NY Carlton Arms Hotel: Funkiest Dream-Space in Town
Last week I was having brunch at La Goulue with some friends when a very tall girl came by to say hello to one my my friends who is a photographer.
After she leaves, he confides me that she is a French model from Agent Provocateur and they were probably planning to shoot in the new 10 C or the “Outside In” room of the Carlton Arms hotel near the theater district that was going to be worked on the next Thursday November 1.Intrigued I asked , “What do you mean, being worked on?”. Apparently, the work would feature some of the East Coast’s top graffiti artists. Urban art notable Billi Kid headlining the action (that’s the beginning of his part of the room above), with graffiti artist CERN, photographer Allan Ludwig, authors-photographers James and Karla Murray, and Carlton Arms veteran Julier Dermansky joining in on the fun as well. “I’d like to check this place out for my blog, you know?”"Of course,” he says, call the manager, John Ogren, tell him you’re my friend and bring your camera – “it is truli e gret expiriens end e lot of fen. ” says my French friend Cederic. It’s Saturday, I wear a striped sweater just in case… My new Canon G9
Apart from the rooms for which I had a key, I met with a few hotel guests who were extremely happy and proud to show me their rooms and share their unforgettable experiences in the hotel. Photographers from South Africa picked the Wild Animals 12-B by Irene Dogmatic in 1989, because ” Its quiet” a neighbor refurbishing his apartment is living in bright 6-D red blue and yellow painted in 1995 by Artist Andy Luzi. Back at the lobby surprised by The Egyptian corridour more than anything else, Jeff , (this time looking at me in the eyes) was telling me that Ye Old Carlton Arms Hotel, more than 100 years old, started its downward slide about 30 years ago and had reached a good groove own by 20 years ago.By the early ’80s, the Carlton Arms was apparently full with madmen, junkies, comedians, ex-cons, pushers and hookers, transvestites, drunks and nuts of all kinds, women who beat you in exchange for your pay, a new generation of hippies and life’s lost and lonely. It was a place to bed down and indulge,”. Artists began to pass through the hotel and as jobs opened up, ed Ryan the former manager, invited several of them to work at the front desk.In the 20 years that followed Dominguez, Jennings and Damage’s first installations, dozens of artists from all over the world, came in, brought their craft and passion and transformed the once rotten hole into an unique Manhattan site where the walls explode with color and art.
After Ed Ryan retired in 1998, John Ogren and Ty Inwood took over and kept the art project and the hotel rolling together. As many more rooms were done, the hotel was also improved with the addition of air conditioning in every room, new bathrooms and more efficient plumbing. Our clientele changed too for a mostly young, traveler, student, artist, type, 90% European or Asian.Today, under John Ogren’s management, everyone of the 54 rooms, hallways, bathrooms and staircases are painted or decorated from artists from all over the world. But the project hasn’t stopped. It is in constant evolution.Cant’ wait to go back to my computer and edit the spirit of the 120 pictures I took withis these walls full of history, passion and artistic life despair.
And if you are from out of town or need to experience a life in this uderground city legend where every of the 54 rooms has a work-of-art sensually- felt- story experience to tell in its walls, photographer Nathalie Daoust who lived for two years literally walking the walls with her camera diplayed in the visual anthology the New York Hotel Story Book, the rates are of the most affordable in Manhattan.
After all my friends, what is the price of living with art?
