11 Howard

The Building

Start with the provenance, because it explains the rest. 11 Howard is not a new tower but a plain 1961 commercial structure stripped to its frame and rethought — the first independent hotel by Anda Andrei, who spent roughly three decades as Ian Schrager's design director before stepping out on her own here. She brought in the Copenhagen studio Space Copenhagen (Signe Bindslev Henriksen and Peter Bundgaard Rützou) for the interiors and the custom furniture, with developer Aby Rosen, an art collector, behind the project. It opened in April 2016, and its discipline shows: an Alexander Calder mobile turns slowly in the double-height lobby, setting the register for everything above it.

The address does the second half of the work. 11 Howard Street sits at the SoHo crossroads where the neighbourhood meets Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Bowery at once, and the building's corner position and height give its 207 rooms and suites the 11-foot ceilings and oversized windows that are genuinely uncommon this far downtown. Natural light, not square footage, is the luxury here.

The Design Hotels membership establishes the aesthetic framework: wide-plank light oak floors, handcrafted furniture, naturally dyed fabrics, and the custom artwork that the brand's curation programme commissions from local artists. The design is restraint rather than minimalism, there is warmth in the materials and specificity in the choices, and the 11-foot ceiling heights amplify both qualities. The result is a room that reads as the most carefully edited SoHo hotel environment available below the Mercer's price point.

Le Coucou, Daniel Rose's Michelin-starred French dining room adjoining the lobby (one star in the 2025 guide), handles dinner at a level most hotel restaurants in this city do not approach; book ahead or plan to eat in the neighbourhood. The Blond, the hotel's lounge and bar, supplies cocktails and late-night energy, not meals. The hotel's scale, 207 rooms, and its location at the SoHo-Chinatown border make it the natural base for guests exploring downtown Manhattan's most concentrated cultural geography.

Howard Street's position places the hotel within immediate walking range of the galleries of West Broadway, the food markets of Canal Street, the restaurants of the Bowery corridor, and the SoHo shopping circuit. The Manhattan Bridge approach is three blocks east; the Williamsburg Bridge is accessible by bicycle along the canal street route. For guests whose New York programme is centred on downtown rather than Midtown, 11 Howard provides the Design Hotels standard at the geography's most interesting intersection.

Best for Solo Retreat

The 11-foot ceiling and the naturally dyed fabric palette create an interior with the material quality that Scandinavian-influenced design produces when it is applied to a New York hotel room: a room that does not strain for effect but produces a specific comfort that sustains extended occupation. The SoHo-Chinatown crossroads provides the stimulus; the room provides the contrast. Le Coucou handles dinner when you can get the table; the neighbourhood handles the rest.

Best for Business

The downtown Manhattan business case for 11 Howard is the Design Hotels differentiation: a client who stays here is being accommodated in a property that reflects a specific curatorial intelligence rather than a brand-standard execution. For creative-industry, fashion, and tech business travel centred on SoHo and Tribeca, the hotel's address and design standard signal a professional sensibility that the Marriott or Hilton flag cannot carry. The 11-foot ceilings keep a long working day from feeling boxed in.

From $244/night; suites from $600/night. Check availability at 11howard.com.