Excavation work is in progress at the site for the AC NoMad Hotel by Marriott, which will hold the record for the world’s tallest modular hotel once it is completed next spring. At 26 stories, the building will tower 114 feet over the current record holder, CitizenM’s New York Bowery Hotel on the Lower East Side.

The hotel at 842 Sixth Avenue will feature 168 rooms, a terrace, and a rooftop bar that capitalizes on its coveted height over the New York City skyline. With 100,000 square feet of space, it will stand just to the left of the Noma—a new residential building, behind the new Virgin Hotel, and across the street from the Kimpton Eventi Hotel.

The project was designed by Danny Forster, who has a particular interest in modular design—a method that involves constructing individual modules offsite and assembling the final product at the build site, which is said to be more time- and cost-effective than traditional construction.

Forster explained modular design was ideal for the project, since it can easily replicate the repeating floor plans and symmetry chosen for the AC. However, not all of the construction will follow this new method. The cast-in-place concrete tower (the building’s central spine) will be made in New York, even as the individual modules will be developed and transported from a factory in Poland. The modules will then be stacked onto the structure as the core is built, allowing for an impressive 90-day turnaround to complete it once it reaches the assembly stage.

This $65 million project is the second hotel developed by the Chun family in NoMad, and it has caught the industry’s attention for its ambitious foray into a technique that hasn’t yet been widely adopted. Our neighborhood will eagerly follow its progress, as the AC could very well be a game changer for New York and NoMad’s hotel industry.