Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

Chelsea Hotel Plague of the Day: Cheap Construction Materials

How much sheetrock does it take to reconstruct solid brick walls that have been torn down and carted off to the landfill?  Quite a bit it would seem!

Chelsea Hotel Plague of the Day: A Depression Era Dustbowl-Inspired Wasteland

The dust my friend is blowing in the wind.

Chelsea Hotel Plague of the Day: No More Art Supplies

The Utrecht Art Supplies store across the street from the Chelsea Hotel is being gutted!  I guess with the artists being evicted from the Chelsea, there's no one left to buy art supplies.  Actually, not to worry, the sign on the art store's door says they'll be reopening on August 18.  Maybe they're going to start selling mold test kits and HEPA filters in their new incarnation, as that's what the artists need now more than paint brushes. 

Chelsea Hotel Plague of the Day: Phantom Art

Phantom art left by the ghosts of artists past (perhaps in protest over the theft of their real art).

Chelsea Hotel Plague of the Day: MOLD

We've got plenty of mold growing around the Chelsea Hotel, but what we're hoping for is some fresh locally grown mushrooms, surely it's dark and damp enough in these forlorn halls. 

Hotel Chetrit: A Brief Journal of the Plague Year

The Chetrit gang has been in charge of the Chelsea Hotel for a year now.  Despite dozens of law suits in Housing and Supreme court they have been less successful in evicting tenants than the previous Krauss/Elder regime. (Krauss & Elder picked off numerous tenants while preparing the building for sale.) They have, however, been much more successful in demolishing the interior of the historic hotel. (In part, this was because the Hotel was under a full Stop Work Order for two years under Krauss/Elder.  Currently the basement remains under a SWO because of illegal work done during the Krauss/Elder era.) Up until this point they haven't had much success in reconstructing the rooms.  (It's hard to tell whether they are really attempting to finish construction or if it is part of their plan to annoy us as long as possible so we will want to leave.)
In general, our day-to-day plagues include:  dust, mold, loss of electricity, leaks, floods, jackhammers, filty floors, lack of elevator service, lack of art and halls without walls.

 

1. The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave - NY Times, August 1, 2011

2.  The White Wash Begins - The Observer, August 9, 2011

3. A peek inside the Chelsea Hotel renovation - The Real Deal, October 6, 2011

4. Tenants' struggles heat up at the Chelsea Hotel - People's World, December 19, 2011

5. Patti Smith Cancels Concert after Chelsea Hotel Residents Protest, WNYC, December 13, 2011

6. Chelsea Hotel Tenants Head Back to Housing Court, WNYC, May 7, 2012