Still Here
Gerald DeCock has lived in his defiantly
bohemian studio at the Chelsea Hotel for 25 years.
by wendy goodman
design hunting
Photographs by Colin Miller
G
erald decock has lived in a south-facing studio
on the top floor of the Chelsea Hotel since 1994; the
anniversary of his lease signing was last month. The
hotel was a different place back then, presided over by
the mercurial manager Stanley Bard, who, since the early
1970s, had rented its apartments to artists, musicians, writ-
ers, and the bohemian children of the well off; many of them
were heavy drug users. When DeCock got his place, there was
just one problem: Bard hadn’t let the current resident,
Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, know that he
had to move out. But such were the good old crazy days at the
Chelsea Hotel, which, long before DeCock arrived, had been
home to Patti Smith, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Dylan
Thomas, Mark Twain, and Quentin Crisp. Lola Schnabel was
a neighbor until a few years ago. “The reason I was obsessed
with the apartment was because it had this beautiful outdoor
