Iconic Chelsea Hotel Renovation Uses Arts and Crafts Grilles

The Iconic Rock n’ Roll Chelsea Hotel on West 23rd Street was acquired for $250 million in 2016.  The new ownership is planning to reopen the building as a luxury hotel and apartments and has selected Beaux-Arts Classic Products Arts and Crafts decorative grilles in Black.  The Chelsea Hotel opened in 1884.  Designed by architect Philip Hubert who had been raised in a family that respected the theories of French Philosopher Charles Fourier and proposed a selection of buildings that were self contained settlements where tenants saved money by sharing fuel and services.  He effectively created New York’s first co-ops.

The black ironwork is a strong exterior and interior design element.   Our Arts and Crafts style decorative grille are a perfect choice for The Chelsea Hotel.  The grilles were originally made in New York State in approximately 1870-1914. They are the most outstanding return air grilles ever made in the USA. Andrew Carnegie placed them in most of the Carnegie Libraries from 1883 to 1929. We have been manufacturing these historical reproduction supply vents in the USA since 2003, using the highest quality urethane resin which is strong, dimensionally stable and heat resistant and captures the exact details of the originals.  They can be used for historic preservation since they meet U.S. Government’s General Services Administration Code #1501003S Standards for Historic Preservation Guidelines. They are intended for forced air heating and air conditioning systems as either return air grilles or supply vents.

Hubert allotted rooms for 15 artists studios on the top floor and adorned the halls with art.

 

In 1905 The Chelsea went bankrupt.  In 1957 Stanley Bard inherited the hotel from his father and ran it as a bohemian sanctuary.  By then it was already known as a haven for the arts.  He oversaw the Chelsea during the decades it played host to Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Humphrey Bogart, Joni Mitchell and Mick Jagger to name a few.

Stanley Bard

Warhol superstars Patti Smith and Viva.

Hotel Lobby filled with art.

Lobby with only the lady on the swing remaining.

“Anita! Soon this Chelsea Hotel
Will vanish before the city’s merchant greed,
Wreckers will wreck it, and in its stead
More lofty walls will swell

This old street’s populace. Then who will know
About its ancient grandeur, marble stairs,
Its paintings, onyx-mantels, courts, the heirs
Of a time now long ago? . . .”

—“The Hotel Chelsea” (1936), Edgar Lee Masters

Hudson River School paintings hung in the common dining rooms, and the hallways and ceilings were decorated with natural motifs. At 12 stories, the Chelsea was the tallest building in New York. (For a full history of the Chelsea Hotel and its origins, see Sherill Tippins’ forthcoming Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel.)

Hubert’s grand experiment went bankrupt in 1905, and The Chelsea was converted to a luxury hotel, which was visited regularly by guests such as Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and the painter John Sloan. After World War II, as the hotel declined and room prices fell, it attracted Jackson Pollock, James T. Farrell, Virgil Thomson, Larry Rivers, Kenneth Tynan, James Schuyler, and Dylan Thomas, whose death in 1953 further enhanced the hotel’s legend. (“I’ve had 18 straight whiskies,” said Thomas, after polishing off a bottle of Old Grandad on the last day of his life. “I think that’s the record.”)

Virgil Thomson Apartment

Arthur Miller moved into #614 after his divorce from Marilyn Monroe. Bob Dylan wrote “Sara” in #211; Janis Joplin fellated Leonard Cohen in #424, an act immortalized in “Chelsea Hotel #2” (“you were talking so brave and so sweet/giving me head on the unmade bed”); Sid Vicious stabbed Nancy Spungen to death in #100. Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Chelsea, William Burroughs wrote The Third Mind, and Jack Kerouac had a one-night stand with Gore Vidal. In 1966 Andy Warhol shot parts of Chelsea Girls at the hotel. In 1992, Madonna, a former resident, returned to shoot photographs for her Sex book. Christo and Jeanne-Claude once stole the doorknob from their bathroom door for an art project; the doorknob is now in the permanent collection of the Hirshhorn Museum.

The Arts and Crafts Decorative Grilles used in the Chelsea Hotel renovation.

#RR-209 6×6  $69

#RR-209 6×24  $144

#RR-209 8×8  $84

#RR-209 10×16  $124

#RR-209 14×24  $249

The Chelsea Hotel is scheduled to reopen in early 2019.

It will consist of 125 to 130 rooms with our Arts and Crafts Decorative Grilles.  This figure includes hotel rooms, 30 new one and two-bedroom furnished rentals at market rate with access to hotel services, and the 50 apartments for current tenants who are protected by New York City Rent Stabilization Law (RSL). Upon vacancy, NYC Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) regulations will be followed for renovation and rent increases.

The first floor will feature a restaurant, lobby lounge, greenhouse, and private event space. The upgrade calls for a basement restaurant and rooftop gym and spa, as well. Art on the walls, a hallmark of the hotel, will once again decorate the location.