Project turns vacant NY office space into midtown hotels

Denmark's Pop-Up Hotel aims to reappropriate vacant office space in the center of New York City and turn it into revenue-making hotels for travelers.

Tourists heading to the London Olympic Games last summer may have found hotel prices too expensive, but at least could have taken advantage of the innovative taxi hotel, which saw a London black cab transformed into a comfortable temporary room. Looking for a more permanent solution to problems caused by the current economy, Denmark’s Pop-Up Hotel aims to reappropriate vacant office space in the center of New York City and turn it into revenue-making hotels for travelers.

According to the design firm behind the project, Pink Cloud, the average office vacancy rate in midtown Manhattan has risen to 21.6 percent since the 2007 credit crisis. Rather than let this space go empty, the company wants to take advantage of the city’s tourism figures, which have been more resilient than other industries and saw a record year for visitors in 2012. Pink Cloud’s solution is to offer all of the things needed to set up a temporary hotel in one truck. By designing the equipment and furniture to fit into boxes measuring the size of the average US pallet dimensions and average office lift height, the company can fit 36 of these boxes onto one truck. Each box is themed by hotel area – hospitality, dining, entertainment and amenities – and color-coded for easy assembly once on site. The boxes would also be tracked via RFID codes placed onto each one.

Although still in the concept stages, the Pop-Up Hotel provides a quick and easy way to transform wasted space into something useful. Could you help bring this project into fruition?

Spotted by: Smith Alan