Tunnel (New York nightclub)
Coordinates: 40°45′9″N 74°0′27″W / 40.7525°N 74.0075°W
Tunnel was a nightclub in New York City, located at 220 Twelfth Avenue, in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, New York City,[1] in the Terminal Warehouse Company Central Stores Building, which is now part of the West Chelsea Historic District.[2] Tunnel was opened in early 1987 by Peter Gatien, in a space which was formerly a railroad freight terminal.[3] The club was named for the tunnel-like shape of the main room, in which train tracks from the early 1900s ran through a sunken area of the dance floor. These were a relic of an era in which railroad sidings from the Eleventh Avenue freight line of the New York Central Railroad ran directly into warehouse buildings in that area,[4] so that goods could transferred to and from freight cars which were floated across the Hudson on barges from Hoboken.[2]
Tunnel was architecturally distinctive; a long, narrow space with multiple rooms on several levels.[5] The dance floor featured several dance cages. The decor of the club changed frequently. One room, decorated by artist Kenny Scharf, was called the Kenny Scharf Lava Lounge. Others were decorated as Victorian libraries, S/M dungeons, and lounges. The club featured unisex bathrooms, which were the converted locker rooms formerly used by the freight terminal's workers. They had modern stalls with partitions and doors for privacy, with extant rows of old lockers attached to the wall, as well as marks where the former shower stalls had been removed. In the late 1980s, Club Kids, including Michael Alig, Amanda Lepore, and RuPaul, often gathered in the V.I.P. room in the basement.[6]
Tunnel frequently hosted Junior Vasquez, Danny Tenaglia, Merritt, Little Louie Vega, Eddie Baez, DJ Corbett, Bobby Rios and Hex Hector after the close of the original Sound Factory in the mid-1990s. It later presented Kurfew, a trance-techno oriented Saturday night party hosted by promoters such as DJ Urbanox, Amanda Lepore and DJ Steve Sidewalk. While the club attracted primarily gay audiences, it also attracted members of the hip hop community. One advantage of the multiple rooms of the club was the ability to host different types of parties, with as many as five or more DJs spinning different styles of music to varying crowds.
Actor Vin Diesel was once a bouncer for the club.[7]
Tunnel closed its doors late in 2001 due to non-payment of rent[8] and New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's quality-of-life campaign.[9] Gatien had been accused of drug trafficking, charges he was acquitted of, although he and his wife pled guilty to tax evasion, and were deported to Canada in 2003.[10]
[edit] In popular culture
- In the 1991 novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, the club is frequented by Patrick Bateman and his associates as a trendy place to bring women or to purchase cocaine.
- The club is portrayed as an "Ecstacy" club in the 1995 movie Kids.
- In the HBO TV series Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw discusses having a "drunken night" at The Tunnel at age 22 which resulted in an unplanned pregnancy.
- The Tunnel is the location of the opening sequence in the 1998 Hype Williams film Belly.
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ "Same Scene, Different Security, in Reopened Club" New York Times (October 14, 1996)
- ^ a b New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. "West Chelsea Historic District Designation Report" p.87
- ^ Fried, Joseph P. "Acquitted Club Owner Plans Reopening" New York Times (February 14, 1998)
- ^ Tom Duane (May 13 2008). "Testimony By New York State Senator Thomas K. Duane Before The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission's Public Hearing On The Proposed Designation Of The West Chelsea Historic District". Office of the State Senator. http://www.tomduane.com/news_2008/public_testmony_2008/West%20Chelsea%20LPC.html. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
- ^ Pareles, Jon. "Spinning a Magic Spell for Dancing the Night Away" New York Times (February 6, 1998)
- ^ St. James, James Disco Bloodbath, p. 65
- ^ "Vin Diesel: From nightclub bouncer to action hero" on CNN Entertainment
- ^ Wadler, Joyce. "Judge Denies Bid by Gatien To Select Team To Run Club" New York Times (August 22, 2001)
- ^ Steinhauer, Jennifer. "Club Owners Becoming Focus Of Effort to Combat Drug Use" New York Times (April 28, 2001)
- ^ "Metro Briefing | New York: Manhattan: Deportation For Club Owner" New York Times (August 22, 2003)
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