Living with Legends

The present, illegitimate, management this week began demolition/“renovation” in room 614 of the National and City Landmark Chelsea Hotel.  This is the room where the great Arthur Miller lived in the 1960s, and where he penned his play “After the Fall.”  The room is virtually unchanged from the time when Miller lived there, and contains many original features.  It has most recently been the home and work space of Dr. Peter Ferro, a dentist who was evicted from the hotel last year.  
    We feel that Miller’s room is a valuable resource for present and future generations of writers and playwrights, and that it should be preserved.  Unfortunately, due to the present management’s utter contempt for history, tradition, and the arts, we have every reason to fear that this room will end up much like Bob Dylan’s room—that is, unceremoniously gutted.

    As was the case with the demolition of Dylan’s room, we feel that the hotel has fraudulently obtained the permits for work on room 614.   In their applications for flooring, kitchen, and bathroom renovations, they falsely state that the Chelsea is not an SRO building, when in fact it is.  They further falsely state that the hotel does not contain rent stabilized units, when in  fact it does.  This allows the hotel to avoid the requirement that they obtain a Certificate of No Harassment—which, due to ongoing harassment, they’ll never get in a million years.

We thought we had cleared up this matter of permit falsification with the DOB in connection with the work on Dylan's room — for which they issued a Stop Work Order which is still in effect — but apparently they can't be bothered to read their own paperwork.

Earlier posts about Arthur Miller's room
Arthur Miller’s Suite Vacated, Likely Endangered by Some Asinine Scheme

Photo: (Bill Bolcom, Arnold Weinstein, and Arthur Miller at work in the Chelsea Hotel on the opera based on Miller's play, A View From the Bridge.) Source. Opera News.