Home 2 Suites by Hilton proposed for Brooklyn

[jaxjags]

What do you think about their hotels in downtown Kansas City or Greenville, SC? To me, it would be nice to see the ground level along Park Street activated a bit more. I'd like with the regular hotel facade if extra attention could be provided to better integrating the restuarant and lobby area with the adjacent sidewalk on Park instead of the side streets.

The Kansas City hotel I like. The Jax hotel could look similar to this very easily. Remove the perimeter bump outs, use the darker exterior color throughout, and add some modern accent lighting on tower area. I think it will look good with the 1st floor being mostly glass.

I also agree they should move the restaurant area to Park Street with the outdoor seating at the end where parking lot is now. Actually if I were on the DDRB, that would have been my first recommendation over any exterior changes. Oh well.

[thelakelander]

New Home2 Suites hotels in peer city downtowns

The Downtown Development Review Board (DDRB) has criticized a Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel proposal for Brooklyn as being too suburban looking? While granting conceptual design approval, the DDRB would like to see more high quality architectural finishes. With that in mind, here are seven comparable recently constructed Home2 Suite by Hilton hotels in various downtown environments across the country. Take a look and let us know which Home2 Suites design you prefer!

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/new-home2-suites-hotels-in-peer-city-downtowns/

[Steve]

What do you think about their hotels in downtown Kansas City or Greenville, SC? To me, it would be nice to see the ground level along Park Street activated a bit more. I'd like with the regular hotel facade if extra attention could be provided to better integrating the restuarant and lobby area with the adjacent sidewalk on Park instead of the side streets.

The Kansas City hotel I like. The Jax hotel could look similar to this very easily. Remove the perimeter bump outs, use the darker exterior color throughout, and add some modern accent lighting on tower area. I think it will look good with the 1st floor being mostly glass.

I also agree they should move the restaurant area to Park Street with the outdoor seating at the end where parking lot is now. Actually if I were on the DDRB, that would have been my first recommendation over any exterior changes. Oh well.

In fairness the developer did say if the Park Street Road Diet came to fruition, they would adjust the restaurant to better face Park.

[Steve]

I mean we're definitely getting the "budget" Home2. With that said, the downtown hotel market isn't great right now, especially compared to a lot of those other cities.

I would like to see them use different materials here, but if they don't I'd personally still be in favor.

[thelakelander]

In fairness the developer did say if the Park Street Road Diet came to fruition, they would adjust the restaurant to better face Park.

I think, regardless of the road diet, the Park Street sidewalk frontage should be upgraded with this project and the ground floor should be integrated with it.  This should be as simple as having outdoor seating along the sidewalk in front of the restaurant space and lobby area.



^It seems in the rendering that the first floor lobby area and restaurant space are both transparent with the sidewalk on Park, which is good. Below are three different ways that more sidewalk integration has been designed with various Home2 Suite concepts. Overall, I don't think they have to do much with the facade or structure of the building to become a pedestrian friendly contribution to Park Street. The basic nature of the site layout and ground floor uses of the project are significantly better than what we normally see seeking DDRB approval at this stage.



Greenville


Dallas


Louisville

[fieldafm]

The Park Street road diet will not extend South of Forrest, the roadway and pedestrian improvements will be focused on Park from Forrest through the viaduct leading to Prime Osborne.  The section of Park between Forrest and the I-95 exit ramp has a traffic count that is already at the max level of service, and the Florida Blue garage will only add to that traffic count during peak hours- making this section of Park not suitable for a road diet.



That said, the developer has to work within the current ROW, which is a standard 1970's-era/5-foot COJ sidewalk. You can't do much with outdoor seating along Park, unless you do something within the building's ingress/footprint (probably not the right term).  In that context, I don't see a problem with the current proposal that has transparent windows along Park Street (which is not the case for the building just constructed across the street... nor the blank wall created by the storage unit diagonally across from this proposed hotel)... and providing covered outdoor seating along Roselle. The developer is also required to have a landscape plan that plants trees along Park Street... which further reduces the space to work with along the sidewalk.  Again, another one of the Code's unintended consequences- why the Code doesnt allow awnings along the building to substitute for a crape myrtle is curious, to say the least. Both provide shade.



Here is the site in its current condition along Park Street. Not exactly a sizeable pedestrian zone. Also, a beautiful image of an illegal parking lot (take THAT Downtown zoning overlay!)

The City's ROW along Chelsea behind the proposed development isn't much smaller than Park Street's ROW... however Chelsea provides a lot more potential pedestrian zone as the actual street is only two lanes (versus the 4 lanes on Park). Given that the street grid was forever cutoff with the widening of Forrest Street and I-95, effectively making Chelsea a permanent service street... it creates an almost comical contrast between Park and Chelsea.



Roselle Street today.



Chelsea Street today.

The reference to the Park Street road diet was probably to highlight the prospect that in future years... Brooklyn will have a very active, walkable commercial corridor... and whatever fills in along Park Street between Forrest and Riverside Park will act as a way to pull pedestrian activity back and forth from one commercial district to another (Five Points).

[jaxjags]

What I really notice that impacts the sidewalk, distracts from the building regardless of the design and does not look urban, is the above ground utilities. Any plans to remove. Also your comment about trees/landscaping is so right on. Our code is over detailed. Look at the urban hotels Lake provided. Not a lot of trees. Urban hotels can also look suburban due to landscaping.

[thelakelander]

Park only has an AADT of 2900. The next time it's up for resurfacing would be a great opportunity to reduce it from a 4-lane undivided to a 3-lane with bike lanes or parallel parking in select areas. I'm working on a similar project in Downtown Orlando. With that one, the road will go from a 4-lane undivided to a 3-lane with a two-way cycle track. The existing AADT on that road is 18,500.



They'll have to replace the broken up sidewalk and old driveways on Park Street, even though the sidewalk is outside of their ROW. Similar to the dialysis clinic across the street (picture below), this is an opportunity to redo the sidewalk adjacent to the building. With a much wider sidewalk (by paving over the grass utility strip) and perhaps bulb out at the corner of Park and Roselle, it would be perfect for movable outdoor seating wrapping the corner restaurant and lobby entrance.  I agree that the fact the ground floor is already transparent with a lobby, fitness center and meeting room facing the sidewalk, it's already more interactive with the street than anything else recently built along this stretch of Park Street.



A couple of years we did a study for SR 40 through Downtown Ocala. Due to the high AADT, we couldn't reduce it from 4-lanes but we were able to create opportunities for bulb-outs at the intersections with side streets. As the area continues to redevelop, these will become spaces where there's opportunity to add a little outdoor seating and/or placemake, etc. Here's a few images from one of the recently upgraded intersections:

[heights unknown]

Either Greeneville or Dallas; if I had to pick one, probably Greeneville.

[jaxlongtimer]

I mean we're definitely getting the "budget" Home2. With that said, the downtown hotel market isn't great right now, especially compared to a lot of those other cities.

I would like to see them use different materials here, but if they don't I'd personally still be in favor.

It looks like it will fit in well with the uninspiring trendy box architecture practiced by Vestcor and other apartment developers in Brooklyn.  No imagination, just copy and paste designs that are cheap to build and dress up with some contrasting paint colors.

Yes, it is better than what is there now but, over time, these buildings will be around for decades.  With no long term vision or standards, they could actually hold back or diminish future possibilities.  Can quality architecture add that much more to the building budget given the size of some of these projects?  Like other variances and incentives, it just seems, as a City, we have very little backbone.