Astor Place Hotel

Could mankind’s love of prismatic form be one of the losses of 9/11? Are we condemned by neo-caveman to regress to the level of the cave dweller? Our addiction to comfort can only terminate at the cave. In retrospect, the history of Astor Place is spooky. It began as an effort by two European architects to conceive a boutique hotel in Manhattan for the inventor of the type – Ian Schrager. It turned, through the combined effects of the client’s insecurity, financial considerations, and the architects’ uncanny premonition, from an initial proliferation of miniature WTCs into, finally, a vertical piece of Afghanistan rock, perforated by inhabited caves fifteen months before 9/11.