SLIDESHOW: The De Niro Penthouse

In 2004, the commission approved designs for De Niro's Greenwich Hotel, located in the Tribeca North Historic District. The new hotel goes a long way toward mimicking its brick-clad store-and-loft building neighbors, the sort that typify the old dry goods quarter of the city. It has modern flourishes, too, such as a rounded glass column of windows at its southern corner. The commission spoke favorably of the design as the melding of new and old.

What they did not appreciate is that De Niro and his architect, Axel Vervoordt, added a copper mansard roof to the two-story penthouse.

While this might seem like a minor complaint, any such work done without the commission's approval creates precedent that can be held against it in the future. As a result, De Niro was called back to account for the addition, like Ace Rothstein in Casino, in the fall of last year. The roof had been discovered the year before--shows you how fast the city works some times--and despite the delays, the commission decided to whack the mansard.

De Niro returned to the commission today, wearing wire-rimmed glasses, a navy fleece, baggy khakis and an olive fisherman's cap. He looked nothing like the dashing, effortless actor one might hope for and everything like the ill-at-ease, actor-in-bad-cognito one might expect. His son Raphael, the well-known real estate broker, was also here. Both were wearing deck shoes. When the group walked in, with preservation consultants, land-use attorneys and architects in tow, three paparazzi sprang into action, as well as half-a-dozen reporters with point-and-shoot cameras. It was a rare event for the ninth floor of One Centre Street.

Bill Higgins of preservation consultancy Higgins and Quaisbarth made the case that the rooftops of Tribeca were littered with extrusions and additions on the roof. He brought up a slide showing a couple of water towers. Not exactly a two-story penthouse.

He was followed by Vervoordt and his Japanese collaborator, and the Belgian architect argued that the new approach to the rooftop would involve something called Wabi. "It is about harmony and peace and tranquility. And balance," Vervoordt said. Golden ratios and matching squares were bandied about, as were natural materials and antique accoutrement. 

Then came the renderings. More cameras flashed, though this had the undesired effect of washing out the projector. In place of the stark copper roof, with its heavy eaves, will be simple walls of brick echoing the building below. Still, the desired effect, for privacy, will be achieved by a nest of square and rectangular pergola, from which ivy will grow.

The penthouse, Vervoordt said after the hearing, will not be a private residence but part of the hotel, "the luxury suite." When it is finished sometime next year, everyone will be able to have a look. Assuming they have enough money, of course. He also mentioned that it will be a very spare space—"poor" was his word—befitting the Wabi credo.

The commissioners were highly enthusiastic about the new design, quite a turnaround from the disparagement it received a year ago, especially from angry (jealous?) neighbors.

"I was somewhat skeptical, seeing some early sketches, that this wasn't perhaps the right building," commissioner Fred Bland said. "But now I am totally convinced."

Commissioner Christopher Barnes heaped even greater praise on the building. "I think you've made a bleak situation transcendent," he said. "It is a vast improvement and an excellent addition."

De Niro even agreed, as he was chased to the elevators by a pack of press. Holding the door open to answer questions, he said he appreciated the process and the building that resulted. "I'm happy," he said. "Sensibility prevailed."

RELATED: The Travis Bickle Suite

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

The fancy Tribeca lodge is geared toward people who value their privacy, like Mr. De Niro himself. It's supposed to be a quiet retreat where guys like Patrick Dempsey can lift weights in peace and where the rapper Eminem can safely avoid eye contact with other humans, entirely.

Good thing. The celebrity-friendly inn is operating at only an "estimated 50% occupancy rate," the hotel's "grimacing" lawyer informed the local community board this week, according to Eater. ("That grimacing 'lawyer' was [Greenwich co-owner] Richard [Born]," Ira Drukier, one of Mr. De Niro's partners, clarified in an email to The Observer.)

The place seemed almost too peaceful when I last visited the intricately designed hotel one afternoon this past November. I spotted only two guests chatting in a room off the lobby before a guy resembling the actor Kevin Spacey wearing dark sunglasses and a baseball cap darted from an elevator and out the door.

While a half-empty hotel might suit Mr. De Niro's sensibilities, other hoteliers are likely not thrilled by the overall downward trend in bookings.

Industry analyst John A. Fox, senior vice president at PKF Consulting, said preliminary figures at hotels in Manhattan last month indicate "the lowest occupancy for a January since 1994" with revenues down about 30 percent from January 2008.

And it only gets worse in February: "I have seen data that indicates that for the week ended Feb. 7, citywide occupancy was about 56% and that for the same week hotel room revenues were down about 44% from the same week in 2008," Mr. Fox told The Observer via email.

It opened in April, just after the Bear Stearns collapse and a few months before the financial calamity erupted next-door in the Financial District.

Bobby D's empire has, of course, expanded in the last several years. Here's my colleague Chris Shott back in January on Mr. De Niro's new Greenwich Hotel.

Hotel Chatter - which had its own reservation revoked in April - directs us to this recent Newsweek review of Bobby D.'s lodge, which briefly discusses the rooms, the food, and the decor of this supposed "below-the-radar" hotel.

What, no mention of that posh illegal penthouse?

On opening day, management also kicked out a reviewer for the hospitality industry site Hotel Chatter, abruptly canceling her reservation.

And she wasn't even requesting a cheap press rate! To wit:

And talk about excellence in hospitality!

A Curbed tipster reports from the scene: