Hotel Pennsylvania, Still Standing, Preps For Doggie Deluge
Endangered Hotel Pennsylvania is rolling out the wood chips once again for its most highly regarded guests -- the four-legged stars of the annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, taking place next week.
Competing canines will be treated to "sound healthy" live piano music in the lobby on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 9, and the hotel's basement conference hall will be converted into "perhaps the largest in-door doggie spa in all of New York" -- including a "his/her's relieving area," according to a press release.
Last year, at this time, The Observer wondered where the dogs might go once landlord Vornado Realty Trust made good on its threats to tear down the dog-friendly hotel.
Some guests back then were informed that the hotel wasn't taking reservations for the 2008 show.
For the time being, at least, the pampered pooches appear to have gotten a reprieve.
Here's the full release:
NEW YORK, Feb 05, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- New York's Hotel Pennsylvania, The World's Most Popular Hotel(R), celebrates another year as the Host Hotel for all canine hopefuls participating in the annual Westminster Dog Show. The 132nd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show takes place on February 11th and 12th 2008 at Madison Square Garden, across from New York's Hotel Pennsylvania. For interview and photo opportunities, please contact Jerry Grymek at 1-800-387- 1399/416-440-2500, Cell: 416-918-2043, e-mail: jerry@lma.net.
To mark this special annual occasion, the property has established a variety of onsite activities to coincide with the Show, including:
1) Together with the Westminster Kennel Club, the Hotel will host a pre-
show broadcast satellite feed from the Main Lobby with Westminster Dog
Show participants. The feed will give an opportunity for different
media market outlets to interview participants from their corresponding
market. The feed will take place on Friday, February 8th; Time TBD.
2) The Hotel will greet dogs with live piano music that's "sound healthy"
in the Lobby on Saturday February 9th between 1 and 4 pm EST.
3) As in previous year's, the Hotel will again convert function space into
perhaps the largest in-door doggie spa in all of New York. Located
within the lower level of the Hotel, the 1st In-Line, Inc. Green Room
Salon & S'paw' dog grooming/comfort station offers a variety of
amenities Show participants require: bathing/beauty parlor/salon,
exercise area, walking area, his/her's relieving area, and even a
Dog-tor's Corner, which includes a canine masseuse and animal
communicator!
4) Also, the Hotel will have its Doggie Concierge on-site working hard to
attend to all canine requirements (i.e. handling 'pup'arazzi
interviews, special doggie food orders), a Paw Mall, and a number of
other festivities 'unleashed' in time for Westminster Dog Show.
Since 1919, New York's Hotel Pennsylvania has been host to millions of visitors in Manhattan. Extensively renovated, the property has 1,700 rooms and over 90,000 square feet of meeting and adjacent exhibit space. New York's Hotel Pennsylvania is capable of handling conventions, tours, and individual traveler requirements. Reservations can be made to this number locally 212- 736-5000, toll free 800-223-8585, via PDA at mobile.hotelpenn.com or on-line at www.hotelpenn.com. The World's Most Popular Hotel(R) is a registered trademark of New York's Hotel Pennsylvania.
50 Gramercy Park North
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I see evidence some exceptionally large terra cotta lion heads in the rooftop cornice, and of course spandrel panels with wreath designs can be seen on the upper floor along with the massive columns on the entrance, all hand-made with great care.
It's a stately imposing building and should remain standing, I'm against demolition of this hotel, but as we all know, money talks and people will destroy anything to make a buck.
All the protests, letters and faxes in the world don't stop an idiot intent on making money even if it means destruction of a priceless relic, antique or building, that is why you see people on Ebay selling "antique art prints" which are little more than RIPPED OUT pages removed from rare and antique books.
I've even seen pages torn out of a rare hand printed Guttenburg Bible from the 1500's I think they were, and pages of buildings torn out of rare books on architecture from the 1880's to sell as individual "Art Prints" solely because the make more MONEY selling the individual pages as they would the book as a book.
Old books, like old buildings are not in unlimited supply! and like the dodo bird or passenger pigeon, they can go the same way.
As a sculptor and former New Yorker who works exclusively in recreating and reviving Victorian and Art Deco architectural ornaments, gargoyles, keystones etc I'm appalled at the destruction that continues unabated in NYC, Chicago and elsewhere. I see plenty of evidence of the destruction even from 1500 miles away in the form of salvage yard photos showing the acres of materials ripped out of old buildings and sold off as bric-a-brac