Blueprints: The Chelsea Hotel
It’s Hip and It’s Home
VALERIE REISS
11/10/2000
222 West 23rd Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues)
It’s nearly impossible not to be starstruck by the Chelsea Hotel. This is where Sid killed Nancy and where Janis, Jimi and Andy partied hard. Thomas Wolfe wrote “Look Homeward Angel” in room 831; Arthur C. Clark wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey” in room 1008. And John Wayne, Sarah Bernhardt, Edith Piaf, Arthur Miller, William S. Borroughs, Jane Fonda, Allen Ginsberg, Dylan Thomas, Virgil Thompson, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan and Dee Dee Ramone are among those who have made the Hotel home.
Guide-book-toting tourists show up daily for an aftertaste of this fame. The lobby usually satisfies; paintings and sculptures by residents past and present cover walls and fill corners.
The Hotel was built in 1883 as one of the first co-op apartment buildings in the city. It was also the tallest building in Manhattan until the Park Row building surpassed it in 1902. Delicately wrought iron railings and a top-floor skylight distinguish the 11-story structure. The average studio is between 400 and 500 square feet and has 10-foot ceilings and turbo-thick, soundproof walls. Many rooms have working fireplaces. The building also houses a hair salon, dentist’s office, yoga center, the Holly Solomon art gallery and Serena’s, an excruciatingly hip new bar in the basement.
These days the Hotel’s cachet is strong as ever. Woody Allen shot his new film with Helen Hunt here a few weeks ago; Mariah Carey and Natalie Merchant have both filmed videos here recently; and fashion photographers can’t get enough of the scandal-tinged hallways and great 10th-floor lighting. Recently one resident opened his door, and a model leaning for a chic, slouchy shot, fell into his apartment. “At one point everyone wanted to shoot here and it was like, listen, I live here,” said Rita Barros, a Portuguese photographer and 16-year resident who recently published a book of photographs of the Hotel, “15 Years; the Chelsea Hotel.”
Despite outsiders’ fascination with its racy, celeb-infused past, the building remains a thriving community of artists and writers. The word ‘hotel’ is used loosely; 80 percent of the residents live here full-time. Many have been around for 10, 15, 25, even 60 years. There are also new tenants who hope to get a dose of the Chelsea magic — young professionals who can afford the now-pricey rents. They have brought an influx of a nearly unprecedented type of Hotel dweller: children.
Current residents speak warmly of the Hotel, even though it’s now slightly less “democratic”(the once-shared roof has been divided and claimed, and high rents keep out new artists) and much tamer. Neighbors chat in the elevator and lobby, and call each other to borrow an egg or have coffee—downright touchy-feely compared to most New York buildings. “It’s very much an artists’ space,” said Barros.
Like the naturally cool kid in high school, the Hotel has always attracted both the genuinely hip and the trying-too-hard hipsters just by being its slightly scruffy, tolerant, down-to-earth self. Richard Bernstein, a painter who did 250 covers for Andy Warhol’s “Interview” magazine, has lived in the Hotel for 25 years. After telling several star-studded stories, he said, “I’m talking about the entertaining things [about the hotel], because other than that½ you do your work. You paint, you build stretchers, you work on the computer, you know, like that.”
History: Built in 1883
How many stories? Lots and lots of stories. But there are 11 floors.
Units: 250
Nothing is for sale. Rooms by the night are: $195-$385. Full-time rentals are: $2200-$5500 and unavailable until at least January 1, 2001.
Amenities: Cachet and cable TV. Guests order in food from local restaurants; there are menus in the lobby.
Pets: Doggie Heaven. There is a painting in the lobby dedicated to the “Chelsea Dogs.”
Nearest trains: 1/9, A/C, 23rd Street
Hotel Management: 222 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011, (212) 243-3700