Construction has started on two towers set to rise in the BAM Cultural District in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Unlike most new projects in the area, one of the buildings to rise off Flatbush Avenue, a 32-story structure designed by Brooklyn-based architect Thomas Leeser, will not be luxury apartments, but a 200-room boutique hotel run by Marriot. The tower is one of the most architecturally distinct high-rises to arrive in Brooklyn in quite some time, with prominent, asymmetrical carve-outs along its glass facade that make it appear as if someone—or something—has slashed through its skin with a knife.

The hotel includes a performance space in the basement, a bar on the roof, and a restaurant at ground level that overlooks a new public plaza. The hotel is sited between the H3 Hardy-designed Theatre for a New Audience, which opened last year, and a mixed-use, 27,000-square-foot project designed by Dattner and SCAPE.

Nearby on the corner of Flatbush and Lafayette avenues, Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos is building another 32-story tower on a wedge-shaped lot. According to AN‘s earlier reporting, that tower “includes approximately 50,000-square-feet of creative and cultural space that will be shared by BAM, 651 ARTS, and the Brooklyn Public Library. In addition, the tower will include approximately 23,000-square-feet of ground-level retail, as well as approximately 300 to 400 apartments, 20 percent of which will be affordable.” Adjacent to the tower is a 16,000-square-foot plaza.