The 36 Most Anticipated Hotel Openings of 2021

Graduate Roosevelt Island, New York

The Graduate Roosevelt Island, opening this summer, is one of the more ambitious projects from the brand known for its collection of handcrafted hotels in university-anchored towns. The 18-story property integrated into Cornell Tech (a technology, business, law, and design campus of Cornell University) is a group effort between design architect Snøhetta, architect of record Stonehill Taylor, and Graduate’s in-house team at AJ Capital Partners. Quirky design elements are de rigueur for the brand, and Roosevelt Island is no exception, with 5,000 linear feet of textbooks lining the lobby, floating glass desks and plaid prints in guestrooms, and showstopping statement pieces like artist Hebru Brantley’s 12-foot sculpture that reinterprets his iconic Flyboy character found at reception. The hotel will also include a ground floor restaurant, an indoor-outdoor rooftop bar and lounge, and over 3,000 square feet of flexible meeting space by New York natives, Med Abrous and Marc Rose of Call Mom.

Photo by Steve Freihon Photography