Below is the first 2:42 of Gene Kaufman's presentation at Community Board 4's public hearing on April 4, 2012. (You will need to turn up the volume on your speakers.) Here is a draft of the resolution which CB4 will send to the Landmarks Preservation Committee, which plans to hold a hearing about the Hotel on Tuesday, April 10, at 9:30 A.M., Conference Room at 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor. Additionally, CB4 will send a second letter requesting that LPC delay the process until there is a clearer understanding of the overall plans for the Hotel.
Living with Legends
Hotel Chelsea Blog
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The Landmarks Committee of Community Board 4 voted on March 21 to NOT recommend the Chetrit Group's proposal for an addition to the roof of the Chelsea Hotel. On Wednesday, April 4, the full Community
Board will have an opportunity to respond to the Committee's recommendation and hear other opinions before it makes a final recommendation to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). Among the concerns raised by the Landmarks Committee were: blockage of air and light to residents, the roof's loadbearing capacity, elevator security, and lack of appropriateness of the design. (Photo credit: DNAinfo – Joe Chetrit, Gene Kaufman and Architect)
Additionally, LPC has the Chelsea Hotel listed on their agenda for a public hearing on April 10. The hearing covers: Application to construct roof and rear yard additions, install mechnical equipment and balcony partitions; and replace storefronts, group floor infill, windows and a canopy.
Meeting Schedule:
Community Board 4 – Wednesday, April 4, Fulton Center Auditorium, 119 Ninth Avenue between 17 / 18 Street, 6,30 pm — Arrive early and sign up to speak.Landmarks Preservation Commission - Tuesday, April 10, 2012, at 9:30 A.M., Conference Room at 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor
While it is important to attend these meetings in person if you are unable to attend you can also write a letter expressing your views:
Community Board 4 / Manhattan
330 West 42nd Street, 26th Floor
New York, New York 10036Corey Johnson, Chair CB4
Edward Kirkland, Co-Chair CB4 Landmarks Committee
JD Noland, Co-Chair CB4 Landmarks CommitteeJeanna Chrisphonte
Assistant District Manager
Education, Transportation, Waterfront, Parks, LandmarksLandmarks Preservation Commission
Municipal Building
1 Centre Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10007
Attn: Robert B. Tierney, Chair -
If you watched CBS Sunday Morning News yesterday morning, you saw Patti Smith returning to the Chelsea Hotel, standing in the now artless lobby, and then visiting the room she said she stayed in with Robert Mapplethorpe in 1969. She remarks that it’s just like it was when they lived there.
But it seems that the Chetrits and architect Gene Kaufman fixed room 204 up special for Patti, moving in furniture from elsewhere to make it look like the room had recently been inhabited. Tenant activist Arthur Nash snapped a photo of the unoccupied room two years before Patti’s visit.
Ironically, the only reason room 204 wasn’t gutted, like all the other unoccupied rooms, is that it was being used as a dump for the toxic waste from the demolition of the Chelsea Hotel!
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The Virtual Hotel Chelsea which was created by Mykal Skall in May 2009 was recently forced to scale back its operations because to keep the Virtual Hotel Chelsea afloat was taking a considerable amount
of energy, money, and time of a few dedicated individuals. Mykal's announcement that he would have to close the Virtual Hotel Chelsea was met with sorrow by supporters inside and outside of the virtual world. However, sentiments aren't accepted as payment even in Second Life. So, here is how you can use your real life resources to help keep the Virtual Chelsea Hotel going. And be generous, these guys have a lot of restoration to do.
Paypal – mykalskall@gmail.com just for donations to this project. It was said to us that if 100 people who cared about the Hotel donated just $20, that would sustain our operating costs for 1 year. We’ve already started receiving donations and it looks like this can be a reality.
Sponsorships – We are also seeking creative ways to sustain this project over time, or at least until LL goes belly up some day (at which point we will move it elsewhere for posterity) and are considering the following ideas:
- If you donate at the $200 level you’ll get a virtual bronze plaque on the outside of the hotel!
- If you donate at the $100 level we can place your name on one of the mailboxes!
- If you donate $20 or more, you’ll get a virtual bronze sunflower placed on the stairwell railings!
- You can always stop by the current build by joining SL to see the progress and donate to any of the spinning “Warhol Soup Cans” that you see.
- We can make a virtual version of your business, gallery, etc. in SL near the Chelsea, or corporate sponsorships, (Chetrit, Krauss, et. al. excluded!), or advertising for a monthly fee.
- You could sponsor a “special” virtual item that would remain in the hotel for guests and visitors to see, maybe the baby carriage, a famous author’s desk, or Sid’s bass?
- We are also seeking partnerships from RL musical artists, indy labels, and gallery owners. This gives your artists a live outlet from the comfort of their own home or studio, and gives us new talent in SL.
Mykal writes "We will be back up and running very, very soon, and can’t wait to welcome our SL dysfunctional family back. Anyone who was renting at the time of the shut-down will get two months free rent, and we are currently taking reservations for the prime spots.
We will of course be providing the best of SL’s singer/songwriters on a weekly basis, but also have some new events coming up, such as a regular open mic poetry night, listening parties of albums by Chelsea related artists, and readings of literature by Hotel authors!
If you have any ideas, comments, or questions, please email me at mykalskall@gmail.com, friend me on facebook, and join the facebook group “Virtual Hotel Chelsea” for updates and pictures of the progress, or check us out “in world” by joining Second Life."
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Michael Butler, Gene Kaufman, and their lobbyist Karen Ann Quinlan appeared at tonight's Community Board 4 Landmarks Committe meeting to present their proposed renovations to the Chelsea Hotel. They
had lots of pretty pictures that didn't reveal much. When questioned for further details, the group proceeded to stonewall the Committee. They refused to answer basic questions on issues such as the amount of square footage of the proposed rooftop addition or what its purpose would be. Kaufman said he did not know the square footage. However, they would say that the usage would be "hotel related". Well, that's a relief. One resident mentioned that other zoning and DOB filings indicated that the addition to the roof would be a bar or nightclub, but Kaufman dismissed this as insigificant, saying that there may be various versions of plans floating around.
Neither Kaufman nor Michael Butler had any response to the question about how the asbestos abatement will be handled in the proposed new elevator shaft, which is currently an air shaft abutting approximately 22 apartments.
A resident from the Carteret questioned how the hotel will manage the noise from the proposed two new water towers and the HVAC unit. Kaufman acknowledged that there are noise laws in place and indicated that the Hotel will comply with the laws.
The Community Board Landmarks Committee felt that they could not properly deal with all of the issues related to the Hotel because of insufficient information.
The motion was passed to approach Christine Quinn and the CIty Development office to request that Landmarks delay their hearing until all of the matters can be investigated. As the committee pointed out, landmarking is not done in isolation; the concerns of the community have to be taken into consideration.
Kaufman did provide us a bit of definite, however, when he said that the only storefronts that would remain are El Quijote and Donut Planet.
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On Wednesday, February 15, the Community Board 4 Landmarks Committee will hear the Chetrit group's
proposal for changes to the store fronts and to the roof of the Chelsea Hotel. The proposed plans will be available for viewing. Please note that the venue has been changed to faciliate the viewing. It is now at 353 West 30th Street, Community Room, at 6.30 pm.
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In an article in the New York Daily News Chelsea Hotel resident Collen Weinstein discusses her unsuccessful efforts to have her husband's artwork, which was removed from the walls of the Chelsea Hotel, returned. Her lawyer says: " In November, … the artwork was put on a truck and that his client saw one of the works loa
ded and "not properly wrapped." He says Sirkin (Chelsea Hotel Manager Lilly Sirkin) refused to reveal where the art is and that the hotel won't let Weinstein remove a mobile of her husband's that hangs on the 10th floor."
We called the cops that day in November when we saw that Colleen's paintings and other art works from the Hotel were being thrown into the back of a Budget Rental Van. Sargent Fields refused to take a report, saying it was civil matter (since when is it a civil matter when someone steals your property off of your wall and refuses to give it back). We too (as well an many other residents) were told that if we got a signed letter from Stanley Bard stating that the Hotel did not own the item that was removed from the wall that it would be returned. Although we provided the proof demanded the work was still not returned, and so far, we've gotten nothing but a run around from Lily Sirkin and Michael Butler. Many other tenants have received the same treatment. Here's a pic of the license plate number of the Budget Rental Van that hauled the art away in November.
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Thanks Patti for listening to the tenants and supporters of the Chelsea Hotel. Her statement is on her blog www.pattismith.net Kudos to all of the people who made this happen. This really does show that the people have the power. The biggest thanks go to Jeremiah Moss of Jeremiah's Vanishing New York who came up with the idea of the "die in" and organized it. Thanks to everbody else who had other protests planned. Lets just hope we don't have to fight Bob Dylan next week. Here is Patti's message in its entirety: In respect for the wishes of the Chelsea Hotel Tenants Association I have canceled tonight's performance. My motivation was solely to serve the tenants. If this serves them better, than I am satisfied.
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We stole our headline from Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. Jeremiah's brillant idea is to call for a "Die in" at the Chelsea Hotel tonight at 8 pm to coincide with Patti Smith's proposed concert in the Chelsea Hotel ballroom (Richard Bernstein's former apt.). Patti played last night for the developers and their friends. And tonight she is going to try to get the tenants on board with the developers program whatever it is. While the concert is going on with probably very few if any residents in attendance protesters will meet outside the Chelsea Hotel, raise lit lighters, and recite the lycris of Patti's song "People Have the Power". Bring umbrellas in case of rain. There may be other protests going on as well. Stay tuned.
Details about the Flash Mob "Die in" are here and here.
UPDATE: "DIE IN" logo has been provided by one of the Hotel's artists-in-residence. -
Nobody seems to be buying Patti Smith's explanation of her involvement with the Chetrit's, and in truth, it does seem kind of evasive, like a non-answer cooked up by PR flacks. She doesn't really seem to address any of the issues we raised in any substantive manner. (She has no understanding of Landmarking issues,
while on the other hand she seems ready to make a bogus legal judgment on who the rightful tenants are.) Besides, if she is not getting paid, that just raises the issue of what exactly she is getting out of it. Sorry Patti, but we don't quite buy the line that you are doing it out of the goodness of your own heart. And if she just wants to provide a nice evening for tenants, why did she have a separate event last night for friends and family of the developer? Yes, that's right, she entertained in the Chelsea Hotel ballroom last night at a totally separate event! (See Photo)
Historian Sherill Tippins has some interesting insight into the issue (exceprts from Sherill's Facebook comments around the concert): "Ed Scheetz, one of the co-owners of the hotel, fell in love with "Just Kids" and contacted her. I think she's telling the truth when she says she wasn't compensated. She doesn't need the money. And when they pitched me, they didn't offer anything and I didn't ask for anything. It was supposedly all about love for the Chelsea. (I swear, I figured out the scam pretty quickly!) With careful guidance from my Chelsea Hotel friends. I think her motive was good, as mine was: The Chelsea was sold, that was a fact. Tragically, the Bards no longer controlled it. But now there was this guy, one among the owners, who had caught a whiff of the magic of the place and wanted to preserve it. The problem is, he's not in charge. When I realized that they couldn't even SEE the current residents in the landscape of their plans, I knew that they didn't get it and that they would create havoc, fail, and eventually leave."
There has been worldwide interest in this issue, and we'd like to thank all of the bloggers and journalists who have written about Patti Smith and the Chelsea Hotel situation for their support. Oddly enough, none of them seem to be buying Patti's belated explanation for what appears to be a self-serving action. Here is a list of links to some of the coverage:
http://gothamist.com/2012/01/13/patti_smith_cancels_private_hotel_c.php
http://animalnewyork.com/2012/01/patti-smith-cancels-chelsea-hotel-performance/
Personal vote for best headline – http://www.observer.com/2012/01/because-the-night-belongs-to-chetrit/
http://www.kennethinthe212.com/2012/01/flash-mob-at-chelsea-hotel-tonight-to.html
http://jameswagner.com/2012/01/the_chelsea_hotel_no.html
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/01/a_flash_mob_chelsea_hotel_patti_smith.php
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/01/patti-at-chelsea.html
http://evgrieve.com/2012/01/call-for-patti-smith-to-cancel-her.html
http://flavorwire.com/248119/is-patti-smith-supporting-hotel-chelseas-awful-new-management
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/why-is-patti-smith-playing-at-the-chelsea-hotel.html
http://gothamist.com/2012/01/10/patti_smith_to_play_private_hotel_c.php
http://gothamist.com/2012/01/11/patti_smith_speaks_out_about_curren.php
http://animalnewyork.com/2012/01/why-is-patti-smith-selling-out-hotel-chelsea/
http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/65688653.html
http://www.nme.com/news/patti-smith/61369
http://www.411mania.com/music/news/218939/Patti-Smith-Criticized-For-Upcoming-Hotel-Chelsea-Show.htm
http://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-news/view/44326/Smith-scraps-Chelsea-Hotel-show-after-backlash/http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00046894.html
http://savvystews.com/?p=1954International:
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Living with Legends 