Look Up: The NYC Hotel That Was So Much of an Eyesore Google Maps Had to Blur It Out

With spring approaching, it’s soon time to start enjoying one of NYC’s best features: the hotel rooftop bar. Midtown's Gansevoort Park Avenue Hotel is the top spot for outdoor imbibing (and public nuisances) in the city, and even scores as a crash pad for B-list celebrities. Its architecture, however, also merits a look. Not because it is particularly innovative or even all that striking, but because of its hodge-podge approach to massing and how awfully it sticks out in comparison to its neighborhood environs.

Take a closer look at the hotel here.

South Beach Style Architecture

Designed by Steven Jacobs, who also did 60 Thompson in SoHo and “The Edge” development in Williamsburg, the Gainsvoort Park looks more like a building one would expect to find in South Beach than Park Avenue South.

A Strange Terrace Space

Clearly it focuses its massing around abundant outdoor space. The double height “bite” out of the northeast corner on the 10th floor gives some public terrace space that probably never sees any direct sun. The rooftop is slightly better with eaves that have glassed cutouts that protrude rather awkwardly from the corner.

All Neon Everything

Its nighttime look is certainly better with the glowing corner lighting and the neon blaring from the room that can clearly be seen from as far as the roof of the Empire State. Maybe it works better at night since the actual architecture cannot be seen.

The Final Blow

The bar may be the place to be seen in the city, but the building would be better if rendered invisible. Incidentally, Google probably thinks similarly as their street-view images has the building blurred out.