The Standard High Line

The Standard, High Line is the building the park walks through: the 1960s-brutalist-inflected concrete slab (2009, Polshek's design) lifted on columns directly astride the High Line's southern stretch — the park passes beneath the hotel, which remains the neighborhood's best architectural joke — with every room running floor-to-ceiling glass walls over the Hudson River, the viaduct's gardens, or the downtown skyline (the corner rooms' double exposures are the booking move; the famous exhibitionism lore of the early years is its own chapter of neighborhood history). The social stack made it a scene-making institution: the Top of the Standard (the 18th-floor gold-toned lounge whose sunset-over-the-Hudson hour remains among the city's definitive cocktail settings — evenings go members-leaning; hotel guests and early arrivals hold the edge), Le Bain's rooftop club-and-plunge (the disco hot tub's legend persists), the Standard Grill's bistro warmth at street level, and the seasonal Biergarten tucked under the viaduct's steel (steins and ping-pong beneath the park — the neighborhood's best casual hour). The location sells the rest: the Whitney two blocks south, the High Line's stairs literally at the building, the Meatpacking District's cobblestone dining-and-nightlife grid around it, Chelsea's galleries north, and the Village east — the downtown-west trip needs no other coordinates. Fit: design-and-scene travelers, couples on the sunset-lounge arc, High Line pilgrims sleeping over the subject, and anyone whose New York is downtown after dark.