Chelsea

Location: Chelsea is located in Midtown Manhattan, between 14th and 34th streets, west of Sixth Avenue.

Character: Formerly a warehouse district that bleeds into the now-hot Meatpacking District, Chelsea started transforming in the early 1990's when club kids would flock to the area to legendary parties at The Tunnel, Limelight (and before that Twilo) or Avalon. The infamous Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street attracted rock stars, writers and creative minds of the 60's and 70's and is currently still a functioning hotel (as well as luxury condos with a lengthy waiting list). From the late 1990's, art galleries started moving from SoHo to the less-expensive areas in Chelsea. Now, over 350 galleries are located in the area spanning from around 30th to 15th Streets and mostly far west, from Ninth Avenue to the West Side Highway. Now almost completely gentrified, Chelsea has become an upscale neighborhood with bistros, luxury apartments, art galleries and designer boutiques.

Chelsea is quite uneven architecturally - there's no single block that can be called "typical". There are three major "types" of buildings: the brownstone type, the "housing project" type, and the "industrial/loft building" type. All three are mixed here in roughly equal proprotions.

Demographics: Seventh and Eighth Avenues are extremely gay-friendly, with cafés and shops sporting rainbow flags of tolerance. Further west are live/work artist studios, and newly renovated luxury high-rise condos inhabited by gallerists, financial professionals and young families. Chelsea has several housing projects, mostly in the north-central section of the neighborhood.