Historic preservation

Legendary hotelier Stanley Bard doesn't hang out in the lobby of his beloved Chelsea Hotel as often as he used to.

But, two weeks ago, the hotel's infamously ousted manager made a rare appearance, joining the director Milos Forman (himself a former hotel resident) for an on-camera interview smack-dab in the middle of the lobby.

"The new management comes running out of the back and is like, 'You can’t shoot that here!'" said the writer Ed Hamilton, a 13-year resident of the iconic lodge on West 23rd Street. "He tried to charge Stanley $600 to film in the lobby. Of course, Stanley wouldn't pay that."

Mr. Hamilton relayed the recent lobby incident during a panel discussion about the historic and embattled hotel last night at the Museum of the City of New York.

Mr. Hamilton, author of Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca, interviewed Mr. Bard himself recently for a short video by fellow hotel resident and filmmaker Sam Bassett.

In the interview, played during the panel discussion, Mr. Bard took a few jabs at the hotel's controversial new managers.  read more »

"Well, we won a small victory in the battle, but the fight isn't over yet," said Gregory Jones.

The lead organizer of the "Save The Hotel" campaign was reacting to news that financial giant Merrill Lynch will likely stay put in the city's financial district -- and not relocate to the site of his beloved Hotel Pennsylvania.

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There's hope for the old fleabag yet!

In a surprise 6-to-1 vote last night, the landmarks committee of Manhattan's Community Board 5 voted to recommend designating the historic and endangered Hotel Pennsylvania as an official city landmark.

If approved by the full board next week and later by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission, the proposal could save the old 22-story inn from the wrecking ball. Owner Vornado Realty Trust wants to tear it down and erect a giant office tower in its place, possibly as a new headquarters for Merrill Lynch.

The board's vote ran counter to the wishes of the Municipal Arts Society, which informed the panel by letter that it did not support the designation for fear of interfering with Vornado's planned redevelopment of the nearby Farley Post Office.

Even Joyce Matz, perhaps the panel's most zealous preservationist, did not support the motion, noting that the "banal" building was actually designed by "lesser junior staff" members of the hallowed architecture firm McKim, Mead & White. (Both Charles McKim and Stanford White were dead by the time the hotel was built in 1919.)

"I had discussions with three very noted architectural historians, and the feeling was this, [the hotel] is not the best, nor one of best, hotels that McKim, Mead & White designed," Ms. Matz said. "It is not a significant design, nor is the facade of exceptional interest."

Others, though, pointed to several unique cultural attributes, including the Glenn Miller-popularized "Pennsylvania 6-5000," which remains "New York's longest continually used phone number."

The hotel is also "one of the last surviving examples of very large hotels built to accomodate train travelers," noted writer Carter B. Horsley, who typically doesn't speak out on such issues, he said.

The full board will take up the issue on Nov. 8. The meeting takes place at 6 p.m., located at 227 West 27th Street, Building "C", Haft Auditorium, 2nd Floor.

The once-abandoned, recently hipsterized McCarren Pool in Greenpoint edged closer to respectability this morning when the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously designated it a landmark. The move comes at a peculiar time for the structure: Mayor Bloomberg has pledged $50 million to restore the pool, while young ‘uns are now flocking there for the pricey concerts that promoters have staged there over the last two summers.

The Department of Parks and Recreation, is now holding discussions with the community about how to restore the pool and whether to accommodate performances in the future. (The pool closed in 1984 because of the neighborhood's fear of crime and people of other ethnicities.) Although the landmark status means that any design changes will have to go before the commission, spokesman Phil Abramson said the department supported the designation

McCarren is just one of 11 Olympics-plus-size pools built in the heady summer of 1936, when Robert Moses reigned supreme. The Sunset Park and Thomas Jefferson, in East Harlem, pools and adjoining “play centers” were also landmarked today, joining three others that won the designation earlier this year and last.  read more »