Moxy Williamsburg has opened as the Marriott brand’s first hotel in Brooklyn, N.Y., with interiors by BASILE Studio in collaboration with Lightstone Design Studio and four new dining and drinking venues from Bar Lab Hospitality.
“Moxy embraces being bold through authentic self-expression and Moxy Williamsburg is the perfect place for free-spirited travelers to live in the moment and do just that,” Matthew Boettcher, VP and global brand leader of Moxy Hotels, said in a statement.
Moxy Williamsburg is a 216-room boutique hotel near the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge. The hotel’s architecture, light-filled interiors, space-saving design solutions, flexible co-working and meeting studios, and range of restaurants and bars reflect the easygoing spirit of its surroundings.
The four new dining and drinking venues were conceived and are operated by Bar Lab Hospitality. This includes Mesiba, a Tel Aviv–inspired restaurant serving Levantine cuisine; Bar Bedford, a cocktail bar and all-day café; Jolene; a sound room with an audio and light system; and, opening this spring, LilliStar, an indoor/outdoor rooftop bar with a terrace overlooking the Williamsburg Bridge and Manhattan skyline.
“Williamsburg is a flourishing hub for all the creativity and innovation for which New York is known. As its international reputation has blossomed, it has become the place to visit and stay,” said developer Mitchell Hochberg, president of Lightstone. “Our ambition with Moxy Williamsburg is to create a hotel that welcomes visitors with an authentic experience—one that Brooklynites themselves will embrace with open arms.”
Design
Moxy Williamsburg was designed by BASILE Studio, a boutique design firm based in San Diego, in collaboration with Lightstone Design Studio. The 11-story building, designed by the New York architecture firm Stonehill Taylor, has an industrial-inspired look that recalls the neighborhood’s warehouse lofts. The glass-front façade opens completely onto the sidewalk and Bedford Avenue, merging indoors and outdoors, putting the energy of the lobby and Bar Bedford on display. The building’s southern façade has a massive pop art–style mural by British street artist D*Face; visible from the Williamsburg Bridge, it depicts a woman in a car, stuck in traffic, crying out: “Get me to the Moxy!!”
The lobby’s 20-foot exposed ceilings and natural materials evoke a converted warehouse. Foliage hangs from the ceiling and spills from planters. An art installation by Rare Culture rises behind two blackened steel check-in pods and spreads across the ceiling. Made of thousands of colored crayons, the installation is a pointillist depiction of the underbelly of the Williamsburg Bridge at sunrise, looking from Brooklyn toward the Manhattan skyline. Hanging on the wall behind the self-check-in pods is a series of hand-painted skateboards by local artists.
Moxy Williamsburg’s cocktail bar and all-day café, Bar Bedford, has motorized liquor risers made of blackened metal that rise 20 feet behind glass and white oak panels, holding 1,500 bottles of wine and liquor. The shelves move up and down like dumbwaiters, giving bartenders access to special bottles. This custom-fabricated system was inspired by New York’s old Automats, fast food restaurants popular in the first half of the 20th century where customers would pick up their food from a wall of glass-fronted cubbies.
As found in Lightstone’s other Moxy hotels, Moxy Williamsburg has three meeting studios, breakaway spaces designed to be used for private events and co-working. The studios have modular sofas and worktables that fold down to become credenzas—all designed to be easily rearranged, transforming the spaces as day turns into night. The rooms can be combined to accommodate larger groups, and open onto Bar Bedford Garden, an adaptable alfresco space in the rear of the hotel.
With floor-to-ceiling windows, the 216 bedrooms at Moxy Williamsburg use streamlined shapes and organic materials like birch and steel. Rooms range from 165–210 square feet and include kings, executive kings, double queens and quad bunks. Storage solutions include wall-mounted pegs that guests can fold open or close as needed, an open closet and under-bed cubbies. A desk folds down from the wall to provide a workspace.
"Williamsburg is a microcosm of everything that’s trendsetting about New York City: It has the edgiest boutiques, the most innovative restaurants, the most daring bars. That’s why more and more people are putting it on their must-visit lists—and it’s why we’ve opened Moxy Williamsburg,” Hochberg said. “Not only can Moxy guests stay in the heart of the neighborhood, but by breaking bread at Mesiba, toasting the Manhattan skyline at LilliStar, and dancing the night away at Jolene with Brooklyn’s best DJs, they'll get a strong dose of Williamsburg’s energy, all within the walls of the hotel.”