Architectural innovation by SHoP Architects is the keystone of Pier 17’s redevelopment. It begins with the four freestanding retail structures on the pier’s west end. Positioned to create pedestrian-only “streets” that extend from the city grid, these new buildings will line open lanes that create view corridors to the harbor and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Each of the four retail buildings will be 40 feet tall and comprised of two stories. Two additional structures, also designed by SHoP, will be built above the retail buildings and home to a small boutique hotel. The first of these structures will stand three stories tall; the second will rise to six stories.

The construction of the boutique hotel creatively solves the problem inherent in building over water. The two structures that contain the hotel are designed to “hang” from steel rooftop girders. The girders themselves will be planted on columns set on new caissons drilled into the river floor. The boutique hotel buildings will appear as floating structures, suspended from steel cables hung from the girders—engineering similar to the steel suspenders that have supported the Brooklyn Bridge’s span for more than 135 years.

SHoP used the Seaport’s maritime heritage as inspiration for the hotel’s design features. Steel and other structural elements and materials will be treated but left exposed to evoke ship masts and utilitarian port equipment. Two sky bridges—a functional feature that often marked 20th-century New York architecture—will link the hotel buildings.

Entering from Beekman Street, guests will take elevators up to the hotel’s third-floor lobby. Guest room balconies will provide stunning harbor and city views, and a rooftop lounge and reflecting pool will create an exceptional gathering place on the waterfront.

Beautiful and architecturally unique, the boutique hotel will integrate into the overall design of the new Seaport’s master plan and honor the history of the neighborhood.