A satellite view of a small building complex with surrounding city streets and buildings.
Modern outdoor patio area with chairs and tables, surrounded by greenery and enclosed by a multi-story glass building with a colorful modern facade.
Modern office lobby with wooden floors, a reception desk, and a large blue 'pod' sign on the wall. There is a seating area outside with benches and people. The space has a glass ceiling and a second-floor balcony with red chairs.
Collage of hotel room and bathroom with modern design. Features include a bathroom with shower, toilet, and sink; a bunk bed with a ladder; a bedside table with a safe; neatly rolled towels on a shelf; and a bed with a small lamp and power outlet.

The success of the Pod Hotel relies on intelligent and efficient design to provide attractive, spacious-feeling lodgings. Each room is about one hundred square feet. To accommodate this, bathrooms are included in the room space and enclosed with glass dividers to expand the visual dimensions of the room. Windows are strategically placed to draw the eye outside. Storage, work spaces, and seating areas are optimized so that every surface is used for a function.

A construction worker is guiding a large prefab building module being lifted by a crane onto a building site.
Architectural blueprint of two connecting residential floor plans, showing rooms, walls, doors, and furniture layout in black and white.
A busy port with containers and cargo ships, including a large cruise ship and numerous cranes used for loading and unloading cargo.
Interior of a construction site with multiple workers assembling a large wooden structure, possibly a tiny house or a mobile unit, with tools and materials scattered around.

The Driggs Pod is a 100,000 square foot mixed use hotel and commercial development in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The building is located in an old manufacturing district that is transforming into one of the most lively cultural centers outside Manhattan. It provides an affordable place to stay for visitors to New York City travelling on a budget.

Aerial view of an urban rooftop garden with green plants, trees, and outdoor seating areas, surrounded by city buildings, roads, and parked cars.

The Driggs Pod Hotel is designed as a modular system with two rooms and a corridor joined to create ten foot by thirty foot prefabricated components. The modular system is designed on a BIM platform so that it can serve as a shop drawing and fabrication resource for the manufacturer. The manufacturing approach dramatically reduces construction time and trade coordination errors.

A digital 3D rendering of a building frame and a schematic diagram of plumbing system components.

The idea of the Pod Hotel is to reduce cost by minimizing individual room sizes and to maximize social opportunities by providing generous communal spaces. Therefore, the building includes shared amenities, such as planted courtyard spaces, a restaurant and bar, a roof garden, and roof terrace bars.

Rooftop garden with greenery, plants, and trees on top of an apartment building in an urban cityscape with high-rise buildings in the background.
City street scene with modern building featuring glass windows and a sign that reads 'pod', red brick building, trees, bicycles, and pedestrians under a blue sky.
Modern retail building with large glass windows and a blue

Client
Pod Hotel

Status
Complete

Info
2018
Hospitality/Modular
100,000 sf
Brooklyn, NY

Awards
IFDA Selects “Best in Show” BKLYN Designs