The Now Now Capsule Hotel Opens on Bowery in NYC

When Lover Phil hotelier He first visited 338 Bowery, he fell in love with the location. The nineteenth-century brick building was seated at Prime Noho-a 15-minute walk from Balthazar on one side and superiority on the other, blocks above the new museum and below Saint-Marks. A capsule hotel where travelers to want Being in the room was logical. “I was like If it will work anywhere, it will work here“” He said.

In fact, a version of it has Worked here for about 126 years, out of time. Now open this week in a space that, Until 2018was occupied by the final Bowerry Flophouse, survivor, a former “hotel for abandonments”, as a journalist visiting Buffalo describe He in 1954. Towards the turning point of the century, this Bowery section hosted 25,000 people per night – drawing generations of soldiers returning from the fight, drunkards, men on the verge of homeless, and later, Artists who have snubbed daytime jobs. Some have stayed so long that they obtained the rights of tenants, paying as little as $ 6 to $ 9 per night as recently as 2007. The rooms came without electrical outlets, and the ceiling was more an idea than a real structure. (To meet the city code for ventilation, the hostel could not enclose the rooms and the crowns with wooden garden networks – an improvement compared to the chicken thread which deserved these places the nickname “Cage Hotels”.))

The outside of the old hotel, where the blue doors led to the hall of an inn which opened its doors in 2000 in half of the building.
Photo: Bob Cromwell

If the Bowery returns to its SRO model, it is partly because arrow hotel costs – rooms on the other side of the street, at the BowerY hotel, are now starting at around $ 800 per night on Friday and the city’s average room hit $ 417 last year. Currently, travelers pay $ 125 per night per check on iPads in a tiled hall striped with rows of pink and brown arcs. The original flop staircase are rows of wooden doors in rooms that now describe As “free cabins”. Modeled after luxury train compartments, the “cabins” are “minimalist but sumptuous in detail”, by interior designer Islyn Studio, which paved with blond wooden rooms that wraps around beds lit by hot amber bulbs and dressed in crisp Garnier-Thielbaut wipes. “We have created this obviously differently different experience,” explains Hoscod, the hotelier. “But conceptually, we also respond to transient travelers.” The rooms are, underlines the hotel, for solo travelers only. It would be difficult to tighten a guest anyway. The room is 27 square feet – or almost exactly the size of a standard full -size mattress.

The rooms are delivered with bedside offices, stools, mirrors and hot lighting. Storage is under the bed, and a row of hooks on the opposite wall is useful for coats, towels and dresses. From left to right: Photo: Matthew KisidayPhoto: Matthew Kisiday

The rooms are delivered with bedside offices, stools, mirrors and hot lighting. The storage is under the bed, and a row of hooks on the opposite wall is useful for … more
The rooms are delivered with bedside offices, stools, mirrors and hot lighting. Storage is under the bed, and a row of hooks on the opposite wall is useful for coats, towels and dresses. High: Photo: Matthew KisidayPhoto: Matthew Kisiday

The front rooms now have taken over. Rows of the old hotel doors have led to small cabins not much larger than the beds. From left to right: Photo: Bob CromwellPhoto: Bob Cromwell

The front rooms now have taken over. Rows of the old hotel doors have led to small cabins not much larger than the beds. High: Photo: Bob CromwellPhoto… more
The front rooms now have taken over. Rows of the old hotel doors have led to small cabins not much larger than the beds. High: Photo: Bob CromwellPhoto: Bob Cromwell

Then there is the question of noise. “Tell me more on the open ceilings …” reads the FAQ page, which explains that “the cabins” are covered with “linear acoustic baffles” or slats with sound absorbing sound, which cannot of course absorb everything. To satisfy semi-posh travelers, now throws extras: earplugs and machines with free sound, plus a Brooklinen dress for the clumsy walk to showers. The hotel also rents a range of gadgets and gadgets: game boys, virtual reality gadgets, iPads and even red light masks.

The Hall of the Auberge, which closed in 2014.
Photo: Bob Cromwell

The new entrance to the hall is on the other side of the central staircase, in a thinner space. It is modeled after a station and includes self-truth stands. From left to right: Photo: Matthew KisidayPhoto: Matthew Kisiday

The new entrance to the hall is on the other side of the central staircase, in a thinner space. It is modeled after a station and includes self-checking I … more
The new entrance to the hall is on the other side of the central staircase, in a thinner space. It is modeled after a station and includes self-truth stands. High: Photo: Matthew KisidayPhoto: Matthew Kisiday

The rooms may now be more chic, but they look fairly familiar to Bob Cromwell, which has remained at Whitehouse about 15 to 20 times before closing the Auberge side in 2014 and documented his visits to a personal blog. Consultant who came to town a few times a year, Cromwell often paid his pocket to extend his trips. An enthusiast of history, he enjoyed the idea of ​​staying in a real Bowery flop, even if he was almost too big to adapt. “I am six feet three feet, so my head touched one end, and my feet would touch the other,” he said. However, he was constantly coming back. Noise was not one thing. “From time to time, someone would be noisy, but they would usually be shouting fairly quickly by someone else.” When the inn closed, it migrated into the street to another old SRO cleaned, the BowerY House, which renamed last year as the Nolita Expresswith rooms, he calls “pods” where the Trellious ceilings are now painted in cream. During the renovation now now, Cromwell said he had missed the ancient signs, who list the rules for the guests who were to go back to the time of the Flophouse: “No fight, no cries, no spit.”

The rooms do not have private bathrooms, but the installations at the end of each room received a major upgrade. Without a hotel restaurant, now its point of view on an automatic distributor. From left to right: Photo: Matthew KisidayPhoto: Matthew Kisiday

The rooms do not have private bathrooms, but the installations at the end of each room received a major upgrade. Without a hotel restaurant, now off … more
The rooms do not have private bathrooms, but the installations at the end of each room received a major upgrade. Without a hotel restaurant, now its point of view on an automatic distributor. High: Photo: Matthew KisidayPhoto: Matthew Kisiday

The stripes, the jewelry tones push old SRO in a Gen-Z aesthetic. From left to right: Photo: Matthew KisidayPhoto: Matthew Kisiday

The stripes, the jewelry tones push old SRO in a Gen-Z aesthetic. High: Photo: Matthew KisidayPhoto: Matthew Kisiday