No fewer than 115 photographs were taken by me from the Landmark City View room on the 36th floor to which I was assigned at the Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea, at which I was a guest of Hilton for two nights — which means that Hilton paid for my stay. All I can say is that Hilton chose an incredible location for this hotel property for the convenience to other areas of Manhattan — and especially for the view from the higher floors.
Views From The Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea
This article is devoted specifically to the view from behind the large lone window in the room, which in and of itself is worth paying for the room rate, in my opinion. All photographs in this article were shot from my room at the Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea hotel property.
Starting off with what the view simply looks like from the window of the room at the Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea hotel property, this view is facing almost due south. The main thoroughfare is Sixth Avenue; and downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn are both seen in the distance.
If you look carefully on the left of the above photograph, you can see the Williamsburg Bridge, which connects Delancey Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to South 5 Street and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The neighborhoods of Chelsea, West Village, and Greenwich Village are featured in the above photograph — which is a view to the southwest — with the Hudson River and the state of New Jersey beyond it. Under the Hudson River to the right of the center of the photograph is the Holland Tunnel, which connects the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan with Jersey City.
The tall buildings of Jersey City beyond the Hudson River can be seen in this view to the southwest as the sun sets over Hoboken. Please accept my apologies for the spots on the outside of the window, which were accentuated by the sun.
Beyond this view of lower Manhattan is Brooklyn. The tall building on the extreme left of the photograph above is the Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower, which was once the tallest building in Brooklyn until 2009 — and I was treated to access to the private observation deck of that building years ago.
Today, the Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower — whose construction was completed in 1929 — is now called One Hanson Place; and it is currently the eleventh tallest building in Brooklyn.
The Manhattan Bridge — which connects Flatbush Avenue Extension in Brooklyn to Chrystie Street, Canal Street, and Bowery in lower Manhattan — is also seen in the photograph. Oddly enough, the Brooklyn Bridge — which is almost adjacent to the Manhattan Bridge — appears to be nowhere in sight.
This part of the view from the room features Ellis Island in Lower New York Harbor, with the Statue of Liberty on the left. The hills of the borough of Staten Island are in the background. The occasional vessels which ferry visitors to both monuments can be seen.
This article would not be complete without the requisite photograph of One World Trade Center, whose observatory officially opened on Friday, May 29, 2015. You can read about my experience at One World Observatory only thirteen days later in this article.
I still need to write at least one article featuring the views from One World Trade Center on the day when I visited.
The rooftop of 706 Sixth Avenue is both a classic study in horticulture in the city of New York with its garden and a study in perspective, which was one of my favorite subjects when studying art in both high school and college.
Continuing that classic study in perspective is the intersection between Sixth Avenue and West 23 Street. I would have wanted this as part of a play set when I was a boy, with cars, working traffic lights, trees, working street lights, and buildings. I could have played with this for hours.
Then again, this also does look like a video game.
If you are fortunate enough to score a view with a cloudy sky and low humidity at night, you can catch the Tribute in Light, which is a commemorative public art installation that was first presented six months after Tuesday, September 11, 2001 and then every year thereafter — from dusk to dawn — on the night of September 11.
The above photograph was taken on the evening of Wednesday, September 7, 2022 — so perhaps they were testing the lights on that evening?
Can you find the Statue of Liberty in the photograph above as well as in the featured photograph at the top of this article?
“Assembled on the roof of the Battery Parking Garage south of the 9/11 Memorial, the twin beams reach up to four miles into the sky and are comprised of eighty-eight 7,000-watt xenon lightbulbs positioned into two 48-foot squares, echoing the shape and orientation of the Twin Towers”, according to the official Internet web site of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. “The installation can also be viewed from a 60-mile radius around lower Manhattan.”
When the clouds started dissipating, the twin beams of light lengthened deep into the sky.
Instead of large water towers — such as the Peachoid water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina — up to as many as 15,000 smaller wooden water tanks can be seen atop buildings in Manhattan.
Find out in this article why wooden water tanks are used on the rooftops in New York.
Final Boarding Call
I can never get enough of viewing the city of New York — whether those views are from an airplane or from a tall building.
To the people at Hilton who made this possible: thank you for this opportunity. I truly appreciate it.
All photographs ©2022 by Brian Cohen.
