Ever since Andre Balazs and The Standard Hotel empire bought up the Bowery monstrosity that was the Cooper Square Hotel we've been waiting for the inevitable changes it would bring. And here [PDF] they are! EVGrieve notes that the hotel is set to appear before the Community Board 3 SLA committee on Monday and there are lots of things they'd like the locals to approve.
The biggest alteration to the hotel now named The Standard, East Village would like to see happen should make underwear-draping neighbors happy. The hotel wants to axe its unpopular with the neighbors (and most people) second floor bar/terrace and replace it with a guest room/terrace. To do that they'd also take out a staircase leading up to it from the second floor.
And by removing that staircase, the hotel hopes to put a outdoor cafe in front of the hotel—preferably with a liquor license that will let their guests stay at it until 2 a.m. ("Acoustilog's study found that outdoor seating with no music on the Bowery would not carry sound to the surrounding neighbors," the hotel claims). The cafe would also include the front half of the tenement next door that the hotel absorbed, Borg-like, when it first went up.
Having loud drinking on the busy (and at that point quite wide) Bowery instead of on a second floor facing people's bedroom windows seems reasonable to us. However? We suspect a bitter neighbor or two is going to point out that by the time the changes are all made, there will be a brand new school filled with impressionable youths just across the street...
