THE NAKED TRUTH OF NYC HIGH LINE HOTEL: Standard Hotel Encourages NUDITY Among Clientele (PHOTOS)

Posted on August 26, 2009 by famespy| Leave a comment

Exhibitionism, nudity, sex, and voyeurism: it’s hard to believe that these are actually encouraged at the High Line’s new Standard hotel in the Meatpacking District. Note to self conscience wallflowers, this is probably not the hotel for you.
The ads said it all: “We’ll put up with your banging if you’ll put up with ours.” Featuring a woman clad in nothing but a tool belt, NYC’s The Standard hotel opened amid construction and set the tone of what was yet to come
Curious on-lookers have been flocking to the High Line’s Standard hotel as word spreads like wildfire about the X-rated peep shows that can be seen from the hotel’s floor to ceiling windows. A quick visit to The Standard website shows a live webcam of the windows in question allowing curious people from all over the world to get a peek.
The New York Post has been reporting an onslaught of nude individuals who have no problems showing off their assets to onlookers below. In addition to nudity also on the menu have been masturbation, sex acts and professional porn being shot to the delight of the peeping tom’s and park goers below. Sources claim the hotel embraces the sexual tension and has asked guests to share their “intimate and explicit photos with us — those floor to ceiling windows aren’t just for the views.”
The Post reported that even hotel staffers and managers have gotten in on the act as a way to promote the hotel and generate a sexy buzz. Staffers have supposedly been seen stripping down and posing provocatively in front of the massive floor-to-ceiling windows. “We don’t discourage it. In actual fact, we encourage it.” a bellhop told a pair of reporters.
Not all New Yorkers are thrilled with the public display of sexual attention on exhibit at The Standard. The X-rated windows have drawn criticism from families who frequent the High Line park, which the hotel overlooks. In addition, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called the actions of the window shows “unacceptable” and ordered The Standard to tone it down.
Yesterday, hotel officials said they will try to be more sensitive. “We will make a concerted effort to remind guests of the transparency of the guest windows,” management said in a statement. The Standard also sent a conciliatory letter to Quinn who responded by saying, “We are encouraged by the action they have taken.”
The Standard Hotel is a group of four boutique hotels in Los Angeles (Hollywood and Downtown LA), Miami and New York that are owned and operated by Andre Balazas. The first Standard Hotel opened on the Sunset Strip in 1999 across from the famous Chateau Marmont. Decorated with a hip decor of avant-garde decorations and furnishings, the hotel appeals to a hip crowd. The Sunset Strip location features a woman lying down behind the check in counter sleeping behind a glass window.
The NYC hotel won an award from the Municipal Arts Society of New York for best new building erected in 2008.
http://famespy.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/the-naked-truth-of-nyc-high-line-hotel-standard-hotel-encourages-nudity-among-clientele-photos/

B018

"In the early months of 1998, the B018 moved to the 'Quarantaine', on a site that was better known for its macabre aura. The 'Quarantaine' is located at the proximity of the port of Beirut.." says Bernard Khoury/DW5 on B018.

By: Bernard Khoury/DW5

Photograph courtesy of Bernard Khoury/DW5.

Project Details

• Project Name: B018
• Client: B018
• Project Type: Entertainment / Music Club
• Principal Designer/s: Bernard Khoury
• Design Team: DW5
• Date of completion of project: 1998
• Location of site: Beirut, Lebanon
• Site Area: 5000 sq. mt.
• Built-up Area: 370 sq. mt.
• Cost of Construction/Execution: USD 350.000

Photograph courtesy of Bernard Khoury/DW5.

Words from the architect
B018 is a music club, a place of nocturnal survival.
In the early months of 1998, the B018 moved to the "Quarantaine", on a site that was better known for its macabre aura. The "Quarantaine" is located at the proximity of the port of Beirut. During the French protectorate, it was a place of quarantine for arriving crews. In the recent war it became the abode of Palestinian, Kurdish and South Lebanese refugees (20, 000 in 1975). In January 1976, local militia men launched a radical attack that completely wiped out the area. The slums were demolished along with the kilometer long bordering wall that isolated the zone from the city. Over twenty years later, the scars of war are still perceptible through the disparity between the scarce urban fabric of the area and the densely populated neighborhoods located across the highway that borders the zone.

Photograph courtesy of Bernard Khoury/DW5.

The B018 project is, first of all, a reaction to difficult and explosive conditions that are inherent to the history of its location and the contradictions that are implied by the implementation of an entertainment program on such a site.
B018 refuses to participate to the naive amnesia that governs the post-war reconstruction efforts.

Photograph courtesy of Bernard Khoury/DW5.

The project is built below ground. Its facade is pressed into the ground to avoid the over exposure of a mass that could act as a rhetorical monument. The building is embedded in a circular concrete disc slightly above tarmac level. At rest, it is almost invisible. It comes to life in the late hours of the night when its articulated roof structure constructed in heavy metal retracts hydraulically. The opening of the roof exposes the club to the world above and reveals the cityscape as an urban backdrop to the patrons below. Its closing translates a voluntary disappearance, a gesture of recess. The building is encircled by concrete and tarmac rings. The automobiles' circular travel around the club and the concentric parking spots frame the building in a carousel formation. At night, the continuous motion of the visitors' cars animates the parking and becomes an integral element of the club's scenario. The entrance is located at the south end of the low-lying metal construction where a stair leads to two concessive "airlock" spaces manned by scowling bouncers. Strewn across the concrete pavement floor of the underground hall, the sofas with collapsible backs serve as elevated dancing surfaces that stage the performers.
http://www.architecture-page.com/go/projects/b018__all

Site Diagram submission

CIRCUS

STUDENTS /// Circus, spectacle edge by Guillermo Bernal

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Léopold Lambert| Leave a comment

Circus, spectacle edge; nomadic architecture as a creative aid a performative distribution

This beautiful project has been created by Guillermo Bernal in 2009 and 2010 for his undergrad thesis at Pratt Institute. Guillermo was then part of the brilliant studio tutored by Yael Erel and Christoph Kumpusch which attempts to approach the thesis project by producing a lot of hand drawings and physical models or objects as you can see below.

This project is magnifying the deployment of the circus by developing a beautiful poetry of mechanics that can be read in Guillermo’s objects/models. Rather than inventing a swiss knife system of folding/unfolding as we already saw in a lot of projects, he insisted on the performance of the cables, mechanical arms and fabrics and the potential unplanned events of their deployment.
I am not sure it was one of Guillermo’s reference but this architectonic circus entertains a very interesting dialogue with Alexander Calder’s circus which insisted more on the sculptural aspect of the human and animal performance. (see the video here)
Here is the text related to the project:
Originating in the ancient world, the Circus has a history of a ritualistic performance -mostly of a nomadic nature- and functioned as a proto-theater where the distance between human and animal nature was under examination. Since the performances were held in the open, its architectural typology remained open-ended. The circus is a thing that strongly resists definition. Since the very depths of its etymological roots, it has been a signifier for an abstract animate vitality, later to incorporate “frenetic public activity” under its umbrellic term. The this space, suitable for the interweaving movements of man and animal was the birthmark of its etymological significance.
A creative aid and distribution platform, the nomadic equipment can be positioned as “momentary anchoring ”, Their goal is both to situate themselves on the exterior in order to open new trails, and to weave, or even to repair certain links. to put holes in the public space using the invasive, nomadic presence of the war machine, or any other technique of sudden appearance invades and overcomes everyday life. Located primarily in a decaying city. The Circus on the edge makes do with what it finds, enveloping and adapting found structures, resources and technologies to infiltrate, innovate and construct space for community, as well as community itself, in unusual and provisional ways.
It also intends to confront creation with the public, in all of its diversity and contradictions, as well as its occasional tensions, and to confront it with the public space, as well as its
complexity and richness. The Circus on the Edge is not one complete city, but a constantly moving and fleeting fragment. Acting as an agent for change, it provides an instant dynamic system for the production of new urban and cultural space, seemingly disintegrating and connecting the local and global, and the real and not so real. The reciprocal relationship between Circus and everyday life becomes a state where society can negotiate its own future.

http://thefunambulist.net/2010/12/16/students-circus-spectacle-edge-by-guillermo-bernal/

Site diagram

Site strategies

Site plan

Site analysis

Key Issues of the Project

1. The re-use of a historically and socially significant building- Looking at the building as a theatrical tomb.

2. A discussion about the role abandoned and decaying architecture play in a city CBD and their effect on identity loss.

3. An exploration   between the  disjunction between expected form and expected use.

4. Looking at the social necessity of architecture - and the themes of necessity and pleasure- ideas of uselessness-

5. The disjunctions is: The idea of a Hotel and a narative of a carnival or the metaphor of a circus.

A HOTEL: denotes a mulltiplicity of occupants- the level of twoness in the building the inpersonel yet intimate spaces- this type will allow for absence, followed by bustling presence, followed by absence again. - The fantasy element of a hotel- the short stay- you arent required to act yourself.

A  CARNIVAL/ CIRCUS: Something that is innapropriately paired with the hotel. The idea of a social presence being left on  the site. (Newspaper articles saying there is a ghost in the flytower- worker at the jean shop too scared to work). The idea of grotesk consumption. That encourages risk taking. danger. stimulates and emotional reponse. (Chris talked about a nightclub?)

Site Selection Rationale

1. Victoria Theatre has recieved a huge disjustice- Forgotten, Decaying- Site of huge social significance.
2. In a part of the city- historic CBD- After GPT pulled out- a huge question mark for planning policies.
3. Concept- Bondage and the Mask- Huge site restrictions, context, grit....

Indigo Patagonia Hotel / Sebastian Irarrazaval

21

May 2008

By Nico Saieh — Filed under: Hotels and Restaurants ,Selected , Chile, Concrete, Puerto Natales, Wood

 

Architect: Sebastián Irarrázabal
Location: Ladrilleros 105, Puerto Natales, Chilean Patagonia
Collaborators: Ximena García Huidobro, Francisco Ibáñez, Patricio PobleteStructure: Luis SolerContractor: Bravo e IzquierdoInterior Design: Sebastián Irarrazaval, Ana Ibáñez, Olivier PotartClient: Olivier Potart, Ana Ibáñez, Hernán JofréGraphic Design: C-ProyectaFloor Area: 300 sqmConstructed Area: 1680 sqmSite Area: 700 sqmMaterials: Concrete, Wood
Structure Material: Concrete
Budget: USD $4 millionsPhotographs: Cristóbal Palma
Web Site: www.indigopatagonia.com

INDIGO PATAGONIA HOTEL is situated along the maritime passage of Puerto Natales, entrance to the Torres del Paine National Park. It is has six levels with 29 bedrooms and a Spa on top of the building.

Puerto Natales House Navimag Shearing Shed
The Project is organized around three main ideas. First: to discover the building as a voyager who experience places not at once but through continuous steps. Second: to be sensitive with the site and its provincial character and lack of “noise” .Thirdly: to radically differentiate the intimate space of the sleeping rooms from the monumental space of public areas .
With regard to the first idea, and in order to show the inner void of public spaces not at once but at fragmented glances, we proposed an inner circulation that goes from street level to upper level evolving from a soft ramp to a system of staircases and from corridors to bridges in a way that horizontal and vertical movement become an orchestrated coreography within the building .

Regarding the second idea, and in order to match some qualities of the context in the exterior expression of the building we used:
a) Materials already present in the town such as timber and corrugated steel
b) A simple volume that occupies the all site
c) A systematic rhythm of windows
More specifically, we proposed a volume that recreates the differentiation that quiet often is seen in Puerto Natales between those front elevations that face the street and those lateral elevations that face the sides of the sites . Consequently: for street facades we used corrugated steel and for side facades we used treated pine.

With regard to the third idea, and in order to highlight the intimacy of sleeping-rooms, we generated an horizontal strata made out of pine that incorporates all usable surfaces in the room such as beds, lavatories, tables and bay windows. On the contrary, public spaces are mainly vertical spaces were a huge shutter or curtain made out eucalyptus bars is always present.
Finally it is important to mention that graphic desing was worked together with architecture. Under the concept of using some iconography already present in the area we adopted the universe of maritime container an ships in general to creates signals on the facades and the interior spaces that reminds Navimag, the only ship that every Thursday arrives to Puerto Natales bringing foods and fresh news to the deep south.

INDIGO PATAGONIA Restaurant and LOUNGE

In association with architect XIMENA GARCIA-HUIDOBR0, “Indigo Patagonia Restaurant and Lounge” was finished at the beginning of January 2007. It is located beside “Indigo Patagonia Hotel” in an old Patagonian house . The work done consisted in voiding the core of the house and reinforcing the perimeter walls with a steel frame . In order to interconnect the existing two stories we emptied the center with a “y” shape void . This void is occupied by an extended platform and staircase that extend time of passing from one level to another, making the exhibition of people part of the choreography of space.
The restaurant is located in ground level and lounge is upstairs.

plan 01

plan 02

plan 03

plan 04

plan 05

plan 06

south elevation

north elevation

east elevation

west elevation

section 01

section 02

section 03

dorm plan

dorm section

http://www.archdaily.com/1133/indigo-patagonia-hotel-sebastian-irarrazaval/