The Standard NYC opened a couple of months ago and it's a gorgeous hotel, a feat of architecture and ideation. Its attention to indulgently avant-garde detail is fully embodied in Marco Brambilla's "Civilization," an ominous video installation depicting the long march of mankind towards something like sci-fi purgatory. It's transfixing and freaky just watching it in an office chair, but when you consider this thing is airing INSIDE the elevators, you might want to A. book a penthouse room so you can watch the whole marvelous thing or B. hope and pray you don't have any kind of height/closed spaces phobia this thing might trigger. Seems worth checking it out in its natural habitat, though--the sensation of motion with the churning pyres of the piece will probably amp the godliness factor like 900x.
[vimeo width="560" height="460"]http://vimeo.com/5082155[/vimeo]