Virgin Hotel’s Exterior Nears Completion at 1225 Broadway in NoMad, Manhattan

Virgin Hotel at 1227 Broadway. Rendering by Stantec

Exterior work is nearing completion on the 476-foot-tall Virgin Hotel at 1225 Broadway in NoMad. Designed by Stantec and developed by Lam Group, the 38-story tower will yield 300,000 square feet and 460 hotel rooms managed by Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group. The property is located between West 29th Street and West 30th Street and will be the first Virgin Hotel establishment in New York City.

Recent photos show the completed façade of the tower portion of the building and the ongoing progress on the podium levels. This section has seen substantial progress since our last update in October, when much of the steel frame remained exposed on the first few floors.

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

The podium stretches the length of Broadway between West 29th and West 30th Streets and is the last major section of the edifice to be completed. We can see a variety of different panels that make up its curtain wall, with a mixture of clear floor-to-ceiling units that nearly match the ones that cover the main tower above, others with thin white horizontal louvers placed in front of the glass, and others still with opaque light-colored metallic spandrels that cover the steel beams. These can be found on both the northern and southern ends of the superstructure. It’s also interesting to note that the podium of 1225 Broadway was constructed with a steel frame, while the rectangular skyscraper was made with reinforced concrete.

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway. Photo by Michael Young

1225 Broadway’s podium will feature 90,000 square feet of retail space and an underground 22,000-square-foot golf store called Swingers: A Crazy Golf Club.

No official opening date has been announced for the Virgin Hotel, though based on the pace of progress, sometime before the end of the year is feasible.

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20 Comments on "Virgin Hotel’s Exterior Nears Completion at 1225 Broadway in NoMad, Manhattan"

  1. This turned out quite nicely. The glass is high-quality and it’s not a plain box. A huge improvement over what was there before. When things get back to some semblance of normal, this and the nearby new Ritz-Carlton will bring a lot of life to this area.

  2. another glass box next to brick buildings. Totally out of context and ugly as hell!
    Soon to be another homeless shelter in the city

    • Keep dreaming.

      • I’LL REPEAT THOMAS ANOTHER HOMELESS SHELTER AS SOON AS IT OPENS

      • Hey ThomasA homeless man who was out on parole for killing his mother was arrested and charged with a hate crime early Wednesday morning in connection with a violent attack on a Filipino immigrant near Times Square, the police said.

        The man, Brandon Elliot, 38, was living at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan that has been serving as a homeless shelter, the police said. He was charged with felony assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime and separate assault and attempted assault charges.

  3. David : Sent From Heaven. | March 28, 2021 at 10:09 am | Reply

    Protruding angle on the superstructure is what developers want, and from what I look at it is all beautiful: Thanks to Michael Young.

  4. It looks good but it better! 5 years is insane overall duration and this is probably tracking closer to 7 years based on current level of completeness. If def had chosen CM to get this done who could get this done in 2-3 years they would have been able to sell for about $800 per key after it stabilized a year after completion. The developer who buys this for cash starved developer will do very well.

  5. It’s fine but I notice a recent trend. These new projects get the base right. They use modern materials but are context sensitive and enhance the street environment. Why oh why the tops of the building need to look like a kid who made his block toys too heavy on top I don’t understand. But c’est la vie.

  6. I used to think that the Virgin Hotel looked sort of cheap, but I’m actually starting to really like it. It’s certainly better than most new NYC hotels…ahem.

  7. Photos don’t capture the bad color choices and pattern layouts on some of the glass in the tower portion.

  8. If you don’t like this you’d better start writing to Gov.Cuomo and your Albany representatives against the proposed Empire State Complex which will commandeer 9 blocks around Penn Station using eminent domain where needed and the buildings are all massive, like Hudson Yards. It’s one of Cuomo’s priorities. There will be a public hearing on May 12.

    • I love this. The blocks around Penn Station are gross and dilapidated. The new Empire Complex will be fantastic.

    • Nikolai Fedak | March 28, 2021 at 8:18 pm | Reply

      Maybe YIMBY will make a post encouraging our audience to testify in favor of this project, the area is incredibly blighted by both buildings and, evidently, NIMBYs!

  9. ANOTHER OF THE MOST UGLY GLASS BOX HOTELS SOON TO BE HOMELESS SHELTERS COMING TO NYC
    WHY IN THE WORLD CAN’T THEY MATCH THE SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOOD AND USE BRICK TO BE CONTEXTUAL?
    OH I KNOW BECAUSE GLASS IS CHEAPER ANF THEN THEY CAN USE NON UNION LABOR TO BUILD IT/
    UGLY UGLY AND OUT OF CONTEXT DISGUSTING

    • Your homeless shelter comments are really redundant. I say REALLY REDUNDANT. DO you have to say it on every post? It is singularly obnoxious. Who are you trying to convince? This is not your intended audience. Chill.

      • Steveo
        The truth hurts sometimes.
        Almost every 4 and 5 star hotel in the city right now is a homeless shelter and the developers are still building more to sit there with empty hotel rooms. So what happens it becomes a homeless shelter because the city will guarantee to fill it up.

    • PRINCE-VICTOR OGUNNUBI-ADEKEYO | March 31, 2021 at 12:41 pm | Reply

      YOU CAN ALWAYS EXPECT OFFERS FROM VIRGIN GROUP TO BE SUPERB.

  10. We should change the name from Big Apple, to the ugly glass box city. with Hudson Yards and all this other new construction any character is going fast. Putting box cubes on top of box cubes does not make a design great.
    We do not need a Hudson Yards around Penn Station, we need to preserve and improve the rich character of the area

  11. Don’t be so hyperbolic, it’s not as bad as you think. While there are certain downsides to any large-scale development, there’s also the ups as well. About the preservation and enhancement of the existing, rich character of the area and the city at large, what really needs to happen is a couple Art-Deco projects need to be built/expanded upon to provide a balance. Too many modern buildings dotting the skyline removes any sense of vernacularity. I get the sense that New York City is one or two large-scale, largely modernist projects away from really needing to have a more serious discussion about the skyline. In that case, I wouldn’t mind seeing the MetLife North Building rebuild its original core and tack on the 70 or so floors that need to be built. That and a roughly 200-foot crown and about a 300-foot spire on top of that would allow the Empire State Building to ride off into the sunset, which is what needs to happen.

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