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Chelsea Hotel Rooftop Gardens, Among First Such Gardens in the City, Endangered

Chelsea Hotel historian Sherill Tippins, author of the forthcoming history of the hotel,   Chelseaseeingeye “Dreampalace,”  weighs in on the roof garden issue.  This should give the building’s tenants a bit of ammunition in their fight against the destruction of the gardens.  Obviously it wasn’t the original intent of the architect to have a club on the roof.

Chelsea architect Philip Hubert, 1884: The roof "will be reserved for the exclusive use of the occupants..It will be fitted up with seats and awnings, and will be found a cool and delightful resort in summer."

Is there no landmark protection for one of first roof gardens in the city? Hubert is considered the inventor of the New York roof garden.

(Photo: The All Seeing Eye of the Roof Top)

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10 responses to “Chelsea Hotel Rooftop Gardens, Among First Such Gardens in the City, Endangered”

  1. Sherill Avatar
    Sherill

    The rooftop pyramid was originally intended as a private clinic where residents could recuperate from illness, yet be visited by neighbors, in the privacy of the collective home.
    And don’t forget the poem, “Roofland,” written by Chelsea resident Stillman Foster Kneeland, a lawyer, art collector and amateur artist, in 1914:
    “The night grows gray as we linger
    And music fills the street;
    But we heed not the song, or the singer,
    Or the rhythmical patter of feet:
    For our souls are in tune
    With the gay old moon,
    And our little world is complete…”

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  2. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Just what we all need sometimes…our own padded-room on the roof!
    I’d have no trouble mending my last six mental collapses with a view like that. Unless of course there was no trees, plants or anything else to lend the roof hominess which is exactly what management has in mind for the future

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  3. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    What a sacrilige to clear the roof! They will destroy the Chelsea’s entire character before its finished!

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  4. Cat Martinez Avatar
    Cat Martinez

    It is still a mystery to me why your city’s Historical Builing society has not stepped in to preserve the Chelsea. Perhaps you could explain that in a post?

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  5. Rochelle Harmon Avatar
    Rochelle Harmon

    Residents:
    Instead of indulging in fabricated rumors about who reported the rooftop to the DOB, you should actually get moving in an effort to prevent this from happening. You know, instead of merely regurgitating said rumors you’ve heard and that would seem nonsensical to anyone possessing a hint of common sense.
    Everyone taking their medication knows that it was New Management that called in the violations, violations which no one but a licensed architect or architects could have even suspected were “violations” to begin with. Their goal is to retaliate against long term tenants and turn Residents against one another. End of story.
    So lets get up and do something to preserve this thing we all love; stand the fuk up for what you believe in, or hey — just shut the fuk up. I’m not alone in this sentiment.
    You simply have no one to blame but yourself if you live here and have not taken some positive action of your choosing to save the rooftop from being taken apart by these pathetic Never-Weres named Tilley, Tamasar, Elder, Krauss. You’ll be left among those saying “remember when”. If nothing else, join the global mantra and ‘Get Green’. We CANNOT afford to let this happen.
    Its so true there are plenty here at the Chelsea whose only interest is being able to include the Hotel’s address on their bizness card or website. But try to grow a spine for once and point the fingers where they belong: in the air, toward this unique place of solace we’re all about to lose to corporate Greed.
    Just DO something. You’ll be glad you did.

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  6. Newsboy Avatar
    Newsboy

    Rumor has it that Tilley is replacing the All Seeing Eye mural with yet another surveillance camera.
    You heard it here first.

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  7. Avatar
    Anonymous

    what kind of “delightful resort” has full time security keeping us out?

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  8. Avatar
    Anonymous

    If there was a problem with the rooftop gardens it was overlooked for approximately 125 years, until this wanker Tilley rolled into town – now they’re endangered all of a sudden. Coincidence? Not hardly.
    This is sabotage by Management who don’t own a share of interest in the Hotel and don’t give a good goddamn.
    Nevermind gutting Bob Dylan’s apartment with falsified city permits, did anybody see the antique wooden Hotel doors buzz-sawed in half and laying on 23rd Street to be picked up by Sanitation? At least a half dozen, mangled and put out with the trash. What, Andrew Tilley? You’ve never heard of sandpaper and paint? Those could have been recycled quite easily. Tilley should know this. After all, isn’t that what our New Management is? Recycled waste? He and his whole ‘team’ were discarded by their last employers, only to be resurrected here as out and out slumlords.

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  9. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Marlene Krauss and David Elder are vampires. Andrew Tilley is a bloodsucker also, perhaps a tick.

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  10. Avatar
    Anonymous

    http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/OverviewForComplaintServlet?requestid=3&vlcompdetlkey=0001097405
    HERE IS TILLEY HARASSING EL QUIJOTE RESTAURANT FOR NO GOOD REASON. AN ONGOING PATTERN.
    LEAVE THEM ALONE, TILLEY! THEY WON’T SELL AND THEY WON’T LEAVE EARLY! THEY ARE A PART OF THIS HOTEL, UNLIKE YOU, SIR.

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