M Social New York Downtown Hotel
At 55 Church Street, in the heart of Manhattan’s Financial District, M Social New York Downtown has been reintroduced as a newly renovated hotel where modern design and city life intersect. Previously known as the Millenium hotel and following a $50 million full renovation, the property has been comprehensively reimagined, from its arrival experience to its public spaces, positioning the hotel as a social hub for Downtown Manhattan. With 569 redesigned guest rooms and 98 suites, many oriented toward expansive views of the Oculus, One World Trade Center, the Hudson River, and the Brooklyn Bridge, the hotel’s transformation is designed to support both momentum and pause, business travel and extended stays. In a hotel like this, the experience is not confined to the lobby or the room. It is shaped in the transitions, the moments in between, the spaces that move guests from street level to restaurant, meeting floors, and rooms above. That is where elevator interiors become more than a functional requirement. They become part of the property’s design language, repeated dozens, sometimes hundreds, of times each day.
For this multi-elevator interior project, United Vertical Group delivered an ultra-modern cab design defined by high contrast, reflective surfaces, and a precise lighting grid that reads as both architectural and immersive. Working with Avalon Collective (interior designer), Nouveau Elevator Industries (elevator contractor) and VDA (elevator consultant), the scope centered on a complete interior package with a material palette and lighting strategy designed to feel intentional from every angle.
The ceiling sets the tone immediately. A drop ceiling faced with Colourtex Black Mirror by Rimex Metals creates a dark, reflective plane that amplifies the light geometry below. The back wall is faced with two butt-joint panels of Black Onyx Glass, while the lower back condition introduces two panels of Black Gloss laminate by Formica, divided by an ASI Channel LED Strip by Acolyte. The result is a clean, composed hierarchy, reflective above, grounded below, and sharply defined by a single, continuous line of light.
The side walls extend that logic into a full grid composition. Both left and right walls feature an upper and lower layout that maintains consistency in proportion and rhythm. The upper sections are composed of nine panels of Colourtex Black Mirror by Rimex Metals, separated by ASI Channel LED Strips by Acolyte, forming a crisp grid. Below, that grid continues through six panels faced with Black Gloss laminate by Formica, again separated by the same LED channel strips. Perimeter lighting further frames the enclosure, with ASI Channel LED Strip by Acolyte encasing the walls to reinforce the geometry and sharpen the cab’s edges.
A consistent blackened metal package completes the envelope. A flat Blackened Stainless Steel handrail runs across the walls, while the transom, frieze/reveals, doors, and fronts are all faced with Blackened Stainless Steel, maintaining a unified finish across touchpoints and thresholds. Underfoot, the cab is grounded with Solitude LVT Flooring by Shaw Contract in a Char color, reinforcing the overall tonal discipline of the interior.
At M Social New York Downtown, these elevator interiors are more than a finished surface. They connect the hotel’s key touchpoints, from the arrival sequence to the restaurant, meeting floors, and guestrooms above, reinforcing the same design point of view throughout the property.
In hospitality, the strongest renovations are defined by continuity. Elevators are one of the few spaces every guest experiences repeatedly, often at moments when attention is heightened: arriving, transitioning to an event, heading to dinner, returning late. When they are treated with the same material discipline and lighting intent as the public spaces, they do more than move people vertically. They carry the design narrative in motion.
