New 35-Story DoubleTree Hotel by Gene Kaufman Coming to Midtown West

Fresh renderings have been posted for a new 35-story hotel currently undergoing excavation at 350 West 40th Street. Located just southwest of Times Square and directly across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the block-front between Eighth and Ninth Avenues has been the victim of a half-dozen mid-range hotels. With the large blank wall of the bus terminal on one side and an ungainly assortment of budget hotels, walk-ups, and parking lots on the other, the street may be a worthy contender for the “Ugliest Street in Midtown.”

The project was first revealed by YIMBY last spring. Permits call for a 315-foot, 594-room DoubleTree Hotel designed by Gene Kaufman and developed by Sam Chang of McSam Hotels. McSam–which already has several hotels up and running on the block including a Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites, and Hampton Inn–has been one of the city’s most active and notorious developers in the last decade.

Adjacent hotels on the 40th Street block

Zoning documents for the project reveal the formulaic nature of hotel design in the city: 300-square-foot rooms placed alongside a double-loaded corridor. The economy of this configuration results in a shallower floor plate than a typical Manhattan lot allows and manifests itself as an often jarring setback from the city’s typically consistent street walls. Gene Kaufman attempts to mollify the offense here by proposing an 80-foot-tall wall of metal mesh in front on the building.

Hotel section

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Photos via 6sqft; Renderings via Gene Kaufman