The industrial buildings of Brooklyn’s rough-edged East New York neighborhood inform the design of the planned Linden Hotel. The use of polycarbonate panels, clear glass, expanded metal mesh, and stucco cladding creates a varied composition of translucency, transparency, reflectivity, and opacity, qualities that change over the course of the day. Designed by Lang Architecture, the 30-room hotel, which includes a sky-lit central atrium, will be priced for budget travelers, as it is located in relative proximity to John F. Kennedy Airport, and should appeal to “neighborhood vacationers,” according to principal Drew Lang. The developer, who owns another budget hotel in the area, thinks design could make the Linden stand out from the competition, rather than, say, loud roadside signage. 

For Lang, the hotel represents his first built project in New York (he has built several in his native Gulf Coast region), which is something of a surprise to him. “I’d never thought of working in this section of Brooklyn, but if you share a vision with your client and your contractor, you can build good architecture almost anywhere,” he said.

Architect: Lang Architecture
Client: Sam Patel
Location: East New York, Brooklyn
Completion: late 2009