Bait & Tackle

Vistors Get an Eyeful at New York Park
AOL News
posted: 34 Minutes ago

(Aug. 25) – Ever since it opened in June, New York City's High Line park has been a magnet for sightseers. But now visitors as well as locals are getting an unexpected eyeful: a 24-hour peep show, courtesy of the Standard Hotel.
The hotel, constructed directly over the elevated platforms of the High Line, features floor-to-ceiling windows, reported the New York Daily News. And in recent days, hotel guests have been observed toweling off, changing their clothes, and engaging in certain R-rated activities.

Sex and the City

Visitors to New York City's High Line park are treated to an unexpected sight: a 24-hour peep show. The nude, lewd, and occasionally crude behavior comes courtesy of the Standard Hotel, whose floor-to-ceiling windows directly overlook the park. Here, a hotel guest towels off in full view of the park's visitors.
More salacious images, many of them resembling stills from a seedy pay-per-view channel, have circulated widely. Above, visitors have a clear view of hotel windows facing High Line park, which is located in the city's Meatpacking District.	Here, a more modest guest in a red bikini turns her back on the avid audience below. A hotel spokesman said the Standard will make "a concerted effort to remind guests of the transparency of the guest room windows." (Source: New York Daily News)

At first the hotel may have been complicit in the peep show, said the paper. Until a few days ago, according to one report cited by the Daily News, the hotel's official Facebook page encouraged guests to let it all hang out.

But a hotel spokesman told the Daily News the Standard "has always been sensitive to the concerns of its friends and neighbors." And in a statement released Monday, said the paper, management promised to make "a concerted effort to remind guests of the transparency of the guest room windows."

Needless to say, reports of the ongoing show have brought numerous gawkers to the park in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. Peter Jennett, a 49-year-old tourist from London, kept a careful eye on the hotel's façade as he milled around below, said the Daily News.

"It would be shocking in London," he told the paper, "but New York is all about showing off."

Meanwhile, one of the park's designers, Gaspar Libedinsky, was all for hotel guests showing a little skin -- or a lot of it. The High Line, he told the paper, "is like an urban catwalk. It is a place to see and be seen."

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August 26, 2009

The Shot: Thrills at the Standard

Posted: 08:15 AM ET



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