The Standard East Village Penthouse served as the backdrop for Popsugar’s 20th birthday celebration, and the space left little doubt as to why it has become one of downtown Manhattan’s most sought-after event venues. The 21-storey hotel, planted in the heart of the East Village, offers some of the most expansive views the city’s skyline has to offer, and its Penthouse floor delivers those views from every angle.
What the Standard East Village Penthouse Actually Offers
The Penthouse provides more than 1,300 square feet of indoor event space, configured flexibly enough to accommodate distinct zones within a single booking. For the Popsugar party, that translated into a main room for a DJ set, a separate bar and charcuterie area, and a lounge section with seating and a photobooth, all under one roof and all with floor-to-ceiling windows framing the Manhattan skyline.
The outdoor element is just as substantial. According to The Standard Events, the Penthouse also features an additional 1,300 square feet of outdoor space on a wrap-around terrace, available during warmer months. On a summer evening, with the Empire State Building visible from the terrace, that outdoor square footage proved to be among the most popular areas of the night. Guests including Monique Coleman, Taryn Delanie Smith, and Kaylor Martin were among those photographing themselves against that particular backdrop.
The Penthouse’s layout accommodated around 150 guests across the indoor and outdoor spaces, with the staff managing service across both areas throughout the event. Popsugar’s team reported that working with the hotel’s event staff was straightforward, with cocktails, bites, and the general flow of the evening handled without friction.
The Hotel Beyond the Standard East Village Penthouse
The Standard East Village is not purely an events property. The 21-storey building runs from deluxe Corner King suites through to Standard Queen rooms, with the large windows that characterise the event spaces carrying through into the guest rooms. The rooms look out over the city, a feature that, according to Popsugar team members who stayed overnight, gives even the smaller options a sense of openness.
Dining across the property spans several distinct formats. Cuna Restaurant and Cuna Bar and Lounge offer Mérida-inspired dinner and brunch menus, while Café Standard operates all day. The Garden serves food and drinks and, from 20 June through Labour Day, transforms into Chasing the Sun, a partnership with Veuve Clicquot. Popsugar’s team used The Garden as a working space during their stay and described it as a quieter counterpoint to the surrounding streets.
There is no fitness centre on-site. The hotel instead provides guests with complimentary access to Crunch Fitness, located directly across the street. Crunch is named in the hotel’s own facilities information as the designated alternative.
Location is the other constant in the hotel’s appeal. The Standard sits on a relatively calm street while remaining close to SoHo, Washington Square Park, and the Lower East Side. For a first-time visitor to Manhattan, that positioning offers immediate access to a wide range of the city’s neighbourhoods without requiring much navigation. For repeat visitors, it keeps the central districts within easy reach without placing guests in the densest tourist corridors.
Beyond the Penthouse, the hotel’s event spaces include The Overlook, a meeting and banquet room, and The Garden, which lends itself to outdoor cocktail receptions. The range means the property can flex across event types and scales, from the kind of large-scale birthday party Popsugar staged to smaller corporate formats.
The Penthouse is available for bookings through the warmer months with the full wrap-around terrace in use, making the summer and early autumn window the period when the outdoor square footage is fully accessible alongside the indoor layout.