The Chelsea Hotel, After All The Drama These Past Few Years, Has Closed for Renovations

August 1, 2011 at 10:33 AM | by juliana | Comments (0)

The day of reckoning has finally come for the Hotel Chelsea in New York, the last Bohemian outpost. The place that housed famous artists and musicians for several years before giving way to tourists on a budget closed yesterday with only a few days of notice.

The hotel had been acquired by a new owner back in May who explicitly said that the hotel would be renovated and modernized. It's just that no one expected it to happen this fast.

According to the NY Times, hotel employees learned late last week that the hotel would be closing after Saturday. The 100 residents of the hotel would be allowed to stay but no more guests would be allowed and that included folks with existing reservations. (No word on where they were sent instead.)

As expected the hotel was full on its last night with longtime guests, fans and admirers saying goodbye to the hotel for one last time, all expressing concern that when the hotel reopened, it just would not be what it was. Which is probably true.

However, architect Gene Kauffman, who has worked on nearly every hotel in NYC it seems, told the NYT that a lot of the hotel's "original charm" like the wrought-iron interior stairwell and the art would be preserved. However, we're sure the hotel's new owner is looking for some better quality guests with less drama. Here's what happened on the last night:

Shortly before dusk, police officers rushed in and up to the ninth floor. A guest had gotten into a fight with his girlfriend and called his mother to tell her he wanted to kill himself; his mother called the police, who in turn escorted the man to Bellevue Hospital�s psychiatric ward. �Never a dull moment,� a front-desk clerk said.

[Photo: ADivs/HotelChatter Flickr Pool]

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