Graduate Roosevelt Island is the first ever hotel on the historic Roosevelt Island in New York City.
The 224-key, 18-story hotel offers city views and spacious guest rooms plus unique food & beverage concepts including: Anything At All, a full-service restaurant on the ground level; The Panorama Room, an extraordinary indoor-outdoor rooftop bar and lounge with views of the city; and over 3,000 square feet of onsite flexible meeting space. This summer, the hotel has also transformed its ballroom into “The Loft”, an interactive space inspired by the iconic film, BIG.
Take a look at the hotel.
Opened June 1, 2021, Graduate Roosevelt Island is part of the Graduate Hotels collection at the Cornell Tech campus on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. Serving as the island’s first hotel, Graduate Roosevelt Island marks the brand’s 29th property and New York City debut. Located at 22 North Loop Road, the hotel offers a scholastic retreat in the middle of the East River with bright, modern spaces and breathtaking views of Manhattan, Queens and beyond.
Positioned at the entrance of the Cornell Tech campus, and designed by Snøhetta, and New York City-based hospitality-focused architecture firm, Stonehill Taylor, with interior design from Graduate Hotels’ in-house team, the hotel blends Old School and New Age, taking inspiration from both the rich history of Roosevelt Island and the future of technology that the Cornell Tech campus embodies. The futuristic and functional meld to create a space that’s bright, open and always interesting.
Upon entering, guests are greeted with a custom 12-foot statement sculpture created by Hebru Brantley that reinterprets his iconic Flyboy character and a neon Graduate sign situated above the reception desk, which is a reimagined vintage apothecary cabinet. Nods to the island’s storied history can be seen through the corridor behind the front desk, which features a gallery of black and white photographs of the Roosevelt family. The spacious lobby is lined with 5,000 linear feet of textbooks and floor-to-ceiling windows to create a bright and airy space warmed up with Persian-inspired rugs, mid-century light fixtures and pops of Cornell Big Red hues throughout. The lobby is also home to the hotel’s full-service, all-day restaurant with a statement wraparound bar anchoring the space and a variety of inviting lounge seating.
Graduate Roosevelt Island hotel offers 224 spacious guest rooms and suites including a Presidential Suite spanning over 1,100 square feet and ideal for entertaining. The guest rooms offer a familiar, residential experience paired with views of the East River and Manhattan skyline. The décor plays with technology throughout the ages as seen through lamps with a Morse code of the Cornell fight song on the base, a neon light fixture inspired by a science project from a Cornell alum, floating glass desks and integrated audiovisual devices.
Local elements and nods to Roosevelt Island are also incorporated throughout the guest rooms. Design highlights include benches upholstered with oil painting-like tapestry of Dutch colonial life, custom art pieces created by Matt Buchholz and Brooklyn-based artist Ashley Cunningham and a thoughtfully curated gallery wall showcasing unique pieces including portraits of prominent figures in the island’s history such as Nellie Bly and Mae West.
Los Angeles-based hospitality team and New York City natives, Med Abrous and Marc Rose of Call Mom, are the exclusive food and beverage partners at Graduate Roosevelt Island, marking the duo’s homecoming and their third collaboration with Graduate Hotels, which also includes Graduate Seattle and Graduate Nashville. The hotel includes the full-service restaurant, Anything At All, on the ground level; The Panorama Room, an extraordinary indoor-outdoor rooftop bar and lounge with unobstructed, sweeping views of the city; and, over 3,000 square feet of onsite flexible meeting space all concepted and operated by Abrous and Rose.
Abrous and Rose have tapped a talented, female-led team including Executive Chef Ja’Toria Harper, Pastry Chef Lindsey Verardo and Beverage Director Estelle Bossy to oversee all food and beverage programs. Opening later in June, Anything At All will serve breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. Rooted in a vegetable-forward, farm-first approach to contemporary comfort food, the light-drenched indoor-outdoor space features a sustainable synergy between the kitchen and the bar whose playful, creative frozen drinks and seasonal spritzes will take center stage at brunch. In advance of opening, the ground floor restaurant offers a sneak peek of the menu with a selection of grab & go items available for takeout and delivery via ChowNow and DeliverZero, the innovative service which delivers food in reusable containers.
Additionally, Rose and Abrous have partnered with Brooklyn’s Variety Coffee which will be served at the hotel in addition to the solar and battery-powered Poindexter Coffee Bike Cart that will be parked out front offering coffee and a curated selection of morning and afternoon grab-and-go items.
Situated atop the hotel, The Panorama Room, is the stunning 168-seat rooftop bar and lounge designed by James Beard Foundation Award-winning design firm, Parts and Labor Design. Opening in July 2021, the crown jewel of the property will evoke a sense of cinematic drama inspired by futurism creating a true destination for fashion-forward elegance in an intimate space all set against unobstructed city views.
The hotel’s third floor features a variety of distinct multi-use meeting and event spaces set against clear skyline views, offering the perfect venue for every occasion from weddings to off-site corporate meetings. This summer, Graduate Hotels has transformed its ballroom into a space for collaboration inspired by the iconic film BIG. Known as “The Loft” at Graduate Roosevelt Island, this pop culture moment creates an opportunity for families, local businesses and private groups to catch up on lost time in a space that sparks creative energy and taps into the power of nostalgia. “The Loft” is available for private bookings online here and families can join the fun at Family Saturdays this summer, a series of kid-friendly activities in partnership with PlayDay.
Graduate Roosevelt Island is easily accessible from the F Train, NYC Ferry and the Tramway. Rates start at $219 per night.
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Jimmy Im has traveled to 113 countries, stayed in over 600 hotels and has flown a million airmiles. He lives in New York City.