The 300-room citizenM New York Bowery Hotel in Manhattan took a momentous detour from its original cast-in-place concrete design—switching to a module system and resulting in the country’s tallest modular hotel.

The change, which followed a value analysis of construction drawings, required the design team to collaborate with a modular system manufacturer to ensure the new structural plan fit into the original building envelope and met local code. Excavation had already begun.

The 100,000-sq-ft, 21-story building has 15 modular stories, a rooftop bar, a ground floor bistro and a double-height plaza. The 210 modular units arrived on site with the facade attached and finished rooms—including mechanical, electrical, bathrooms, windows, doors, flooring and even mounted HDTVs and king-size beds.

The team assembled 15 modules per floor around a concrete core with elevator shafts and stairs, stacking them on the conventional foundation and base. The fourth floor’s 36-in.-thick concrete slab supports the modular loads above it, while the top floors use a structural steel frame. One judge’s verdict: “Pretty cool.”

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