Comments (0) Best Spectator Sport - 2011
The Standard Hotel
People-watching (without letting people know you're watching them) is a sport in this town that you can play almost anywhere. But one of the best places for, let's call it, "next-level people-watching" is a peek at The Standard Hotel from the Highline, which is open from Gansevoort Street to 30th Street between 10th and 11th avenues on Manhattan's West Side. The transformed rail line is perfectly placed for eye levels up, down, sideways, panoramic, and sometimes, straight into people's glassed-in apartments or hotel rooms, so close you can see what they're reading, or, in the case of The Standard and its floor-to-ceiling windows, who's fucking whom. For the best voyeurism, go after dusk—last entrance is at 10:45 p.m.—even if you don't catch a coital display for the masses in one of the windows above, people have been know to use the fancy wooden benches and lounge chairs scattered about the walkway for their own version of outdoor sports. Or you might just see a bunch of tourists, but that's amusing, too. 848 Washington Street, 212-645-4646, standardhotels.com/new-york-city (10014)
