The Graduate Hotel is an 18-story property integrated into Cornell Tech, a technology, business, law and design campus of Cornell University. Located on New York’s Roosevelt Island, the building boasts unobstructed views of Manhattan.
Studio Name: Stonehill Taylor
Project Name: Graduate Roosevelt Island
Design Team:
Stonehill Taylor- Architect of Record
Stonehill Taylor design leads: Paul Taylor, Principal
Stonehill Taylor Design Team: Damion Cera, Associate, Project Architect; Tania Rojas, Job Captain
Snøhetta- Design Architect
Snøhetta Design Team: Craig Dykers, Founding Partner; Alan Gordon, Partner; Michael Cotton, Project Manager; Samuel Brissette, Project Architect; Todd Ebeltoft, Designer
Area: Hospitality
Year: 2021
Location: Roosevelt Island, New York
Consultants: Graduate Hotels
Photography Credits: Steve Freihon
Images: Graduate Roosevelt Island Images
Found at the entrance of campus, it is equipped with a full-service restaurant, indoor-outdoor rooftop bar and 3,600 square feet of meeting and event facilities.
Stonehill Taylor is the architect of record for the project, working alongside Snøhetta, the design architect of the project. The firm played an instrumental role in the creation of the lobby space, which features a monolithic 30-foot-tall ceiling made from acoustical plaster. In order to connect the interior space to the exterior, Stonehill Taylor focused on the design of the ceiling. With its unique trapezoidal wedge shape, the ceiling points upward towards the East River and Manhattan while aligning with the exterior soffit and façade planes to convey the sense of a mass floating above the ground. The ceiling is reflectively illuminated by a fixture along the perimeter of the building.
Glass windows make up three-quarters of the wall and when paired with hard floors, Stonehill Taylor was faced with some challenges regarding the acoustics of the space, so the firm incorporated materials to soften the soundscape. Across from the floor-to-ceiling window is a wall of 5,000 square feet of shelving with lighting built into it that bounces off the ceiling to illuminate the space.
Reminiscent of the lobby, the rooftop bar features a terrace with striking views of Roosevelt Island, the East River and Manhattan. Located on the third floor is the Minnenhanock Ballroom, a flexible meeting and event space. Sloped concrete buttresses emphasize the ballroom space and beautifully combine with the steel construction of the Queensboro Bridge outside.
