Coruscation

Neighborly relations started badly when residents said that the hotel's construction resulted in cracks in their walls and sent rats and cockroaches scurrying into their apartments. In 1999, the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development found 72 violations in one building alone, 64 Thompson; Barry Mallin, a lawyer representing the tenants, said most of them were apparently related to construction.

Once the $25 million hotel did open in February 2001, however, it quickly won acclaim for everything from the sleek staff uniforms, designed by Nino Cerruti, to the sumptuous rooms, which offered Frette bed linens and Dean & DeLuca gourmet snacks. Last year, Condé Nast Traveler called 60 Thompson, Soho, NY NYC, with rates starting at $370 a night, one of the five hottest hotels in the world.

Several local businesses, meanwhile, have credited the hotel for reinvigorating the block, and making it safer, thanks to round-the-clock doormen and high-end customers. ''I think it's been good for the neighborhood,'' said Henry Buhl, founder of the SoHo Partnership, a nonprofit group that helps homeless people find jobs and housing. ''It wasn't so good down there before, but it's coming around now because they now take care of it, and it's clean.''

But if the hotel's appearance has been impeccable, its attitude has been imperious, even arrogant, say neighbors, who range from tenants paying $350 a month for rent-stabilized apartments to wealthy artists in Olympian lofts worth millions. Since the hotel opened, neighbors have complained incessantly about the loud music, particularly from a second-floor bar that is only partially covered by a bamboo-like canopy.

They have also complained about hotel guests spilling out onto the street and acting boorishly until 3:45 a.m. or later, said Irene Da Costa, president of the Thompson Street Community Association. Marilyn Karp, an art professor at New York University, sleeps in a bedroom facing the rear of the hotel. ''When you're in bed,'' she said, ''it's concert-hall realism, and shutting the windows doesn't help, even if you turn the air-conditioning on.''