Chelsea Hotel   

222 W 23rd St
New York, NY 10011
212-243-3700
www.chelsea.com

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A storied cauldron of bohemia, the Chelsea Hotel is one of the New York City buildings whose architectural style could easily be mistaken for the name of one of its punk-rock guests: Victorian Gothic. Erected in the late 1890s and housing hardcore inhabitants ever since, the 12-story brownstone is as much a full-time apartment co-op as it is a transient hotel. That might explain why many of its famous guests -- from Beat junkie William S. Burroughs to poet Dylan Thomas to blues chanteuse Janis Joplin -- have come for one night and ended up staying indefinitely. Each of the rooms is uniquely designed, with all of the amenities rock-star-tantrum-safe: soundproof walls, high ceilings, big beds, cable TV, wet bar. Often cited as a hub of artistic inspiration -- its historic walls are a million stories high -- the hotel tends to inspire work that, like Leonard Cohens 'Chelsea Hotel #2,' hails from the chaos-begets-creativity school. At times, that chaos spilled into violence, as when Sex Pistols singer Sid Vicious murdered his girlfriend Nancy Spungen in Room 100.