Dana VarinskyAn old refrigerator caused some trouble at the Standard East Village today. About a dozen fire department vehicles surrounded the hotel this afternoon. Fire Chief Michael Kendall said a leaky refrigeration unit in the basement had caused elevated levels of Freon and sulfur dioxide. The staff and guests from the first few floors evacuated the building for over an hour.
According to Chief Kendall, somebody from the building called the fire department to report the leak, and the first trucks arrived at 2:05 p.m. Firefighters removed the refrigerator and vented the building until the leak was dissipated. Crews searched for any other sources of gas and declared it safe to go back inside a little over an hour after they arrived.
Chief Kendall estimated the leaky fridge to be about 70 years old, making it 69 years older than the swanky new hotel it served until today. “It was an old unit,” he said, “it just broke.” The Standard’s management declined to comment.
Stephen Rex Brown Andre Balazs speaking to East Fifth Street block association.That book nook isn’t the only new development at The Standard, East Village: hotel higher-ups are moving forward with plans for a overhaul of the ground floor, and according to Department of Buildings records, initial construction will cost over $3 million.
Last week, The Standard filed two applications for construction work and zoning changes to 25-33 Cooper Square. The first, requesting permission to modify egress on the first floor as well as other general construction, estimates a price tag of $2.4 million. The second, for similar work, predicts an additional expenditure of $610,000.
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Stephen Rex Brown The State Liquor Authority committee of Community Board 3.Last-minute negotiations between East Fifth Street residents and the owner of the Standard East Village paved the way for the hotel’s overhaul on Monday.
The famed hotelier Andre Balazs and members of the East Fifth Street Block Association presented Community Board 3’s State Liquor Authority Committee with a series of stipulations marked up with fresh ink before formally presenting the plans for the hotel formerly known as the Cooper Square Hotel.
The sticking points of negotiations were the concepts of “undetectable” sound versus noise that is “un-disturbing to neighbors,” according to Stuart Zamsky, an officer with the East Fifth Street Block Association. In the end, the association won the former. Read more…
Daniel MaurerCommunity Board 3 just released its new agenda that, as always, is chock full of tantalizing tidbits regarding new restaurants and bars bound for the neighborhood. A few highlights from the State Liquor Authority licensing committee: a new “Empanadas Bar” is seeking a beer and wine license in the space formerly occupied by Itzocan Cafe on East Ninth Street. Shervin’s Cafe on East Seventh Street near Avenue A will also seek the board’s approval for beer and wine, though its Facebook page is already advertising new summer cervezas.
One of the neighborhood’s most frequented bars, the 13th Step, will seek approval for a renewal of its liquor license. On several occasions at least two neighbors of the popular bar have pleaded with officers at the Ninth Precinct Community Council meeting to do something about the boisterous behavior of its customers. Read more…
Stephen Rex Brown Scaffolding went up at Second Avenue and Sixth Street yesterday.Good morning, East Village.
If you missed our coverage earlier this morning of Community Board 3’s S.L.A. committee meeting last night, well then here it is. The Standard East Village didn’t show up to pitch its dining overhaul, but a couple of iconic bars, Joe’s and Nice Guy Eddie’s, got nods of approval for new ownership.
The Mosaic Man tipped us off to his latest work outside of the Bean on Second Avenue. This one is a tribute to the building’s notorious “crazy landlord.”
While organizers of the Anarchist Book Fair disavowed Satuday’s violence, Salon tackled the question of just how much the mayhem had to do with Occupy Wall Street. Natasha Lennard witnessed the impromptu march: “It was rowdy, energetic and fast. Barricades and trash cans were dragged into the street to stop traffic and impede the police cars that eventually arrived on the scene. At one point, two young women watching the surge of people winding through stalled traffic asked me whether this was an ‘Occupy thing.’ I answered ‘yes.’ But, as I soon appreciated, it’s more complicated than that.” Meanwhile, the Daily News digs in to one suspect’s arrest record. Read more…
Stephen Rex Brown Andre Balazs explains his plans for the remodeled Standard East Village.The famed hotelier Andre Balazs pitched his plans for the remodeled Standard East Village to East Fifth Street residents on Thursday night, explaining that the Cooper Square Hotel’s layout on the bottom two floors was a key factor in its bankruptcy.
The owner of the recently renamed 21-story hotel intends to reorient the main floors to the west by creating an outdoor dining area that faces the Bowery, as well as a new lobby.
“The hotel failed,” said Mr. Balazs. “We bought it from bankruptcy. One reason was that the public spaces didn’t work.”
The rearrangement would also, he added, reduce the noise that angered neighbors, some of whom have windows that abut the hotel. Read more…
Wally GobetzThe changes are coming fast at The Standard East Village (formerly the Cooper Square Hotel). A post on Craigslist calls for applicants for a variety of positions at the hotel that was officially purchased by Andre Balazs last month. The openings include “bartenders, barbacks, bussers and hosts for all shifts” in the restaurant. Appropriately enough, applicants should be able to “thrive in a stylish, fast-paced environment.”
Just yesterday the hotel finished removing a four-story mural by Shepard Fairey.
Stephen Rex Brown Now you don’t: the Shepard Fairey mural is no more.Well, that didn’t take long.
Yesterday, The Local noticed that the four-story Shepard Fairey mural on the side of the Standard East Village was coming down. Today, all evidence of the massive Buddhist monk was gone.
A spokeswoman for the hotel’s new owner, the famed hotelier Andre Balazs, said that there were no immediate plans to replace the mural.
Stephen Rex Brown Workers on a cherry picker chipping away at the mural this morning.While trudging through this morning’s nasty weather, The Local spotted a pair of workers peeling away the Shepard Fairey mural on the building adjacent to the recently rechristened Standard Hotel.
Later in the day, a spokeswoman for Balazs properties, Lucy McIntyre, confirmed that the mural depicting a monk was coming down. “Having discussed with Art Production Fund that the piece was originally intended to be a temporary mural, and given its condition was peeling off the wall, we opted to remove it,” Ms. McIntyre said. Read more…
The New York Post reports that famed playboy and hotelier André Balazs will officially seal the deal on his purchase of the Cooper Square Hotel today, and that he will change its name to The Standard East Village. Those aren’t the only changes in store: The tabloid reports that the hotel’s “public spaces will be reconfigured, its rooms refurbished and its restaurants overhauled.” When Balazs appeared before Community Board 3 in September he pledged to keep the hotel fairly low-key in comparison with the original Standard on the west side. Still, does this mean the end of The Trilby?
