It looks like one the (if not the) most famous psych hospital in the world is going to be turned into a luxury hotel. The Bellevue Psych Hospital will go under construction some time in 2009. I know The Shining happened in a hotel but it seems like this is along those lines and is prime real estate for a horror film. I'm imagining a combo zombie/ghost film where hoards of crazy dead or undead mental patients goes after the construction crews or something.
Here's the sparse details on the project:
It's true! Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, previously home to famous names like Normal Mailer, Edie Sedgewick, and the guy who shot John Lennon (Mark David Chapman), is getting a remodel and soon will be a luxury hotel. Built in 1931 it's pretty perfect for the remake, with its location in Manhattan along the East River, its Italian Renaissance style, and even its "H" layout with hotel-sized rooms on long corridors.
Bellevue hasn't treated psych patients since 1984 when it was transformed into a homeless shelter, and now the plans for yet another renovation are well underway. No word yet on when they hope to have the hotel finished, but hopefully there's a developer locked in by the end of the year so renovations can get started by the middle of 2009.
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Good to hear there is no more need for a homeless shelter.
Charles Mingus the great jazz bass player, composer and band leader was committed to Bellevue for a period of his life in the 1950s and in his excellent autobiography Beneath the Underdog he tells of being wiped out in an afternoon game of chess by a fellow teenage inmate. The teenager was Bobby Fisher.
one of the (if not the) most famous psych hospital in the world
I think Bethlehem Royal Hospital could give Bellevue a run for its money, not least for its contribution to the English language (Bethlehem is better known by the regional pronunciation "Bedlam.") And unlike Bellevue, Bedlam, which admitted its first mentally ill patients in 1403, is still in operation as a full-time psychiatric hospital.
So, if you're in London and have a psychotic episode, you might get a lesson in history at the same time. And how cool would that be?
Thony, in the interest of accuracy, I should point out that in Beneath the Underdog, Charles Mingus says a lot of things.
Not sure about this article. I think Bellevue still does psych and my wife has been there for interviews for positions in as well. This might be an old building they are converting?
http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/html/facilities/bellevue.shtml
"The hospital has been rated #1 three consecutive years for Psychiatry by U.S. News and World Report."