Cooper Square Hotel Jumps on the Hotel Graffiti Bandwagon

November 2, 2009 at 9:07 AM | by juliana | 1 Comment

Graffiti wall in progress at the Hotel Erwin in Venice, Calif.

The Cooper Square Hotel, a giant modern glass building that popped up in the Bowery of NYC, is now trying to fit in with the gritty feel of neighborhood by hiring graffiti artists to paint the wall of an adjacent building.

But their "We're cool, we promise" plan has been met with some resistance from the neighbors, who have expressed their displeasure with the hotel before. The NY Post reports:

In a wacky attempt at earning street cred, the swanky Cooper Square Hotel has commissioned four graffiti "artists" to tag the Fifth Street wall of an adjacent building it recently bought.

One of the taggers, Joyce Pensato, was going to town yesterday on her section of the mural, which the hotel owners hope will be finished by Nov. 10, and then updated annually.

Pensato and three others -- who go by Nick 1, Vizie and Shinique -- were each paid to fill one quarter the wall.

"All the work is going to be different," Vizie said. "The only real unifying theme is the colors, black and white."

Despite the unifying theme, it doesn't seem as if the neighbors are too thrilled about it. One neighbor told the Post that while the hotel says there's no money to fix a leak, they managed to find some dough to commission the street art. Hmmmmm....

But despite what the neighbors think, graffiti might be a genuine hotel trend. The Ace Hotel has a graffiti wall which is comprised of black and white graffiti stickers. The Maritime Hotel put up a Graffiti Projection Wall last year and as did The James Hotel in Chicago and the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles. Abroad, the Baby Grand Hotel in Athens features 55 graffiti rooms. Recently, we noticed a wall in the entrance drive of Hotel Erwin featured some local Venice street art.

So, graffiti as a new hotel trend? We certainly like it better than mass-produced city skyline photography. But it takes a certain kind of hotel to pull off the graffiti trend in way that's hip but eye-pleasing as well. We'll check back in with Cooper Square on Nov. 10th and see how it looks then.

What do you think of hotel graffiti--Innovative or trying too hard? Let us know in comments below.

1 Comment

Return to » Cooper Square Hotel Jumps on the Hotel Graffiti Bandwagon

SamanthaTrinh
HotelChatter Member

Cooper on top of the trends nicely
Good to see the Cooper adapt so nicely, not sure about the graffiti. Sceneadvisor.com clocks Eco Revolution as the next hotel trend. They released the top trends, some spot on, and some so-so. As you would imagine, the next twelve months promise significant change in the travel industry. The industry is inextricably linked to the well-being of the economy and the level of global tourism, making the hotel/travel industry a cyclical one. (here is scene advisor's ttop trends - http://www.sceneadvisor.com/travel-news/destination-2010-top-travel-trends-to-watch-11581.html)

November 6, 2009 at 5:04 PM

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