On this very special Friday, we bring you (via Curbed) a view of the swanky Hotel Gansevoort looking oh-so...Euro.
Just to review, Gansevoort is not only a hotspot for celebs seeking privacy and chic digs, but also supposedly one of the "sexiest" NYC hotels.
While we don't judge books by their covers (unless they happen to be hotels and their covers happen to be outdated and gross), we can't help but notice that the item on the far right appears to be either a pair of Manpris (capri pants for dudes) or -- worse -- jean shorts.
We hope those guests European (where Manpris are common and cool) -- otherwise that's some pretty dirty laundry.
Guest of a Guest managed to score some photos of the inside of Andre Balazs' upcoming Standard NYC. We've been keeping tabs on the property's construction via the exterior shots on the Standard's website (the opening date is still MIA, with a "coming soonish" in its place), but these are the first images we've seen of the inside -- and it looks like these rooms have killer views!
Unfortunately, these pics don't explain what the hell those curtains we saw were all about....
Last week, we posted this snapshot of the Hotel Riverview and talked about our excitement for the place to open. Afterall, we loved Eric Goode and Sean Macpherson's last hotel redo, The Bowery.
But after this email from a trusted tipster, we've decided to keep our enthusiasm in check.
It will be a 200+ room, cheap love hotel. Small, small rooms. No suites.
Work is going ahead. Nothing stops these guys.
A cheap love hotel? That's just a waste of a building then. Why even go about renovating the place and kicking out tenants if you are just going to have small cheap rooms. Maybe if the place had a Hello Kitty room, we could get excited about it again. Otherwise, boooo.
A devoted HotelChatter tipster sent us this pic that she snapped today of the Standard NYC and we are thoroughly perplexed.
Dearest Andre, what the %@&$* is hanging in the windows there? Are they rainbow-colored curtains of a sort? Yachting flags? Designer tarps? Please let us know.
Also, please don't include these in the guestrooms. XOXO, HotelChatter.
An insider says the hotel will soft-open in late Fall and the restaurant will follow in January 2009.
As we found out from Eater last month, the Standard will have an 18th floor restaurant with 187 table seats, two bars with 42 seats and a total capacity of 229.
As for the rooms themselves, we're still not sure what they are going to look like or what they are going to include.
All this uncertainty coupled with a late Fall 2008 opening date makes the opening feel like forever to wait.
For those in search of a big serving of kitsch and a dash of a Hollywood theme, go no further than the Chelsea Pines Inn in New York. The Chelsea Pines has been around for a while--with a quirky reputation that kept it in business--and more recently it's had some refurbishments going to make it a bit fresher and more enticing.
The NY Times published a review over the weekend that was really quite flattering and does make us keen to check in too.
Oh Hotel Riverview. You're a never-ending maze of paperwork and Potemkin villages set up to keep us from figuring out what's going on. Sad thing is, so far it's sorta working.
Here's what we do know: The stop work order is still in place on Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson's property, as it has been since January 8. But the Department of Buildings has also issued a work permit for "Demolition of interior partitions and the installation of new partitions," good until January 21, 2009.
Weird, right? The other thing we know is that Hotel Associates is starting to slink out of the picture. Department of Finance records show they transferred the deed over to Jane St. Hospitality on January 10, so that's now the shadowy organization to watch.
Hotel Riverview residents and its past guests are strongly against the Goode/MacPherson takeover. No surprise here, although if you didn't know it yet, G & M are probably working with BD Hotels--they of the embittered Hotel Chelsea takeover.
The comments and emails about the historic hotel's transition to a hip West Village boutique hotel are filling up our inboxes and burning up our comments feed, particularly under this story about the pending eviction of tenants.
This group is also protesting the notion that the hotel is full of drunks, drug addicts or homeless people--as suggested by the tipster who told us that Goode and MacPherson had officially purchased the hotel. Here's one guest's response to that characterization.
I have served five years in the US Army, Attended the University of Hawaii and traveled through eight countries. I was, am not and will never be any of those adjective you used so gallantly.
You need to be taught some respect for people's transitions as we all have human experiences. I wish Messrs. Macpherson and Goode all the best on their new project. As for you and your tipster, try another angle, b/c this one is tacky.
Needless to say there's a lot of strong emotions about this pending hotel project and we can't post every email so we urge you to...
