On March 21st, the Landmarks Committee of Community Board 4 voted to NOT recommend the Chetrit Group's proposal for an addition to the roof of the Hotel Chelsea. Rumor has been that new owner Joseph Chetrit wants to add a rooftop bar, though they've denied it when asked. Last night, the full Community Board had a chance to respond to recommendation—here's some video which shows architect Gene Kaufman explaining the plans: more ›

Yawn? The Metropolitan Museum of Art will not be bringing an exciting new rooftop installation to the masses this summer, instead we'll get a tame set of sculptures from British artist Anthony Caro, on view through October 30th, according to Arts Beat. In the past, the museum has delivered a bamboo wonderland, colorful installations from both Sol Lewitt and Jeff Koons, and in 2009 a neat silver tree. more ›

Harlem's Steven Wright and Lanecca Austin had gotten into a lover's quarrel late Wednesday night. It's unclear what they were fighting about, but around 5:30 Thursday morning, Wright tried to return to her 13th-floor apartment at West 112th Street, but the door was locked and she wouldn't answer. So he headed up to the roof. more ›

You don't have to go home, but you can't stay out here, says Assemblywoman Joan Millman, who quietly introduced a bill last month that would amend the alcoholic beverage control law to require bars with roofs and backyards to corral everyone inside at 10 p.m. on weeknights and 11 p.m. on weekends. Once inside, the patrons would be required to read quietly, work on their needlepoint, or just think about what they've done. more ›

This is why you can't have anything nice, Williamsburg. Seems the residents at 132 North 5th Street (at the corner of Bedford) are all doing their part in keeping the common roof space a catastrophic mess. An inside source tells us emails are frequently sent from building management, which it seems someone is posting on this blog. And now residents have turned on each other! Offline accusations (read: the flyer after the jump) were posted on every floor of the building after a party this weekend. more ›

According to police, the student who fell (or was pushed) off a roof this weekend while trying to flee robbers was actually the one who chased them onto the roof. The Daily News reports that Harry Martinez, now in a coma, was home when robbers broke in, followed them to the roof and was holding a wad of cash as he fell from the roof. One neighbor said, "I saw money falling from the top of the building. Small bills." He is in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital Center after his two story fall. His mother said, "I talk to him, but he can't answer. I tell him I'm here and, 'I love you, son.'" more ›

One day after NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly held a press conference in Crown Heights to publicize a sting on local merchants who sold marijuana, three teens were shot in the neighborhood by a rooftop sniper. Police say the gunman opened fire around 3:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon, raining bullets down on Franklin Avenue near the intersection with President Street. The gunfire sent pedestrians running for their lives, and two bloody teens crashing into an accountant's office. "The first thing I thought was that the shooter was following them," accountant John Sesay tells the Daily News. more ›

The Parks Department is currently getting their green thumb dirty growing 16 types of rooftop gardens in the city. Their aim is to see which mixture of soil and plants will work most efficiently at cleaning the air, harvesting rainwater and cooling the building it sits atop, according to the Daily News. The 16 garden plots are all on a city maintenance building near the Triborough Bridge, but this spring the project will expand to 10 more rooftops throughout the city. Parks Department's Artie Rollins told the paper that a roof that used to be near 160 degrees on a summer day, is now cooler than the air. And Parks head honcho Adrian Benepe says, "It's spectacular. Right next to a major bridge, in the middle of the East River, you see a meadow that's attracting insects and bees and butterflies and birds" ... and pigeons? more ›

Crooks cut holes in the roof of a Brooklyn bank and actually got into the room containing safe-deposit boxes on Sunday, but they fled without taking anything. After chiseling one hole in the wrong spot on the roof, the thieves hacked another hole and got into the bank's heating vents at around 5 p.m., according to the Daily News. They then crawled into a room containing the safe-deposit boxes, but took no money or valuables. Even though the perps didn't steal the jewelry or the "significant amount of cash" that 31-year-old Gravesend resident Sara Cohen keeps in the bank, she's not taking any chances. "I'm going to change my bank first thing tomorrow morning." more ›

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will adorn its rooftop garden this summer with big bunches of bamboo. The exhibit, appropriately titled “Big Bambú,” is site-specific and designed by Doug and Mike Starn—who have previously installed a similar exhibit in Beacon, NY. more ›

Months after an anonymous pamphleteer tossed hundreds of copies of an anti-Obama poem from the top of a Downtown Brooklyn building, someone has reportedly thrown copies of the same obscene verse from the top of a building near the corner of 68th Street and Broadway. A Gothamist tipster writes: more ›

Well, this is depressing. The 10-month-old puppy, named Brooklyn, who jumped off the roof of his building over the weekend... has died. The pup originally survived the 5-story plunge, but now it's being reported by PeoplePets that the family euthanized him today. more ›

A 10 month old papillion-poodle mix named Brooklyn (pictured) took a terrifying plunge yesterday in Lower Manhattan. According to 1010Wins, he ran out of his owner's apartment, up the stairs and onto the roof of their building. more ›

An unidentified 45-year-old woman claims Taurean Williams, 25, approached her on New Year's Day in Upper Manhattan and displayed a badge, telling her he was a police detective who needed to bring her to a local station to check whether there were any warrants out for her arrest. Instead, he allegedly pulled a gun on her and raped her on the rooftop of a building at 550 West 153rd Street. Now police say Williams (MySpace?) was also arrested for raping a teenager on the same rooftop in October—but prosecutors dropped the charge. more ›

How many times have you arrived at a roof party only to realize that you left your Snuggie at home? Probably never, but just in case, this winter the rooftop garden bar 230 Fifth has you covered. Literally. Owner Steven Greenberg has purchased 1,000 Snuggie-esque fleece hooded robes for outdoor use at the Flatiron district lounge. He tells us this is the third year he's supplied them to guests; during the first season he bought 300, and by spring they were all gone due to theft. He then restocked with 500 last year, but by the end only 300 remained. But instead of lining the robes with GPS-rigged explosives programmed to detonate a block away, Greenberg just bought another thousand. So don't feel too bad if you wake up back at home still wearing yours. more ›

Apple fanatics are like thisclose from getting a restraining order with their latest stunt: aerial footage of the "special roof on the upcoming Apple Store at 67th and Broadway." How did they attain this footage? A remote control helicopter, obvs. They note the roof will cover the rear 3/4 only, and the store is slated to open just before Christmas. What's that, will it be spectacular, you ask? One man says: "Someone who knows says this building is going to be really spectacular." Confirmed. more ›

It might be time to worry about a raccoon takeover of the city. Earlier today one of them outsmarted the humans, escaping their clutches after being caught on the roof of City Hall. 1010Wins reports back that "he quickly figured out his getaway—reaching up and bending back the top of the cage. He then got to the ground by climbing down some construction scaffolding on the back side of City Hall. He eluded animal control for more than half an hour as he crept along the bottom of the wall." more ›

Tonight is Paul McCartney's first ever performance on Letterman. Believe it or not, he hasn't performed in the Ed Sullivan Theater since 1965 when the Beatles made their final appearance on the stage (here's video from their first appearance). A tipster informs us that currently the outdoor awning is being set up for the performance, meaning he'll also be channeling the famous Beatles rooftop concert in the late '60s (video). He's not the first to take the show outside of the theater, Phish and TV on the Radio have done the same in the past. The performance will be around 5 p.m. today, will the crowd reach Beatle-mania proportions? After this, McCartney will launch what he's called his "final tour" at Citi Field on the 17th. If you happen to be in the area, send us your pictures or tag them with "Gothamist" on flickr! more ›

We've got to admit, when we heard that residents near the Thomspon LES Hotel were vehemently complaining about the noise from the hotel's new rooftop patios, we wondered if maybe they weren't overreacting just a tiny bit, considering that they choose to live in a part of Manhattan not exactly known as an oasis of tranquility. But good grief, check out this recent Thompson LES pool party, documented by a neighbor who should be credited for shooting video, not bullets. more ›

It's that time of year again! The Met is readying their roof garden with a site-specific monumental sculpture. On Tuesday, weather permitting, conceptual artist Roxy Paine's dramatic Maelstrom piece, a 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture, will be unveiled, encompassing the nearly 8,000-square-foot outdoor space. more ›

Neat and green, Architect's News is reporting that the nation's largest green roof is taking shape atop a Bronx water plant that will double as a driving range and includes an "integrated security program for the facility below" (they say its Pebble Beach meets the Biosphere meets Rikers). The Mosholu Golf Course is run by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, and amidst the 9 holes there will soon be a $2.1 billion drinking water treatment facility. Construction isn't set to end until 2012, when landscape architect Ken Smith's vision of "one of the largest and most intensive green roofs to date" will open to the public as "a fully functioning driving range and an irrigation system for the golf course." In addition, the project architects at Grimshaw have also included a green roof in their design of a new clubhouse on the site. Recently Con Ed in LIC joined the small fleet of green rooftops popping up in the five boroughs. more ›

19-year-old David Diaz (pictured here with his former girlfriend) recently moved from Harlem to the Bronx, but on the last night of his life he was palling around with friends in his old neighborhood, tossing eggs off a roof on West 135th Street. When one of their targets headed up on the roof to confront the teens—wielding a knife according to one report—the youths scattered. The Daily News says that Diaz, his right arm in a sling from a football injury, tried to escape by jumping over a brick wall he thought separated one building from another. Instead, he fell six stories to the courtyard below. more ›

There's an entire Flickr set of photos designed to make you boil over with envy on this fine summer day, it's called: Rich People Rooftops NYC. While they are all lacking a Ronald McDonald--gardens, hot tubs, patio furniture and multi-level luxury are all present and accounted for in the rooftop wonderlands. Too bad there's not an aerial shot of the roof house on 13th and 3rd, but these images will probably stir up enough jealousy for one day. [via Curbed] more ›

A developer will break ground Thursday on what will be the city’s only rooftop ice rink (the Chelsea Piers Sky Rink is on the second floor, not the roof, and it’s been a while since skaters frolicked on the old Madison Square Garden roof rink.) more ›

Ah, Spring. A time when some men woo women with flowers and fancy dinners, while others simply rappel off their roofs and through their windows. The Post has an exclusive on a lovesick construction worker who became so enamored with an unidentified Upper West Side woman that he decided to take his courtship to a repellent level (ha!) by swinging into her apartment through her bathroom window. more ›

Mad 46: If you’re stuck in midtown and desperate for a little air, the location of this new rooftop lounge in the Roosevelt Hotel is easy to remember: Mad 46 = Madison at 46th Street. The press release promises that the place is “urbane without being absurd,” with western views, specialty (read: expensive) cocktails, and eats downstairs at the Roosevelt Grill. Just so you know what you’re in for, Zagat Buzz promises “waitresses in itty-bitty black dresses.” Also, it seems it’s only open Monday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to midnight and Fridays from 3 p.m to midnight. Saturday and Sunday are for private parties or receptions. 5 East 45th Street, entrance on 46th Street, (212) 885-6095. more ›