NYC's Storied Chelsea Hotel Closes Doors

It looks as though rock and roll could lose one of its most storied landmarks. The Chelsea Hotel in New York City will be closed to guests for an indefinite period of time, reports the New York Times. A developer is set to spend $80 million on the dingy throwback to rock's glory days, and renovations are expected to take up to a year.

The Manhattan hotel once hosted the likes of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Dee Dee Ramone, and it's where Nancy Spungen—the girlfriend of Sid Vicious—was found stabbed to death in 1978. The hotel's 100 permanent residents will be allowed to remain, but nobody is sure of the long-term plans for the building, which is a historic landmark. The architect overseeing renovations says iconic elements of the hotel—like its iron stairwell and its art—will remain intact. "People should not be nervous about that,” he says. (More Chelsea Hotel stories.)