Living with Legends

State Senator Tom Duane’s office—and in particular his aid Jared Chausow— was very helpful in getting the Department of Buildings (DOB) to issue the Stop Work Order halting the illegal construction in the building (including Bob Dylan’s room), and for that we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.  As Duane stated in a recent Chelsea Now article, the crux of the matter is whether or not a Certificate of No Harassment  (CONH) is required for major construction work—and that’s for the DOB to decide.  
             However, the DOB can’t do its job properly if it doesn’t have the correct information in front of it, and that’s what happened in this case: the DOB granted a permit based on false information.  Andrew Tilley, as general manager of the hotel, is ultimately responsible for guaranteeing the legality of any work that goes on here, but it wasn’t him who falsified the permit application, since the document was submitted to the DOB before his tenure began. 
    So who falsified the Permit application, saying that the Chelsea is not an SRO? The obvious place to start is with the people who signed it: minority shareholder David Elder, representing the ownership of the hotel, and an architect who also happens to be a tenant of the hotel.  Now if you’ve been following this blog then you know that we don’t have much good to say about Elder, who is living at the hotel rent free and seems to be trying to make a living by bilking old men out of their money and property (ie.
Stanley Bard and Piri Thomas).  We would expect as much from Elder. 
            But what of the Tenant-Architect, a person well-liked and respected around the hotel, apparently an ethical person as well?  Aside from the potential damage to his fellow tenants, we find it hard to believe that he would knowingly endanger his livelihood—risking his architectural license, as well as his right to sign off on permits of this sort—for such a half-assed boondoggle of a job.   Admittedly, it may be hard for people to feel sympathy for somebody who was hired as  an expert to sign off on the construction permit, but we have reason to believe that certain lies were told to him, and certain promises made, that may have influenced his judgment in this matter.
            Still, it will be difficult for us to prove that this tenant-architect was unknowingly used to commit what is coming to look increasingly like fraud.  We can only urge him to step forward and let his story be told, before he’s used as a scapegoat in this case.
    

Some of you may be wondering why, with occupancy for the past weekend at about 40%, and housekeeping staff reportedly being laid off, we continue to see new hires bebopping around the hotel.   Chief among these is Larry McLaughlin, who, out of the blue, has sent tenants a couple of memos lately.

            Oddly enough, as he wears a suit to work, McLaughlin is being billed as Chief of Engineering.  Obviously he doesn’t intend to get his hands dirty in this job, so don’t bother asking him to fix your toilet or change a lightbulb.  As no other engineers appear to have been laid off, McLaughlin seems to represent simply another layer of management inserted between the actual engineers who do the work (and who have their own boss, apparently still in charge) and the high command.  Nice to know we have money to burn around here.

            Seriously, though, folks, what’s the real story?  Well, this can perhaps be gleaned by looking at McLaughlin’s work history.  He held a similar post at the Paramount/Hard Rock Hotel, Piccadilly Andrew Tilley’s old stomping ground, but more important, he’s presently the Hotel Sub-Committee Chair of the Codes and Regulations/Government Affairs Committee of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of New York, an organization that consults with, and lobbies government on, issues relating to  building codes.  In other words, McLaughlin is a code specialist.  The idea, apparently, is for McLaughlin to use his expertise to bring the Chelsea  into compliance with existing building codes, so that the hotel can then apply for a Certificate of Non Harassment, which will allow renovations to the hotel to proceed legally.  (BD Hotels was in the process of implementing a similar plan, remember, but minority shareholder Marlene Krauss felt they were moving too slowly.)

Far from hinting at any ulterior motives that might suggest themselves, we think this is a great idea.  As long as individual tenants’ rights are respected, the hotel should be brought into compliance with building codes, which are there, after all, to insure our safety.  And if, when the building is brought up to code, the HPD sees fit to grant the hotel a Certificate of Non Harrassment, we will welcome a minimal, non-disruptive, historically sensitive restoration of the hotel, by licensed contractors under proper governmental oversight.

            That’s a far cry from what’s going on now, with permit applications being falsified so that historically-significant rooms (such as Bob Dylan’s) can be quickly trashed by sledgehammer-wielding vandals with no compunctions about spreading potentially-hazardous dust throughout the hotel.  

I can’t imagine that this sort of anarchic construction boondoggle is what McLaughlin had in mind when he took this job.  Happening as it did on McLaughlin’s watch, this blatant disregard for the law and for tenant safety, not to mention the utter contempt shown for all governmental authority, can’t but reflect to his discredit.  As a respected professional, McLaughlin must be quite concerned about the potential damage to his reputation.  On the other hand, the DOB Stop Work Order levied against the hotel may perhaps give McLaughlin the opportunity to assert his authority in insuring that the building is brought up to code before further construction is attempted.  — Ed Hamilton

The demolition of Bob Dyan’s room, 211, was carried out based on falsified permits, and far exceeded the scope of those permits in any event.  Who do we blame?  General Manager Andrew Tilley!  Tilley will say that the falsified permits were applied for before he became manager, which is true, but the illegal “construction” occurred on his watch.  Obviously he must have known that the permits were for bathroom and kitchen renovation only, since he was the one employing the contractors, and presumably, since he’s responsible for what goes on in the hotel, he would have checked in to see what they were doing a couple of times.  But even if he was totally clueless and hence just an incredibly lousy manager, he couldn’t have failed to notice when the DOB officers came into the hotel and slapped a Stop Work order on the building!  And he had to have known that when the construction workers came in the next day and casually took up where they had left off, this was in blatant disregard of the Stop Work order.

Tilley also has a code officer on the staff now, in Larry McLaughlin (how much are they paying this guy?  Housekeeping staff are being laid off, you know), and you’re telling me this guy wouldn’t have informed him that the work exceeded the scope of the permits?!  Far from trying to stop the “construction,” Tilley seems to have been desperate to allow it to proceed, possibly because he was hired to renovate the place (albeit presumably in a legal manner) and the tyrannical minority shareholder Marlene Krauss was breathing down his neck.  And so we have to ask, now that he’s failed in this renovation attempt and hence has outlived his usefulness to Marlene, how much longer will Tilley be sticking around?  Will he be able to overtake BD Hotels?  The scorecard reads:

Stanley Bard: 50 years
                BD Hotels: 8 months

Andrew Tilley: 5 months and counting

Adding insult to injury, the destruction of Bob Dylan’s room was carried out in a slipshod and negligent manner, with workers breaking the place up with sledgehammers with no regard for the consequences to the health and safety of the residents of the building.  Dust was broadcast throughout the building because the incompetent workers didn’t bother to cover vents or, apparently, to take any other obvious precautions such as damping the dust down.  In one resident’s apartment, three floors up, white dust hung in the air and thickly coated every surface in the kitchen, living room, and bedroom, forcing the resident to flee the apartment out of concerns for his health.  (I was in the room for five minutes, tops, and I was coughing all night!)  The clean-up for this room alone reportedly cost the hotel $3000!!!  (Tilley has reportedly threatened to evict people for less.)  And Manager Arnold Tamasar told another resident that the dust went all the way to the tenth floor!  How could Tilley not have known that this was going on?

“I want to work in a cooperative manner with residents to restore this place,” Tilley told Chelsea Now, vowing to “refurbish and renovate the hotel while preserving the heart and soul of the building.”  Instead, he sprung this half-assed “renovation” on us unawares, rushing willy-nilly to trash a beloved historic room before anyone could get wind of it and try to stop him.  Tilley came to the hotel without doing his homework, thinking he was going to turn this place into another Hard Rock theme hotel.  Tilley is an outsider, with none but the shallowest understanding of the history of the hotel, and, as recent events demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt, he absolutely must not be entrusted with its legacy.

            (But hey, maybe he’ll let us hang our paintings in the rubble-strewn wreckage of Dylan’s apartment!) — Ed Hamilton

Some of you may have received notices lately advising you not to use your fireplaces. Additionally, some people were reportedly told that the reason was that the fireplaces were initially gas burning and that they are going to be reoutfitted for gas.  (Is that what happened to the fireplace in Bob Dyaln's room?  Reoutfitted for gas!) Well, that sounded absurd to us, so we asked Chelsea Hotel historian Sherill Tippins, author of the upcoming Dream Palace, to look into the matter for us:

In Hubert & Pirsson's "The Chelsea: Home-Club Apartments," the cooperative's prospectus written by the architect Philip Hubert and dated 1884, the building is described as having steam heating powered by boilers in the basement, with radiators in the apartments. Steam is also used for cooking, though "provisions have been made for those who desire to use gas for cooking, thus giving tenants the advantage of all known improvements." Otherwise, it seems, gas is used only for lighting.

The fireplace in the lobby is described as "an open fire-place for wood fire, with a handsome mantel beautifully carved and inlaid with tiles."

The brochure includes an illustration of a fireplace with a wood-burning fire, though there's no indication whether this is supposed to be the fireplace in the lobby or in an apartment.

There are several paragraphs about the purchase of coal for the apartments. "The Company will buy their coal by the cargo at the lowest price, and will serve it to tenants in cans by a system of tickets, each ticket entitling the holder to one can containing one hundred pounds of coal….All kinds of fuel will be served after the same manner, so that you pay for what you receive and no more…"

So, it looks like they used coal for the private fireplaces, and for their kitchen ranges in most cases, I guess, and wood for the lobby fireplace. But there's absolutely no reference to gas logs or gas-fed fireplaces–which in any case don't seem to have been introduced to New York City until around 1893.

"Thus was the Hotel Chelsea, New York's first co-operative apartment complex, introduced into the city's fierce rental food chain. An excerpt from the March 29th, 1884 Record and Guide betrays the optimism of the experiment's earliest participants: "The owners of the various apartments do not think that running expenses will cost them anything, as the stores on the ground floor & the two upper stories are retained for tenants, so as to bring in an income." In addition to the points enumerated in the Real Estate Record and Guide, the building included wrought-iron balconies, apartments of one to seven rooms (built to the purchaser's specifications), high ceilings, fire and sound-proof walls, wood-burning fireplaces, and private penthouses. A unique iron staircase, constructed with a wrought-iron balustrade and mahogany banister, ran (and still runs) from the lobby to the twelfth floor."