Maritime Hotel
40°44′33″N74°00′14″W/ 40.742423°N 74.003813°W
TheMaritime Hotelis a luxury boutique hotel located at 363West 16th StreetatNinth Avenuein theChelseaneighborhood ofManhattan,New York City, close to theMeatpacking District.It has 121 rooms and 5 suites, all decorated in a nautical theme, in line with the building's maritime history, and the porthole-inspired facade.
Building
[edit]New Orleans–based architectAlbert C. Lednerdesigned three buildings for theNational Maritime Union of Americain the 1960s, all white buildings that prominently featured portholes as an architectural feature. The first, in 1964, was the union's headquarters building atSeventh Avenuebetween12th Streetand13th Street,which became part of the now-closedSt. Vincent's Medical Centerand is now theLenox Health Greenwich VillagePhyllis and William Mack Pavilion. The second was the building at 346West 17th Street,which runs through to 16th Street, which the union used as an annex to their headquarters. The final one was the "pizza box" building which became the Maritime Hotel, whose primary facade faces Ninth Avenue.[1]
The 17th Street building was completed in 1966, and the Ninth Avenue building a few years later; they were named theJoseph CurranAnnex (17th Street) and Plaza (Ninth Avenue), after the union's first president.[1][2]The Curran buildings held offices for the union and its pension fund, medical and training facilities, dormitory rooms for seaman, a gymnasium, swimming pool and 900-seat auditorium.[3][4]
The fortunes of the union collapsed due to reduced activity in thePort of New York,and the two buildings at Ninth and 17th were sold in 1987 toCovenant House,[1]a drug-rehabilitation program, which used them as a shelter and educational facility for runaways, and then in 1994 to theChinese government,which operated them as the New York Service Center for Chinese Study Fellows, which provided housing and other services for Chinese artists, students and businessmen.[5]In 2001, Sean K. MacPherson and Eric Goode, two nightclub and restaurant entrepreneurs, bought Ninth Avenue "pizza box" building for $19 million, and began converting it into a hotel with developers Richard Born andIra Drukier.[5]The hotel opened in 2003.
In the 1990s, the 17th Street building had its unique sloped facades – created to meet the setback requirements of the1961 Zoning Resolution[1][6]– covered up with fake brickface storefronts, designed to "unify" the building with the rest of the block and eliminate the "total lack of human scale" of the sloped facade;[4]the alteration appalled Ledner when he came to visit in September 2007.[1]It was converted into another hotel in 2011, named theDream Downtown Hotel,designed byFrank Fusaro.[7][8]The brickface from the 1990s was removed.[9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^abcdeGray, Christopher."Streetscapes: An Architect's Flotilla of West Side Buildings".New York Times(November 25, 2007)
- ^White, Norval& Willensky, Elliot (2000).AIA Guide to New York City(4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press.ISBN978-0-8129-3107-5.,p.184
- ^Kolbert, Elizabeth."City, Seeking Space for Prisoners, Will Condemn Chelsea Building"New York Times(September 16, 1987)
- ^ab"Postings:On West 17th, a Little Bit More of West 17th"New York Times(August 11, 1996)
- ^ab"The Maritime Hotel"onWired New York.Accessed:2011-02-11
- ^The facades are sloped at 8.5 degrees from vertical, giving a 20-foot setback at 85 feet above street level.White, Norval& Willensky, Elliot (2000).AIA Guide to New York City(4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press.ISBN978-0-8129-3107-5.,pp.184–185
- ^Rubenstein, Dana."Developer Recaptures a Maritime Motif"Wall Street Journal(November 1, 2010)
- ^Solish, Scott (June 16, 2011)."Dream Downtown Hotel Goes Big For Grand Opening".Eater New York.Vox Media.RetrievedMay 15,2016.
- ^Arak, Joey."Meatpacking District Building's Swiss Cheese Makeover Complete"Curbed NY(September 2, 2010). Accessed:2011-02-11
External links
[edit]
