Last night, SIXTY SoHowould have been utterly unrecognizable to anyone who had previously stayed at the hotel on Broome and Thompson Street in New York.
The unmistakable fume of paint pervaded the entire second floor of the ritzy hotel, and it took guests a few moments to get used to the strong yet strangely addicting smell. Hung up on the walls were dozens of canvases created by anonymous graffiti art collective Smart Crew, who had been enlisted to transform the space into a hands-on installation by Animal New York. Their works would eventually be scribbled over, bombed, and tagged by both recognized street artists and amateurs in attendance.
This was precisely the night SIXTY Hotels founder and art collector, Jason Pomeranc, had envisioned for the re-branding of the space formerly known as the Thompson Hotel. As he makes provisions for the renovation of the SoHo hotel, which will take four months or so, he had Smart Crew and guests come in for one last night of debauchery. "The upcoming renovation of SIXTY SoHo presented us with a moment in time when our first hotel could become a blank canvas and be transformed into something more," Pomeranc previously told press.
As more guests crowded into the exhibition space throughout the night, the walls grew to look more and more chaotic. By 10 p.m., there were no spots on the windows or walls left untouched. Even the elevators (which were supposed to be left alone) got marked up.
Just as graffiti art on the streets is not made to last forever, the works inside SIXTY SoHo would not survive either. At the very end of the night, employees took a sledgehammer to one of the works on display, officially marking the beginning of the hotel's renovation.
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