In a city notorious for distractions, the CitizenM Bowery is a rare haven for focus.

There’s a famous Carrie Bradshaw quote that was referenced not once, not twice, but six times during my stay this past fashion week: “In New York, you’re always looking for a job, boyfriend, or apartment.” Well, I’d like to request an amendment: you’re also, always, searching for a space to co-work. 

There’s a reason why WeWork and The Wing took off with such momentum when they were introduced to Manhattan pre-pandemic. That tiny island – while abundant with viral pizza and increasingly niche latte offerings – is still, unfortunately, tiny, and thus afflicted with very little places for transient creatives to crack open a computer. I am someone who struggles to work if not in a public space – an early adopter of the ‘body doubling’ method, perhaps, or maybe just prone to loneliness. Either way, every time I land in NYC, any erratic flash of service on the train from JFK is dedicated to clicking through Google Maps; specifically seeking coffee shops with photos of chairs and tables. My system, now, is well-established: arrive at my hotel, and reroute immediately toward my new coworking destination. 

During this stay, my hotel was the CitizenM Bowery. Truthfully, I did little research on the property before arriving on a blistering February day during New York Fashion Week, but good enough for me was the name “Bowery” – which is an unbelievably central part of downtown, nestled in the lower east side between Nolita, Soho and Chinatown. I knew it was next door to the fi-di reaching J train, as well as the Brooklyn-connecting F and 6 that would take me, straight shot, to the Tory Burch show on the Upper East Side. I had imagined my time at the hotel itself to be minimal, treating it not unlike my apartment when I actually lived in New York City: an extremely brief stopover between engagements. And then I walked in.

To the left of the lobby were rows of built-in seating descending, colosseum-like, into the ground. On almost every accompanying table were laptops, and behind them, people talking animately. The floor itself was dotted with study hall-type seating – wide tables with lamps and communal couches – orbiting an open-air coffee shop-cum-bar. There was an outdoor space with more seating, and in the far corner, a breakfast buffet available to hotel guests. The croissants and cereal and salmon had been swapped for afternoon snacks, and young professionals milled around, selecting a bag of chips and filling aluminum bottles from the sparkling water tap. And just like that, I found Mecca. 

There are only seven CitizenM locations across the US, but they’re designed for guests like me: tech fluent, usually solo, travelers who need an office as much as a convenient homebase. While the Bowery location has all the essentials, a gym, a rooftop restaurant with stunning views of downtown, it’s set apart with how it caters to the digital gen. You self check-in by screen, and in the rooms, the lights, curtains, climate and even TV are all controllable via one iPad. At every table in the hotel’s ‘Living Room’ is an outlet for chargers – if you know, you know – and the WiFi is free and instantly accessible. One workday, a creative director friend met me in the Living Room, and we worked in (mostly) silence until I had to leave for a lunch meeting. “Wait- can I stay?” She asked. “It’s so comfy.” Three hours later, I returned to find her in the same spot, with a fresh tea. 

Throughout my travels I’ve been lucky enough to stay at some of the most beautiful, historic hotels in the world – The Dorchester in London, Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles – but almost all of them are designed before the dawn of the remote worker. Instead, they cater to the definitively offline, and anyone hoping to separate work and home life by escaping their hotel room is forced to sit in the hotel restaurant, awkwardly disrupting the holidays of those around them. While it’s wonderful (and obviously ideal) in theory to be out-of-office when you’re out of town, in practice, deadlines must still be met, calls must still be taken and having a space to do so is true luxury.  In New York City, that’s the CitizenM Bowery.