The glassification of seedy old Times Square marched on Thursday morning with the official “vine-cutting” ceremony to celebrate the opening of the new 36-story InterContinental Hotel, which has brought 607 guest rooms, a Todd English restaurant, lounge and cafe and several measures of eco-friendliness to a long stretch of 44th Street at Eighth Avenue. The hotel, which named its meeting rooms after Manhattan parks, uses compact fluorescent and L.E.D. lights, low-flow toilets, “green” housekeeping products and off-site composting.

“It’s nice to be here at the crossroads of the world to celebrate the opening of the largest hotel built in the city in nearly a decade,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, standing on a platform decorated with ferns and potted bamboo, said of the hotel, which is seeking silver LEED certification. “This hotel is part of the future, with a green roof on the seventh and second floor, in its innovative use of recycled materials and lighting efficiencies.”

The InterContinental — developed by Tishman Hotel and Realty at a site that once housed a parking garage, porn theater and small S.R.O. but now features a busy Shake Shack — is part of a continuing boom in hotels due to open this year. The city has added some 8,000 new rooms in the past two years and is expected to gain 7,500 more before 2011, Mr. Bloomberg said.

But where some analysts see a coming glut, Mr. Bloomberg sees more reasons for tourists to come to the city, saying that while more rooms might depress the rates, lower rates would bring more visitors.

Read the full story at http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/toasting-the-intercontinentals-opening/

Source: InterContinental Hotel