefully curated gallery wall with unique pieces, including portraits of celebrities from the island’s history such as Nellie Bly and Mae West.
The Los Angeles-based hospitality team and Call Mom’s New York City-based Med Abrous and Marc Rose are Graduate Roosevelt Island’s exclusive food and beverage partners, marking the duo’s homecoming and their third collaboration with Graduate Hotels, too which also graduate Seattle and graduate Nashville. The hotel includes the full-service Anything At All restaurant on the ground floor; The Panorama Room, an extraordinary indoor-outdoor rooftop bar and lounge with an unobstructed, wide view of the city; and over 3,000 square feet of flexible on-site meeting space, all designed and operated by Abrous and Rose.
Abrous and Rose have hired a talented, female-led team, including Chef Ja’Toria Harper, Pastry Chef Lindsey Verardo, and Beverage Director Estelle Bossy, to oversee all food and beverage programs. Anything At All opens later in June and serves breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner. The light-flooded indoor-outdoor area is rooted in a vegetable-oriented, farm-first approach for modern comfort dining and offers a sustainable synergy between the kitchen and the bar, whose playful, creative frozen drinks and seasonal splashes are the focus at brunch.
On top of the hotel is The Panorama Room, the stunning 168-seat rooftop bar and lounge designed by the James Beard Foundation Award-winning design company Parts and Labor Design. Opened in July 2021, the estate’s crown jewel will evoke futurism-inspired cinematic drama and create a true destination for fashionable elegance in an intimate space with uninterrupted city views.
The third floor of the hotel offers a variety of different multi-purpose meeting and event rooms with clear views of the skyline and is the perfect location for any occasion from weddings to off-site corporate meetings. This summer Graduate Hotels transformed its ballroom into a collaborative space inspired by the cult movie BIG. Known as The Loft on Graduate Roosevelt Island, this pop culture moment provides families, local businesses, and private groups with the opportunity to catch up on lost time in a space that fuels creative energy and harnesses the power of nostalgia.
Photo credit: Steven Freihorn
What makes this project even more impressive is its sustainability initiative. The hotel promotes the campus’ ongoing commitment to sustainability through its LEED-certified architecture and the use of highly efficient materials and energy-saving systems throughout the building. Graduate Roosevelt Island’s many sustainability initiatives include LEED-certified architecture, the use of recyclable materials, highly efficient heating, cooling and LED lighting systems, reduced water consumption, waste recovery programs, healthy indoor air quality and more. The food and beverage operators are equally committed to creating environmentally conscious restaurant operations and culinary programs, including: composting food scraps, restaurant waste recycling programs, no single-use plastic products, minimizing food waste, and purchasing sustainable local ingredients and products.
Main picture credit: Steve Freihorn
