Architecture

Graffitied Warehouse to Become ODA-Designed Hotel in Emerging Bushwick Creative District

There was a time when graffiti signified dereliction and neglect. But no more — not in Bushwick, anyway. Highfalutin architecture firm ODA — the designers of such refined boxy buildings as the Rheingold Brewery development and planned Pier 6 towers — have chosen to incorporate existing graffiti into the transformation of a dismal Bushwick warehouse into a futuristic-looking 100-key hotel…

by Barbara Eldredge

12/30/2015 0

Bushwick Hotel Design ODA Architecture — Rendering of 71 White Street by ODA Architecture via ArchDaily

There was a time when graffiti signified dereliction and neglect. But no more — not in Bushwick, anyway.

Highfalutin architecture firm ODA — the designers of such refined boxy buildings as the Rheingold Brewery development and planned Pier 6 towers — have chosen to incorporate existing graffiti into the transformation of a dismal Bushwick warehouse into a futuristic-looking 100-key hotel with retail on the lower floors.

The existing structure at 71 White Street will be entirely gutted, leaving only sections of its artfully graffitied shell to house the first- and second-floor commercial spaces — which will include restaurants, an amphitheater, retail and a “semi-private outdoor promenade,” according to ArchDaily.

The top five floors will house the hotel. In the renderings, these spaces are stylistically separated from the lower public areas with white cantilevered forms and an unusual diagonal fenestration.

This new building is just the latest upscale development planned for this particular stretch of rapidly gentrifying Bushwick. Just a block away from 71 White Street is the future three-acre creative complex planned for 333 Johnson Avenue.

A 35,000-square-foot night club is in the works just a few blocks away at 599 Johnson Avenue, and another warehouse at 99 Scott Avenue is slated for transformation into a mixed-use retail and office space with an event hall, restaurant and winery.

Why is this bit of Bushwick so quickly transforming itself into a new creative mecca? The high-value area is zoned as nonresidential, meaning that developers can’t make condos. Instead, they’re getting creative.