citizenM New York Bowery opened on 12 September 2018 on the Bowery at Delancey Street: 300 rooms in a dark tower with interiors by Concrete, the Amsterdam studio that has long designed for the brand, the rooms built as factory modules. It was built to wear street art. Jonathan "Meres One" Cohen, founder of the 5 Pointz graffiti centre in Queens, led artists from the 5 Pointz circle in painting the stairwell floor by floor, from the rooftop bar to the lobby, as the Museum of Street Art. The New Museum, three minutes up the street, was commissioned to supply art for the bedrooms. Marriott bought the citizenM brand in 2025, and the hotel kept its name.
The rooms follow one plan of about 150 sq ft (14 m²), sold for two. An XL king bed fills the width under a wall-to-wall window and meets the walls on three sides, so there is one way in and out. The rain shower stands in a glass pod in the room, and storage is a few hangers and the space under the bed. An iPad runs the lights, the mood colours, the blackout blinds, the temperature and the TV, and the windows are sold as soundproof. Paying more buys height and outlook, never space: a High floor room, or the Premium view, on a middle to high floor with a panorama over Manhattan that only a few rooms get.
The case is the price and what it pays for. On a late January weeknight the entry room is about $180 before tax, with no destination or facility fee on top. The savings come off the bedroom, not the building. cloudM fills the top floor with a glass-walled indoor bar and, in the warmer months, an outdoor terrace, looking from the Financial District to Midtown and out to Brooklyn, and it is open from 1:30pm to 12:30am every day to anyone 21 or over. Downstairs, canteenM serves food and drink around the clock, the gym is free and open 24 hours, and the living room around the spiral stair is hung with art and has a life-size gorilla in it.
The trade is the room itself. Two people with two suitcases will feel every square foot, and a shower in a glass pod in the bedroom suits a couple better than two friends. Rooms are built for two adults, with no extra beds or cots. There is no coffee maker and no room service, and breakfast costs extra. Book it if you will be out from breakfast to the last drink, want SoHo, Chinatown and Little Italy on foot, and would rather spend the difference on New York than on a bedroom.
