The controversy surrounding the Hotel Gansevoort's new 75-foot addition to the Meatpacking District's skyline may have reached its peak yesterday. The billboard (a billboard!) received both major media coverage and a protest in its name. Josh Barbanel reports in the Times that the Buildings Department has already rejected many of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation's arguments concerning the illegality of the billboard, but they're taking some time to investigate a few of the other claims. To rally support, the GVSHP had a little gathering at the hotel site yesterday afternoon. As for Team Gansevoort, Barbanel reports:
Elon Kenchington, the chief operating officer of the Gansevoort Hotel Group, would not discuss the revenue from the billboards. But he said they were angled to minimize the impact on nearby residential buildings and would add warmth and light to what is “pretty much a dead area.” He said that the hotel had signed a long-term contract with an outdoor advertising company, which is putting up the billboards, but that the hotel would retain the right to reject ads it found unsuitable.What a coincidence: we've been saying that area's been dead for years!
· Two Billboards Are Rising in the Meatpacking District [Big Deal/NYT]
· Meatpacking Now Slightly More Hideous [Curbed]