Tunnel (New York nightclub)
Encyclopedia
Tunnel was a nightclub
in New York City
, located at 220 Twelfth Avenue, in the Chelsea
district of Manhattan
, New York City
, in the Terminal Warehouse Company Central Stores Building, which is now part of the West Chelsea Historic District. Tunnel was opened in early 1987 by Peter Gatien
, in a space which was formerly a railroad freight terminal. 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, so that goods could transferred to and from freight cars which were floated across the Hudson on barges from Hoboken
.
Tunnel was architecturally distinctive; a long, narrow space with multiple rooms on several levels. 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 bathroom
s, 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.
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.
Tunnel closed its doors late in 2001 due to non-payment of rent and New York mayor Rudy Giuliani
's quality-of-life campaign. 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.
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, located at 220 Twelfth Avenue, in the Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
district of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, in the Terminal Warehouse Company Central Stores Building, which is now part of the West Chelsea Historic District. Tunnel was opened in early 1987 by Peter Gatien
Peter Gatien
Peter Gatien was the owner of several New York nightclubs, including The Limelight, Palladium, Club USA, and Tunnel. He was once dubbed as the "King of New York Clubs", during his time in New York City.-Life and career:...
, in a space which was formerly a railroad freight terminal. 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
Eleventh Avenue (Manhattan)
Eleventh Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the far West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, not far from the Hudson River. It carries downtown traffic only, south of West 44th Street, and two-way traffic north of it....
freight line of the New York Central Railroad
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
ran directly into warehouse buildings in that area, so that goods could transferred to and from freight cars which were floated across the Hudson on barges from Hoboken
Hoboken
Hoboken may refer to:*Hoboken, New Jersey, United States*Hoboken, Antwerp, a district of Antwerp, Belgium*Hoboken, Georgia, United States*Hoboken, Alabama, United States*"Hoboken", a song on Operation Ivy's 1988 album Hectic-See also:...
.
Tunnel was architecturally distinctive; a long, narrow space with multiple rooms on several levels. The dance floor featured several dance cages. The decor of the club changed frequently. One room, decorated by artist Kenny Scharf
Kenny Scharf
Kenny Scharf is an American painter who lives in Brooklyn, New York. The artist received his B.F.A in 1980 at the School of Visual Arts located in New York City. Scharf's works consist of popular culture based shows with made up science-related backgrounds...
, was called the Kenny Scharf Lava Lounge. Others were decorated as Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
libraries, S/M dungeons
Dungeon (BDSM)
In BDSM sexual play, a dungeon is any space set aside for "scene" activities.Private dungeons are often fabricated in residential basements or spare rooms...
, and lounges. The club featured unisex bathroom
Unisex bathroom
A gender-neutral toilet is a public toilet that is available for use by all genders and sexes.Sex-separated public toilets are a source of difficulty for some people...
s, 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
Club Kids
The Club Kids were a group of young New York City club personalities mostly led by Michael Alig and James St. James in the late 1980s and early 1990s...
, including Michael Alig
Michael Alig
Michael Alig is the co-founding member of the Club Kids, a group of young clubgoers led by long time best friend James St. James and Alig in the late 1980s and early 1990s...
, Amanda Lepore
Amanda Lepore
Amanda Lepore is an American model, nightclub hostess, fashion icon, performance artist, and transgender icon. She has appeared in advertising for numerous companies, including M.A.C. cosmetics, Mego Jeans, The Blonds, Swatch, CAMP Cosmetics, and Heatherette, which has used her likeness on...
, and RuPaul
RuPaul
RuPaul Andre Charles , best known as simply RuPaul, is an American actor, drag queen, model, author, and singer-songwriter, who first became widely known in the 1990s when he appeared in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. Previously, he was a fixture on the Atlanta...
, often gathered in the V.I.P. room in the basement.
Tunnel frequently hosted Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez, , is an American club DJ and remixer/producer.-Career:...
, Danny Tenaglia
Danny Tenaglia
Danny Tenaglia is a New York-based DJ and Grammy nominated record producer.-Early life:At the age of ten, Tenaglia first started to collect records. In 1979 he began going to nightclub Paradise Garage, where DJ Larry Levan's genre-less blend of music appealed to him...
, Merritt
Merritt
Merritt is a surname.Those bearing it include:*Bill Merritt *Michael Merritt *Samuel Merritt *William Hamilton Merritt , influential figure in the Niagara Peninsula of Upper Canada...
, Little Louie Vega, Eddie Baez, DJ Corbett, Bobby Rios and Hex Hector after the close of the original Sound Factory
The Sound Factory (bar)
The Sound Factory was a nightclub located at 21 West 21st Street in New York City. Promoted by several promoters, including Barbara Tucker, who was also a recording artist for Strictly Rhythm Records, the club featured DJs Little Louie Vega, David DePino and was the sister club of THE ORIGINAL...
in the mid-1990s. It later presented Kurfew, a trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
-techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
oriented Saturday night party hosted by promoters such as DJ Urbanox, Amanda Lepore
Amanda Lepore
Amanda Lepore is an American model, nightclub hostess, fashion icon, performance artist, and transgender icon. She has appeared in advertising for numerous companies, including M.A.C. cosmetics, Mego Jeans, The Blonds, Swatch, CAMP Cosmetics, and Heatherette, which has used her likeness on...
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
Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel is an American actor, writer, director and producer. He became known in the early 2000s, appearing in several successful Hollywood films, including The Fast and the Furious and xXx...
was once a bouncer for the club.
Tunnel closed its doors late in 2001 due to non-payment of rent and New York mayor Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....
's quality-of-life campaign. 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.
In popular culture
- In the 1991 novel American PsychoAmerican PsychoAmerican Psycho is a psychological thriller and satirical novel by Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story is told in the first person by the protagonist, serial killer and Manhattan businessman Patrick Bateman. The book's graphic violence and sexual content generated a great deal of...
by Bret Easton EllisBret Easton EllisBret Easton Ellis is an American novelist and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 different languages. He was regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney...
, the club is frequented by Patrick BatemanPatrick BatemanPatrick Bateman is a fictional character, the antihero and narrator of the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, and its film adaptation. He has also briefly appeared in other Ellis novels.-Biography and profile:...
and his associates as a trendy place to bring women or to purchase cocaineCocaineCocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
. - The club is portrayed as an "Ecstacy" club in the 1995 movie KidsKids (film)Kids is a 1995 drama film written by Harmony Korine and directed by Larry Clark.The film features Chloë Sevigny, Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce, Harold Hunter, and Rosario Dawson, all of them in their debut performances...
. - In the HBO TV series Sex and the CitySex and the CitySex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
, 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 WilliamsHype WilliamsHarold "Hype" Williams , previously known as HYPE, is an American music video and film director of African-American and Honduran descent. His nickname "Hype" comes from his hyperactive nature as a child....
film BellyBelly (film)Belly is a 1998 film, the film directorial debut of music video director Hype Williams. Filmed in New York City as an urban drama, the film stars rappers DMX and Nas, alongside with Taral Hicks, Method Man dancehall artist Louie Rankin, R&B singer T-Boz...
.