Born and Drukier are really running roughshod over New York. Now they are proposing a massive 9 story glass hotel for
the corner of Washington and Perry. They already have two of their ghastly towers, the Meiers buildings, nearby at 173/176 Perry Street. Additionally, they are responsible for the glass tower at 166 Perry Street. Why has it suddenly become open season along the entire west side of lower Manhattan? West Chelsea, the Meatpacking District, the West Village, and West SoHo are all starting to look like some crappy suburban office park. (It seems like every single project that developers come up with is designed to be the biggest, gaudiest monstrosity they can possibly get away with. Doesn’t it ever occur to any of them to build a modest, attractive building that a reasonable person would be proud to call home? ) Isn’t there room for human scale development or better yet, leaving well enough alone – anywhere in New York?
This kind of megalomaniacal insensitivity to all concerns of context, community, aesthetics, human sensitivity and decency – though patently typical of some New York developers – should be enough to raise red flags for anyone who lives at the Chelsea Hotel – also controlled by BD Hotels for the time being. We don’t want our building to go the way of the West Side of Manhattan. — Ed Hamilton (Photo: Gothamist)
Living with Legends 
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