Plunge (Hotel Gansevoort)

The name was a tease: drinkers at Plunge couldn't take the plunge in the outdoor swimming pool on the hotel's roof¹. What they got instead, Time Out said, was a great aerial view of the Meatpacking District from the top of the Hotel Gansevoort, one that trumped the Soho House by eight floors, at $14 a drink¹. Our old listing added that the well drinks came in plastic cups and a bottle of Heineken was nine dollars.

The hotel opened in 2004, when the neighborhood had more grit than gloss, as the Meatpacking District's first luxury hotel and the first urban resort developed in New York^{2, 3}. Plunge sat on top at 18 Ninth Avenue, with tables along stone terraces and a crowded back garden¹. By 2010 it had a sibling, a second Plunge at the Gansevoort Park Avenue⁴.

By 2015 an overhaul had renamed the lounge and made it over as a Moroccan lair, with billowing cloth ceilings, Moroccan chandeliers and tiles, and lush plants, beside the plunge pool⁵. In 2019 another redesign rebranded the entire roof, inspired by haunting memories of the old Meatpacking District and photos from the pages of aging books⁶.

For its 20th anniversary in 2024 the hotel unveiled a four-year, $40 million renovation, led by the Rooftop Loft, an indoor-outdoor cocktail lounge inspired by the Italian coast⁷. Founder Michael Achenbaum said the hotel had elevated its presence from an iconic nightlife destination to a refined, luxurious property⁷. Today the roof, twelve floors above the Meatpacking District at 18 Ninth Avenue, is Gansevoort Rooftop, home to Eden, the Rooftop Pool, Saishin and The Loft^{2, 8}. We haven't checked the price of a Heineken.