The Crosby Street Hotel, the newest member of Design Hotels in the Americas, is now open. This is the first overseas venture for husband and wife team Tim and Kit Kemp, owners of London-based Firmdale Hotels.

Kit Kemp has conceived 40 different design schemes for 86 bedrooms and suites, creating a hotel unlike any other in New York City. The 11-story hotel was built from the ground up with the aim to achieve Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, and the result is an eco-luxe gem in the heart of New York's vibrant SoHo.

The Crosby Bar offers food and drinks throughout the day. Seasonal produce like strawberries, heirloom tomatoes and lettuces will come from the rooftop kitchen garden. In addition, an area of the garden will be rotated yearly with a 10-chicken coop. A patio also provides a green oasis for outdoor dining. Guests can enjoy afternoon tea or the sculpture garden. Descending the oak stairs from the lobby leads into an area for private event spaces.

A boldly colored open reception area with bright Peter Rocklin paintings leads into three interconnecting private dining and meeting rooms. The Crosby Street Hotel Screening Room, a state-of-the-art private cinema, is a stunning space with 99 orange leather Poltrona Frau chairs and walls padded in violet wool.

Rooms and suites, many with views of downtown Manhattan, come fully equipped with a flat-screen LCD television, DVD/CD player, iPod docking station, Wi-Fi, fully-stocked mini-bar and personal safe. Bathrooms are executed in light gray granite, oak and glass, and are outfitted with rain showers -- some also feature oversized bathtubs. The bath products have been created by Miller Harris exclusively for the hotel.

A true American woodland meadow, featuring an array of more than 50 native flowering plants, has been planted on the terrace of room 203, affectionately called "The Meadow Suite." Though accessible only to those who book the suite, the meadow provides all guests a soothing view. The flowering plants will blossom in stages throughout the seasons, creating a colorful and vibrant green space. This is not the only green feature of the hotel -- Crosby Street plans to attain Gold LEED certification by the US Green Building Council. The hotel's ecological responsibility ranges from use of regional or recycled building materials to green power, water use reduction and education of guests. For more information, visit www.designhotels.com/crosbystreet.