188-529: The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza ) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City . It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza , after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue , and is between 58th Street and Central Park South ( a.k.a. 59th Street), at the southeastern corner of Central Park . Its primary address
376-478: A business degree , and/or certification programs formally prepare hotel managers for industry practice. Most hotel establishments consist of a general manager who serves as the head executive (often referred to as the "hotel manager"), department heads who oversee various departments within a hotel, middle managers , administrative staff, and line-level supervisors. The organizational chart and volume of job positions and hierarchy varies by hotel size, function, and
564-449: A general manager who serves as the head executive (often referred to as the " hotel manager "), department heads who oversee various departments within a hotel (e.g., food service), middle managers , administrative staff, and line-level supervisors. The organizational chart and volume of job positions and hierarchy varies by hotel size, function and class, and is often determined by hotel ownership and managing companies. The word hotel
752-768: A 1945 renovation and show the neighborhood as it would have appeared in 1907. Prior to the renovation, the Oak Bar served as a brokerage office. The Edwardian Room, previously known as the Men's Grill or Fifth Avenue Cafe, is at the northeast corner of the ground floor and measures 50 by 65 feet (15 m × 20 m). It was originally designed by William Baumgarten & Company and McNulty Brothers, but it has been redecorated multiple times. It contains dark Flemish-oak paneling, 12 feet (3.7 m) high, with finishes and doorway surrounds made of Caen stone. The walls originally had oak wainscoting and an Aubosson tapestry frieze. The floor
940-714: A 48-story office tower on the Savoy-Plaza Hotel site, with a one-story podium and vertical marble strips on the facade. According to Stone, he wished "to create a building that will salute the skyline and enhance one of New York's finest neighborhoods". The same month, GM acquired a half interest in the Savoy Fifth Avenue Corporation from London Merchants. Plans for the GM Building were filed in January 1965, in spite of opposition to
1128-430: A block of hours typically between 8 am and 5 pm, before the typical night shift. These are similar to transit hotels in that they appeal to travelers, however, unlike transit hotels, they do not eliminate the need to go through Customs. Garden hotels , famous for their gardens before they became hotels, include Gravetye Manor, the home of garden designer William Robinson , and Cliveden , designed by Charles Barry with
1316-423: A capacity of 500 to 600 people, was served by its own elevator and staircase, and contained a movable stage. The old ballroom was overlooked on three sides by balconies, and contained a white-and-cream color scheme similar to the current ballroom. It was served by its own entrance on 58th Street. By the 1970s, the old ballroom was replaced by offices. The current ballroom on floor 1 is at the center of that story. It
1504-617: A central marble-and-brass bar. East of the Palm Court, separated from it by the main corridor, were once the Plaza Restaurant and the Champagne Porch. The Palm Court and Plaza Restaurant, which shared nearly identical designs, originally formed a "vast dining hall". Removable glass panes along the main corridor abutted both spaces. The Terrace Room, west of the Palm Court, is part of Warren and Wetmore's 1921 design and
1692-400: A cost of $ 3 million. The original hotel stood eight stories tall and had 400 rooms. The interiors featured extensive mahogany and carved-wood furnishings; lion motifs, representing the hotel's coat of arms; and a 30-foot-tall (9.1 m) dining room with stained glass windows and gold and white decorations. Moses King , in his 1893 Handbook of New York City , characterized the hotel as "one of
1880-438: A fitness center, three conference rooms, and a dining area. The Savoy Club is clad in travertine , oak, and terrazzo, and the design of its tables and carpets is based on the decorations in the lobby. The interior space is supported by "modules" of columns spaced 20 feet (6.1 m) apart. The executive offices of GM, on the 25th floor, were devoid of the "traditional" artwork that was standard of other executive headquarters in
2068-486: A form of property ownership also referred to as a vacation ownership involving the purchase and ownership of an individual unit of accommodation for seasonal usage during a specified period of time. Timeshare resorts often offer amenities similar that of a full-service hotel with on-site restaurants, swimming pools, recreation grounds, and other leisure-oriented amenities. Destination clubs on the other hand may offer more exclusive private accommodations such as private houses in
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#17327576849462256-652: A guest with lifestyle or personal image in specific locations. They are typically full-service and classified as luxury. A key characteristic of lifestyle resorts is focus on providing a unique guest experience as opposed to simply providing lodging. Lifestyle luxury resorts are classified with a Five Star hotel rating depending on the country and local classification standards. Example brands include: Waldorf Astoria , St. Regis , Wynn Resorts , MGM , Shangri-La , Oberoi , Belmond , Jumeirah , Aman , Taj Hotels , Hoshino , Raffles , Fairmont , Banyan Tree , Regent and Park Hyatt . Upscale full-service hotels often provide
2444-781: A hospital since the Middle Ages . The French spelling, with the circumflex , was also used in English, but is now rare. The circumflex replaces the 's' found in the earlier hostel spelling, which over time took on a new, but closely related meaning. Grammatically, hotels usually take the definite article – hence "The Astoria Hotel" or simply "The Astoria". Facilities offering hospitality to travellers featured in early civilizations. In Greco-Roman culture and in ancient Persia , hospitals for recuperation and rest were built at thermal baths . Guinness World Records officially recognised Japan's Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan , founded in 705, as
2632-572: A lack of funding. John Duncan Phyfe and James Campbell acquired the site in 1883. Phyfe and Campbell announced plans for a nine-story apartment building at the site in October of that year, to be designed by Carl Pfeiffer ; and construction on the apartment block began that same year. The builders borrowed over $ 800,000 from the New York Life Insurance Company , and obtained a second mortgage from John Charles Anderson for
2820-459: A limited amount of on-site amenities. Economy hotels are small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer basic accommodations with little to no services. Extended stay hotels are small to medium-sized hotels that offer longer-term full-service accommodations compared to a traditional hotel. Timeshare and destination clubs are a form of property ownership involving ownership of an individual unit of accommodation for seasonal usage. A motel
3008-457: A limited number of on-site amenities that only cater and market to a specific demographic of travelers, such as the single business traveler. Most focused or select service hotels may still offer full-service accommodations but may lack leisure amenities such as an on-site restaurant or a swimming pool. Examples include Hyatt Place , Holiday Inn , Courtyard by Marriott and Hilton Garden Inn . Small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer
3196-449: A marble and wooden balustrade, leads from the mezzanine foyer to the ballroom level. The layout of the upper floors was based on the layout of the ground-floor hallways because all the stairways and elevators were placed in the same position on the upper floors. On floor 2 and all subsequent stories, a centrally located C-shaped corridor runs around the north, east, and south sides of the building and connects every room. The Oak Room , on
3384-825: A modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator , and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a television, and en-suite bathrooms . Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, a business center with computers, printers, and other office equipment, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium , restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs ) to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of
3572-401: A mosaic floor, a plaster coffered ceiling, and columns similar to those in the main corridor. There is a bank of four elevators, with decorative bronze doors, directly in front of the entrance. A crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The entrance doorways contain bronze frames with lunettes. Originally, the branch offices of major brokerage houses adjoined the foyer, including one office in
3760-412: A neighborhood-style setting. Examples of timeshare brands include Hilton Grand Vacations , Marriott Vacation Club International , Westgate Resorts , Disney Vacation Club , and Holiday Inn Club Vacations . A motel , an abbreviation for "motor hotel", is a small-sized low-rise lodging establishment similar to a limited service, lower-cost hotel, but typically with direct access to individual rooms from
3948-487: A new restaurant called the Terrace Room, as well as a ballroom and 350 additional suites. Warren and Wetmore designed the expanded interior with more subtle contrasts in the decor, compared to Hardenbergh's design. The annex opened October 14, 1921, with an event in the ballroom, but was not officially completed until April 1922. With the advent of Prohibition, the bar room was also closed, and the gender segregation rule
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#17327576849464136-487: A renovation in 2008. Numerous contractors were involved in the construction of the hotel, including the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company and brick contractor Pfotenhauer & Nesbit. The detail of the facade is concentrated on its two primary elevations , which face north toward Central Park and east toward Fifth Avenue. The facade's articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to
4324-502: A restaurant. In either case, Gates agreed to fund the project on the condition that Frederic Sterry be named the Plaza's managing director. To entice Sterry to join the hotel's staff, Black and Beinecke wanted to make a grand hotel. Henry J. Hardenbergh was hired as architect in 1905, initially being commissioned to expand the existing hotel by five stories. Hardenbergh had already gained some renown for designing other upscale hotels, such as
4512-410: A room and board arrangement. In Japan , capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities. The precursor to the modern hotel was the inn of medieval Europe . For a period of about 200 years from the mid-17th century, coaching inns served as a place for lodging for coach travelers. Inns began to cater to wealthier clients in the mid-18th century. One of
4700-536: A rose garden by Geoffrey Jellicoe . The Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi , Sweden , was the first ice hotel in the world; first built in 1990, it is built each winter and melts every spring. The Hotel de Glace in Duschenay, Canada , opened in 2001 and it is North America's only ice hotel. It is redesigned and rebuilt in its entirety every year. Ice hotels can also be included within larger ice complexes; for example,
4888-909: A stay or re-admission through security checkpoints. Some hotels are built with living trees as structural elements, for example the Treehotel near Piteå , Sweden, the Costa Rica Tree House near the Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge , Costa Rica ; the Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park , Kenya ; the Ariau Towers near Manaus , Brazil, on the Rio Negro in
5076-406: A switchboard made of Tennessee marble, which controlled the hotel's power and lighting. The hotel has a steel frame superstructure with hollow tile floors, as well as wired-glass enclosures around all stairways and elevators. Originally, five marble staircases led from the ground floor to all of the other floors. As constructed, the stories above the ground floor surrounded a large courtyard, which
5264-742: A terrace called the Champagne Porch. There were three minor entrances, including one to the porch. The Champagne Porch was replaced by a large central entry in 1921. The entrance there consists of six Tuscan -style columns, supporting a balcony on the second story, immediately above ground level. The second and third stories at the center of the Grand Army Plaza facade contains paired Corinthian -style pilasters supporting an entablature. The fourth through fifteenth stories, respectively corresponding to interior floors 3 through 14, are clad with white brick and typically contain rectangular windows. These stories contain terracotta veneers that harmonize with
5452-464: A total investment of $ 2 million. By 1887, after taking three loans from New York Life, Phyfe and Campbell found that they did not have enough funds to complete the apartment block. The extent to which the apartment building was completed before the builders' bankruptcy is unclear. In February 1888, brothers Eugene M. and Frank Earle entered into a contract to lease the hotel from Phyfe and Campbell and to furnish it. New York Life concurrently foreclosed on
5640-572: A traditional hotel. Extended stay hotels may offer non-traditional pricing methods such as a weekly rate that caters towards travelers in need of short-term accommodations for an extended period of time. Similar to limited and select service hotels, on-site amenities are normally limited and most extended stay hotels lack an on-site restaurant. Examples include Staybridge Suites , Candlewood Suites , Homewood Suites by Hilton , Home2 Suites by Hilton , Residence Inn by Marriott , Element , and Extended Stay America . Timeshare and destination clubs are
5828-502: A type of booking for less than 24 hours where the customer chooses the check in time and the length of the stay. This allows the hotel increased revenue by reselling the same room several times a day. They first gained popularity in Europe but are now common in major global tourist centers. Hotel management is a globally accepted professional career field and academic field of study. Degree programs such as hospitality management studies ,
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6016-560: A type of economical hotel first introduced in Japan, where people sleep in stacks of rectangular containers. In the sleeping capsules, beside the bed, the customer can watch TV, put their valuables in the mini safes, and the customers also can use the wireless internet. Some hotels fill daytime occupancy with day rooms , for example, Rodeway Inn and Suites near Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida . Day rooms are booked in
6204-613: A very limited number of on-site amenities and often only offer basic accommodations with little to no services, catering to the budget-minded traveler seeking a "no frills" accommodation. Limited service hotels often lack an on-site restaurant but in return may offer a limited complimentary food and beverage amenity such as on-site continental breakfast service. Examples include Ibis Budget , Hampton Inn , Aloft , Holiday Inn Express , Fairfield Inn , and Four Points by Sheraton . Extended stay hotels are small to medium-sized hotels that offer longer-term full-service accommodations compared to
6392-881: A wide array of guest services and on-site facilities. Commonly found amenities may include: on-site food and beverage (room service and restaurants), meeting and conference services and facilities, fitness center, and business center. Upscale full-service hotels range in quality from upscale to luxury. This classification is based upon the quality of facilities and amenities offered by the hotel. Examples include: W Hotels , Sheraton , Langham , Kempinski , Pullman , Kimpton Hotels , Hilton , Swissôtel , Lotte , Renaissance , Marriott and Hyatt Regency brands. Boutique hotels are smaller independent non-branded hotels that often contain mid-scale to upscale facilities of varying size in unique or intimate settings with full-service accommodations. These hotels are generally 100 rooms or fewer. Small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer
6580-404: A women's reception room. West of this lobby is a staircase leading up to a mezzanine-level corridor, which has marble floors and ashlar walls and abuts the Terrace Room's balcony to the north and a foyer to the south. The mezzanine-level foyer has marble floors, a painted coffered ceiling supported by two square columns, and a bank of two elevators to the ballroom on floor 1. A marble staircase, with
6768-494: A year, and are used as short-term hotel units for the remaining time. In addition, there are 130 rooms exclusively for short-term stays on the fourth through tenth stories, respectively labeled as floors 3 through 9. The hotel portion of the building retains a butler on each floor, reminiscent of the hotel's original opulence. Hardenbergh's design included the State Apartment on the northern side of floor 1. This apartment
6956-442: Is 50 stories tall with a roof of 705 feet (215 m). The building also has two basement levels. The stories are connected by 35 elevators. The facade is made of vertical piers of white Georgia marble, alternating with strips of glass. According to Stone, he used white marble because many of the surrounding buildings had similar cladding on their lower stories. Stone believed that "those black buildings that have been modish in
7144-474: Is 768 Fifth Avenue, though the residential entrance is One Central Park South. Since 2018, the hotel has been owned by the Qatari firm Katara Hospitality . The 18-story, French Renaissance -inspired château style building was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh . The facade is made of marble at the base, with white brick covering the upper stories, and is topped by a mansard roof . The ground floor contains
7332-491: Is a hotel chain that offers branding to independently operated hotels; the chain itself is founded by or owned by the member hotels as a group. Many former referral chains have been converted to franchises; the largest surviving member-owned chain is Best Western . The first recorded purpose-built railway hotel was the Great Western Hotel , which opened adjacent to Reading railway station in 1844, shortly after
7520-428: Is a small-sized low-rise lodging with direct access to individual rooms from the car parking area. Boutique hotels are typically hotels with a unique environment or intimate setting. A number of hotels and motels have entered the public consciousness through popular culture. Some hotels are built specifically as destinations in themselves, for example casinos and holiday resorts . Most hotel establishments are run by
7708-648: Is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world, operated primarily for the purpose of allowing guests privacy for sexual activities , typically for one to three hours, but with overnight as an option. Styles of premises vary from extremely low-end to extravagantly appointed. In Japan, love hotels have a history of over 400 years. In 2021 a New York-based company introduced new modular and movable hotel rooms which allow landowners and hospitality groups to create and easily scale hotel accommodations. The portable units can be built in three to five months and can be stacked to create multi-floor units. A referral hotel
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7896-880: Is built into the remains of an opal mine. Located on the coast but high above sea level, these hotels offer unobstructed panoramic views and a great sense of privacy without the feeling of total isolation. Some examples from around the globe are the Riosol Hotel in Gran Canaria, Caruso Belvedere Hotel in Amalfi Coast (Italy), Aman Resorts Amankila in Bali, Birkenhead House in Hermanus (South Africa), The Caves in Jamaica and Caesar Augustus in Capri. Capsule hotels are
8084-552: Is derived from the French hôtel (coming from the same origin as hospital ), which referred to a French version of a building seeing frequent visitors, and providing care, rather than a place offering accommodation. In contemporary French usage, hôtel now has the same meaning as the English term, and hôtel particulier is used for the old meaning, as well as "hôtel" in some place names such as Hôtel-Dieu (in Paris), which has been
8272-429: Is inlaid with mosaic tiles, and the beamed ceiling is inlaid with mirrors, giving the impression of highly decorated trusses. The room is lit by large windows and eight large bronze chandeliers. The room's original color scheme was a relatively toned-down palette of green, dark brown, and gray hues. When first built, there was a musicians' balcony overlooking the room. The room also had an entrance at Grand Army Plaza, which
8460-440: Is named because it contains three terraces. The terrace increases in height from east to west and divide the room into three sections, which are separated by balustrades and connected by small staircases. The space contains Renaissance-style motifs on the pilasters, ceilings, and wall arches, as well as three chandeliers and rusticated-marble walls. John B. Smeraldi was commissioned to paint the Terrace Room's ornamentation. The room
8648-729: Is often determined by hotel ownership and managing companies. Boutique hotels are typically hotels with a unique environment or intimate setting. Some hotels have gained their renown through tradition, by hosting significant events or persons, such as Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam , Germany, which derives its fame from the Potsdam Conference of the World War II allies Winston Churchill , Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin in 1945. The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai
8836-828: Is one of India's most famous and historic hotels because of its association with the Indian independence movement . Some establishments have given name to a particular meal or beverage, as is the case with the Waldorf Astoria in New York City , United States where the Waldorf Salad was first created or the Hotel Sacher in Vienna , Austria, home of the Sachertorte . Others have achieved fame by association with dishes or cocktails created on their premises, such as
9024-434: Is surrounded by a balcony, with a painted coffer ceiling possibly commissioned by Smeraldi, as well as marble pilasters and floors. A balcony runs slightly above the room on its southern wall. Immediately south of the balcony is the Terrace Room's corridor and foyer. The southeastern corner of the ground floor originally contained the 58th Street Restaurant, which was exclusively for the hotel's long-term residents. In 1934, it
9212-759: The Amazon ; and Bayram's Tree Houses in Olympos , Turkey. Some hotels have accommodation underwater, such as Utter Inn in Lake Mälaren , Sweden. Hydropolis , project in Dubai , would have had suites on the bottom of the Persian Gulf , and Jules' Undersea Lodge in Key Largo , Florida , requires scuba diving to access its rooms. General Motors Building (Manhattan) The General Motors Building (also
9400-696: The GM Building ) is a 50-story, 705 ft (215 m) office tower at 767 Fifth Avenue at Grand Army Plaza on the southeast corner of Central Park , in Manhattan , New York City . The building occupies an entire city block between Fifth Avenue , Madison Avenue , 59th Street , and 58th Street on the site of the former Savoy-Plaza Hotel . It was designed in the International Style by Edward Durell Stone & Associates with Emery Roth & Sons and completed in 1968. The GM Building
9588-651: The George and the Tabard . A typical layout of an inn featured an inner court with bedrooms on the two sides, with the kitchen and parlour at the front and the stables at the back. For a period of about 200 years from the mid-17th century, coaching inns served as a place for lodging for coach travellers (in other words, a roadhouse ). Coaching inns stabled teams of horses for stagecoaches and mail coaches and replaced tired teams with fresh teams. Traditionally they were seven miles apart, but this depended very much on
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#17327576849469776-792: The George A. Fuller Company , one of the syndicate's members—as well as German financier Bernhard Beinecke . Shortly after the purchase, Black and Beinecke formed the Plaza Realty Company to redevelop the hotel. In mid-1905, Black also formed the United States Realty and Construction Company , a trust whose subsidiaries included the Fuller Company and the Plaza Realty Company. Sources disagree on whether Black and Beinecke approached barbed-wire entrepreneur John Warne Gates for funding, or whether Gates overheard Black and Beinecke discuss their redevelopment plans at
9964-645: The Great Western Railway opened its line from London. The building still exists, and although it has been used for other purposes over the years, it is now again a hotel and a member of the Malmaison hotel chain . Frequently, expanding railway companies built grand hotels at their termini, such as the Midland Hotel, Manchester next to the former Manchester Central Station , and in London
10152-909: The Hotel de Paris where the crêpe Suzette was invented or the Raffles Hotel in Singapore , where the Singapore Sling cocktail was devised. A number of hotels have entered the public consciousness through popular culture, such as the Ritz Hotel in London , through its association with Irving Berlin's song, " Puttin' on the Ritz ". The Algonquin Hotel in New York City is famed as
10340-568: The New York City Department of City Planning , the building has 1,824,820 square feet (169,531 m ) of gross floor area . A 2013 transaction among minority owners valued the building around $ 3.4 billion while a 2017 appraisal valued it at over $ 4.8 billion. The building's prestige was in part due to its proximity to Central Park, as well as its 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m ) floor plates, which tended to attract larger companies. The interiors are clad with Greek marble;
10528-585: The New York City Planning Commission to rezone a three-block area around Grand Army Plaza in 1968. GM only expected to occupy part of the new building, leasing the remaining space through the Savoy Fifth Avenue Corp. The first 26 floors were occupied by GM while the other 24 stories were rented out. By January 1967, all of the space in the building had been leased. Morgan Guaranty took ground-story space on
10716-631: The Pulitzer Fountain in the southern portion of Grand Army Plaza. An entrance to the Fifth Avenue–59th Street station of the New York City Subway 's N , R , and W trains is within the base of the hotel at Central Park South. Fifth Avenue between 42nd Street and Central Park South was relatively undeveloped throughout the late 19th century, when brownstone rowhouses were built on
10904-524: The Waldorf Astoria Hotel , twenty-five blocks south, during the 1890s. Beinecke, Black, and Gates subsequently discovered that the foundation of the existing hotel could not support the additional stories, so they decided to rebuild it completely. The George A. Fuller Company was contracted to construct the new hotel. Hardenbergh designed the new hotel building while the owners waited for the existing lease to expire. His design took advantage of
11092-692: The Wall Street Crash of October 1929, which commenced the Great Depression in the United States . Plaza Hotel co-owner Harry Black killed himself the following year, and his partner Bernhard Beinecke died two years later. The rebuilt Plaza's first manager, Fred Sterry, died in 1933. The early 1930s were also financially difficult for the Plaza Hotel, as only half of the suites were occupied by 1932. To reduce operating costs for
11280-466: The 1,100 employees working in the building to Detroit in February 1981, reducing their occupancy to 12 floors of the building or roughly 400,000 square feet (37,000 m ). Two months later, General Motors announced their intention to sell the building for more than $ 500 million while still maintaining their corporate office space. If the sale had been executed at that price, the sum would have been
11468-539: The 1890s; the Savoy would be replaced in 1927 by the Savoy-Plaza Hotel , which itself would be demolished in 1964. All three hotels contributed to Fifth Avenue's importance as an upscale area. The Plaza Hotel, a French Renaissance -inspired château -style building, is 251.92 ft (76.79 m) tall, with 18 stories. The hotel's floors are numbered according to European usage, where floor 1, corresponding to
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#173275768494611656-444: The 18th floor of the hotel was furnished with various decorations from the movie The Great Gatsby . The furnished room was based on the novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald , which had several scenes set at the hotel (see § In media ). During 2017 and 2018, the Plaza Hotel sold vacation packages with memorabilia, photo opportunities, an in-suite ice cream sundae, and visits to New York City tourist attractions based on
11844-691: The 19th century. Luxury hotels, including the 1829 Tremont House in Boston , the 1836 Astor House in New York City , the 1889 Savoy Hotel in London, and the Ritz chain of hotels in London and Paris in the late 1890s, catered to an ever more-wealthy clientele. Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is part of a United States law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, or national origin in places of public accommodation. Hotels are included as types of public accommodation in
12032-435: The 2000s as hotel chains have been building economy-priced, limited-service franchised properties at freeway exits which compete for largely the same clientele, largely saturating the market by the 1990s. Motels are still useful in less populated areas for driving travelers, but the more populated an area becomes, the more hotels move in to meet the demand for accommodation. While many motels are unbranded and independent, many of
12220-568: The 43,000 exterior marble slabs. The following year, CPI exercised its option to buy the building from General Motors for $ 500 million. By 1995, GM was close to shuttering its New York City outpost and moving to Westchester County . However, after employee demand and receiving tax breaks from the city of New York, GM signed a smaller lease for 20,000 square feet (1,900 m ), compared to the 110,000 square feet (10,000 m ) they previously occupied. The first-floor GM showroom, which had occupied 9,000 square feet (840 m ) of retail space since
12408-484: The 58th Street lobby, and two near Central Park South, for long-term residents. The hotel's water storage tanks had a capacity of 75,000 U.S. gallons (280,000 L), and the hotel could filter 1,500,000 U.S. gallons (5,700,000 L) of water from the New York City water supply system each day. Water was passed through ten filters before it was pumped to rooms, and water for the kitchens and for drinking fountains passed through additional filters. The mechanical plant in
12596-528: The Act. Hotels cater to travelers from many countries and languages, since no one country dominates the travel industry. Hotel operations vary in size, function, and cost. Most hotels and major hospitality companies that operate hotels have set widely accepted industry standards to classify hotel types. General categories include the following: International luxury hotels offer high-quality amenities, full-service accommodations, on-site full-service restaurants, and
12784-505: The Apple Fifth Avenue store was being renovated. In April 2017, Boston Properties negotiated a new $ 2.3 billion mortgage from a group of unidentified lenders, the largest received by a New York City building since a $ 2.7 billion loan made for Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village in late 2015. At the time, the building was appraised at $ 4.8 billion, making it one of the most valuable office buildings in New York City. The loan
12972-524: The Fifth Avenue end. The plaza was originally composed of a 200-by-10-foot (61.0 by 3.0 m) space, sunken 12 feet (3.7 m) below grade. It was connected to the ground level via a staircase, and it was partially overhung by a promenade, with shops on three sides of the plaza. Because of its position under ground level, it was seen as an "underused, unattractive desolate place" by the 1990s, with green artificial turf and mostly empty retail space. It
13160-423: The GM Building, instead planning to rent the space out. A coworking space opened in the building in 2022, and the following year, Boston Properties opened a tenant amenity area known as the Savoy Club on the second floor. Architecture critics disapproved of the building, including Paul Goldberger and Ada Louise Huxtable . Huxtable, writing in 1968, said that GM "has the best address in town. It has not given
13348-399: The General Motors Building nor the Solow Building to be architecturally distinguished, their proximity to Central Park allowed their respective owners to charge high rents. In 1986, FAO Schwarz moved its flagship toy store to the General Motors Building's ground-floor retail space. CPI started a three-year, $ 7.5 million renovation in 1990, re- caulking the windows and replacing about 400 of
13536-528: The Madison Avenue side for a bank branch. Other initial office tenants included Bowater Paper Company , advertising firm Leo Burnett Company , advertising firm Leber Katz Paccione, shipping line Moore-McCormack , and stock brokerage Reynolds & Co. In addition, cosmetics manufacturers Estee Lauder, Revlon, and Helena Rubinstein Inc., as well as advertising firm Wells, Rich, Greene , took space in
13724-1150: The Mammut Snow Hotel in Finland is located within the walls of the Kemi snow castle; and the Lainio Snow Hotel is part of a snow village near Ylläs , Finland. There is an arctic snowhotel in Rovaniemi in Lapland , Finland, along with glass igloos. The first glass igloos were built in 1999 in Finland , they became the Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort with 65 buildings, 53 small ones for two people and 12 large ones for four people. Glass igloos, with their roof made of thermal glass, allow guests to admire auroras comfortably from their beds. A love hotel (also 'love motel', especially in Taiwan)
13912-518: The Palm Court, which is in the center of the ground floor. Various smaller corridors lead off the main corridor. All of the halls have floors decorated with mosaics, coffered ceilings made of plaster, and marble columns and pilasters with bronze capitals . The Central Park South entrance foyer served as the original main lobby, and is in the shape of a "U", with an overhanging mezzanine. It contains French marble walls, gilded-bronze column capitals , veined Italian-marble finishes, gold-colored trimmings,
14100-489: The Plaza Hotel has appeared in numerous books and films. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the hotel's exterior and some of its interior spaces as city landmarks, and the building is also a National Historic Landmark . The hotel is also a member of Historic Hotels of America . The Plaza Hotel is at 768 Fifth Avenue and One Central Park South in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City . It faces Central Park South (59th Street) and
14288-571: The Plaza Operating Company had acquired four lots on West 58th Street and one on Central Park South, and it received an exemption from the 1916 Zoning Resolution , which set height restrictions for new buildings on the 58th Street side of the lots. The company filed plans for a 19-story annex along 58th Street in August 1919, to be designed by Warren and Wetmore. The final lots, at 15 and 17 West 58th Street, were acquired in 1920 after
14476-522: The Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary in Central Park to the north; Grand Army Plaza to the east; and 58th Street to the south. Fifth Avenue itself is across Grand Army Plaza from the hotel. The hotel's site covers 53,772 square feet (4,995.6 m). It measures 285 feet (87 m) along 58th Street and 275 feet (84 m) along Central Park South, with a depth of 200.83 feet (61.21 m) between
14664-477: The Savoy, which would be replaced in 1927 by the Savoy-Plaza Hotel . The only other structures on the Savoy-Plaza block were the four-story Emmet Arcade and the 15-story Madison Hotel. By the 1950s, almost all of the 19th-century structures on Grand Army Plaza had been either destroyed or renovated. The General Motors Building was designed by Edward Durell Stone of the firm Emery Roth & Sons . It
14852-887: The Strip, with a total of over 67,000 rooms. The Null Stern Hotel in Teufen , Appenzellerland , Switzerland, and the Concrete Mushrooms in Albania are former nuclear bunkers transformed into hotels. The Cuevas Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (named after the author ) in Guadix , Spain, as well as several hotels in Cappadocia , Turkey, are notable for being built into natural cave formations, some with rooms underground. The Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy , South Australia,
15040-496: The apartment building and that September bought it at public auction for $ 925,000. Shortly afterward, New York Life decided to remodel the interiors completely, hiring architects McKim, Mead & White to complete the hotel. New York Life leased the hotel to Frederick A. Hammond in 1889, and the Hammond brothers became the operators of the hotel for the next fifteen years. The first Plaza Hotel finally opened on October 1, 1890, at
15228-576: The avenue. By the early 1900s, that section of Fifth Avenue was becoming commercialized. The first decade of the 20th century saw the construction of hotels, stores, and clubs such as the St. Regis New York , the University Club of New York , and the Gotham Hotel . The corner of Fifth Avenue, Central Park South, and 59th Street was developed with the Plaza, Savoy, and New Netherland hotels during
15416-403: The ballroom proper is a corridor running west to east. The corridor has a decorative barrel-vaulted paneled ceiling and had a balcony that was removed during the 1929 redesign. On the southernmost section of floor 1 is the ballroom foyer and the stair hall, two formerly separate rooms that were combined in 1965 to form a neoclassical marble-clad space. The stair hall contains the stairs leading from
15604-431: The basement and on floor 18. When the hotel opened in 1907, the basement also contained a grill room, kitchen, various refrigeration rooms, and amenities such as a Victorian-style Turkish bath and a barber shop. Originally concealed within the mansard roof were the housekeepers' quarters and maids' dormitories; the eighteenth floor had carpentry, ironing, and tailors' departments. The spaces on floor 18 had become offices by
15792-505: The building and have a variety of layouts, from studio apartments to three-story penthouse units. The condos' interiors include parquet floors and stone counters, and largely reflect the original design of these rooms. There are also 282 hotel units on the southern side of the building. Of these, 152 condo-hotel units occupy the eleventh through twenty-first stories, respectively labeled as floors 10 through 20. The condo-hotel units serve as residences for investors or staff for up to four months
15980-427: The building for $ 878 million. The group received a $ 700 million loan from Lehman Brothers for the purchase, while Trump committed $ 15 million to $ 20 million of his own money to the deal. Conseco and Trump started renovating the plaza and ground story after their purchase. Trump installed his name in 4-foot-tall (1.2 m) gold letters on the piers along Fifth and Madison Avenues, and he installed smaller signs at
16168-402: The building has 282 hotel rooms and 181 condos. A hotel of the same name was built from 1883 to 1890. The original hotel was replaced by the current structure from 1905 to 1907; Warren and Wetmore designed an expansion to the Plaza Hotel that was added from 1919 to 1921, and several major renovations were conducted through the rest of the 20th century. The Plaza Operating Company, which erected
16356-483: The building in 1981. Ultimately, Corporate Property Investors (CPI) bought an option on the building in 1982 and conducted a renovation in 1990. Conseco and Donald Trump purchased the General Motors Building from CPI in 1998. Five years later, it was sold to Macklowe Organization for $ 1.4 billion, then the highest price for a North American office building. Macklowe sold the building in 2008 to
16544-549: The building on Fifth Avenue was originally below grade but, after two renovations, contains the Apple Fifth Avenue entrance and a seating area above ground level. Architecture critics, including Paul Goldberger and Ada Louise Huxtable , widely disapproved of the building upon its completion. All of the space in the building had been leased by January 1967, over a year prior to opening. General Motors relocated most of its employees and announced their intention to sell
16732-445: The building on opening day. The company formally dedicated the building four days later on September 30. Initially, 3,027 GM workers took up about half the building's space. Early in its existence, the General Motors Building's window-washing union went on strike for more than a month, and the facade became dirty. During this time, the building was used as a filming location for the 1969 movie Cactus Flower ; under an agreement with
16920-526: The building opened, was shuttered. GM redesigned its showroom, which reopened in 1997 under the name "GM on Fifth". By early 1998, Vornado Realty Trust was planning to buy the General Motors Building from CPI for $ 700 million. That April, potential buyers began submitting purchase offers to Simon DeBartolo Group Inc. Some bidders began to withdraw their offers as the purchase price surpassed $ 750 million. The winning bid came from investment firm Conseco and real-estate developer Donald Trump , who purchased
17108-572: The building's four corners. He also hired Der Scutt to renovate the lobby. The GM showroom at the base was closed and a studio for the CBS program The Early Show was built within that space. The plaza, which had been unpopular with pedestrians because of its location below ground, was raised to ground level. Despite complaints about the CBS studio from the Sherry Netherland Hotel,
17296-408: The building. The Early Show studio closed the same year when the show ended. FAO Schwarz occupied the GM Building's ground-level retail space until 2015, after which the space was subleased by sports clothing company Under Armour for a flagship store. Under Armour had planned to open a store in the building in 2019, but this was delayed because Apple needed some of that space for itself while
17484-411: The building. Apple Fifth Avenue opened in 2006. That December, the property was recapitalized again, with $ 1.9 billion in new senior debt. During this recapitalization, Macklowe also repurchased all of Jamestown's preferred equity stake, leaving them as sole owners. Two months later, in February 2007, Macklowe borrowed $ 7.6 billion in short-term debt for the acquisition of seven other buildings. The debt
17672-417: The building. Unlike at other structures, Savoy Fifth Avenue Corp did not offer to assume prospective occupants' leases. Because of the large concentration of perfume and cosmetics firms, the building was also initially nicknamed the "General Odors Building". GM opened the building and its ground-floor showroom on September 26, 1968, with a display of the company's 1969 car models. Ten thousand people visited
17860-404: The car park. Motels were built to serve road travellers, including travellers on road trip vacations and workers who drive for their job (travelling salespeople, truck drivers, etc.). Common during the 1950s and 1960s, motels were often located adjacent to a major highway, where they were built on inexpensive land at the edge of towns or along stretches of freeway. New motel construction is rare in
18048-468: The city its best building". Even the first edition of the AIA Guide to New York City (1968), which normally wrote positively of International-style modernist designs, stated, "The hue and cry over the new behemoth was based, not on architecture but, rather, first on the loss of the [Savoy] hotel's elegant shopping amenities in favor of automobile salesmanship (an auto showroom is particularly galling at
18236-462: The city. Instead, these offices were furnished with replicas of traditional work. The upper stories' decorative elements were selected by their tenants. Three of the original upper-story tenants, cosmetics manufacturers Estee Lauder , Revlon , and Helena Rubinstein Inc., collectively took more than six stories, each with varying color schemes and art collections. The building contains a public plaza on
18424-556: The company resold a two-thirds interest to Canadian company British Commercial Property Investments and a one-third interest to British company London Merchant Securities . The companies also acquired the Emmet Arcade prior to August 1964. When the companies purchased the Madison Hotel in October 1964, they gained ownership of the whole city block. In August 1964, the media reported that the Savoy-Plaza would be razed at
18612-413: The components of a column , namely a base, shaft, and crown. The northern and eastern elevations are also split vertically into three portions, with the center portion being recessed. The northeastern and southeastern corners of the hotel contain rounded corners, which resemble turrets . There are numerous loggias , balustrades , columns, pilasters , balconies, and arches repeated across various parts of
18800-613: The controversy and boycott threats had decreased by then. The building was only the fourth major skyscraper to be developed on Fifth Avenue following World War II, after the Tishman Building at 666, the Canada House at 680, and the Corning Glass Building at 717 Fifth Avenue. The replacement of the Savoy-Plaza with the General Motors Building spurred a movement to save other hotels nearby. This prompted
18988-506: The current building, operated the hotel until 1943. Subsequently, it was sold to several owners during the remainder of the 20th century, including Conrad Hilton , A.M. Sonnabend, Westin Hotels & Resorts , Donald Trump , and a partnership of City Developments Limited and Al-Waleed bin Talal . The Plaza Hotel was renovated again after El Ad Properties purchased it in 2005, and the hotel
19176-576: The defining characteristic of a resort hotel is that it exists purely to serve another attraction, the two having the same owners. On the Las Vegas Strip there is a tradition of one-upmanship with luxurious and extravagant hotels in a concentrated area. This trend now has extended to other resorts worldwide, but the concentration in Las Vegas is still the world's highest: nineteen of the world's twenty-five largest hotels by room count are on
19364-422: The developers determined that they would need to raise another $ 4 million, and the additional expenditures pushed the final construction cost to $ 12.5 million. To pay for the construction costs, the developers received a $ 5 million loan in mid-1906, followed by another $ 4.5 million loan in 1907. The new 800-room Plaza Hotel was opened on October 1, 1907, twenty-seven months after work had commenced. The opening
19552-470: The east. The General Motors Building's site covers 84,350 square feet (7,836 m ), with a frontage of 200 feet (61 m) on Fifth and Madison Avenues and 420 feet (130 m) on 58th and 59th Streets. The building is assigned its own ZIP Code , 10153; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes as of 2019 . The General Motors Building is near The Sherry-Netherland to
19740-399: The eastern section of the mezzanine. The Fifth Avenue lobby was decorated with bas-reliefs; and it preserved some of the original decorations from the Plaza Restaurant, including paneled pilasters and a beamed ceiling. Other features, including the mosaic floor and a crystal chandelier, were added by Warren and Wetmore. The 58th Street entrance has three elevators and adjoins what was formerly
19928-428: The end of June 1965. Demolition of the Savoy-Plaza began that year, but two existing tenants of the hotel had leases that were not scheduled to expire for several more years. Consequently, Benattar considered leaving a remnant of the old hotel in place unless London Merchants could reach an agreement with the lessees. The General Motors Building was nearly completed by October 1967, except for facade sheathing. Much of
20116-447: The end of the 1965 World's Fair, and a 40-story building occupied primarily by GM would be constructed on the site. At the time, GM was housed in 1775 Broadway (now 3 Columbus Circle) at Broadway and 57th Street, three blocks west; GM had leased space in that structure since 1927, and it had become dilapidated. The announcement of the GM Building led to a significant public outcry and protests. In December 1964, Stone presented plans for
20304-414: The facade. The 1921 annex contains a design that is largely similar to Hardenbergh's 1907 design. The first and second stories of the facade, respectively corresponding to the ground floor and floor 1 of the interior, are clad with rusticated blocks of marble . The third story, corresponding to floor 2 of the interior, contains a smooth marble surface. The hotel had two guest entrances in the 1907 design:
20492-438: The fact that the site faced Grand Army Plaza and could thus be seen from many angles. The first Plaza Hotel was closed on June 11, 1905, and demolition commenced immediately upon the expiration of the lease there. The existing hotel's furnishings were auctioned. The site was cleared within two months of the start of demolition. Hardenbergh filed plans for the hotel with the New York City Department of Buildings that September. By
20680-523: The film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York , which is partially set in the hotel. Another room in the hotel was redecorated in 2022 to promote the TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel . The land lots making up the site of the present-day Plaza Hotel were first parceled and sold by the government of New York City in 1853, and acquired by John Anderson from 1870 to 1881. Prior to the Plaza Hotel's development,
20868-446: The first decade of the 20th century was part of a rapidly growing commercial district on Fifth Avenue. Furthermore, several upscale hotels in Manhattan were also being rebuilt during that time. In May 1902, a syndicate purchased the Plaza and three adjacent lots on Central Park South for $ 3 million. The sale was the largest-ever cash-only purchase for a Manhattan property at the time. The purchasers were headed by Harry S. Black —who headed
21056-610: The first hotels in a modern sense was opened in Exeter in 1768. Hotels proliferated throughout Western Europe and North America in the early 19th century, and luxury hotels began to spring up in the later part of the 19th century, particularly in the United States. Hotel operations vary in size, function, complexity, and cost. Most hotels and major hospitality companies have set industry standards to classify hotel types. An upscale full-service hotel facility offers luxury amenities, full-service accommodations, an on-site restaurant , and
21244-483: The furniture was manufactured by the Pooley Company of Philadelphia; where the Pooley Company could not manufacture the furnishings, the Plaza's developers chartered ships to import material from Europe. Sterry himself was dispatched to Europe to purchase these materials. The developers originally anticipated that the hotel would cost $ 8.5 million to construct, including the furnishings. Shortly after work started,
21432-565: The highest level of personalized and professional service in major or capital cities . International luxury hotels are classified with at least a Five Diamond rating or Five Star hotel rating depending on the country and local classification standards. Example brands include: Grand Hyatt , Conrad , InterContinental , Sofitel , Mandarin Oriental , Four Seasons , The Peninsula , Rosewood , JW Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton . Lifestyle luxury resorts are branded hotels that appeal to
21620-443: The highest level of personalized service, such as a concierge , room service , and clothes-ironing staff. Full-service hotels often contain upscale full-service facilities with many full-service accommodations, an on-site full-service restaurant , and a variety of on-site amenities . Boutique hotels are smaller independent, non-branded hotels that often contain upscale facilities. Small to medium-sized hotel establishments offer
21808-442: The highest-quality marble was used in the lobby while lower-quality marble was relegated to upper-story spaces such as restrooms. The lobby has a patterned polygonal ceiling, green-and-white marble walls, and green marble floors with inlaid brass strips. The ceiling is original, but the floors and walls date from a 1999 renovation. The original design of the lobby included octagonal white-marble floor tiles as well as marble grilles on
21996-463: The hotel's restaurants, the grill room in the basement was converted into a closet, while the Rose Room became an automobile showroom. The furnishings of the hotel fell into disrepair; and during some months management was unable to pay staff. Luxury hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from
22184-524: The insulation values of the walls it needs no conventional heating or air conditioning system, although the Maya Guesthouse is built at an altitude of 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) in the Alps. Transit hotels are short stay hotels typically used at international airports where passengers can stay while waiting to change airplanes. The hotels are typically on the airside and do not require a visa for
22372-478: The joint venture of Boston Properties , Zhang Xin , and the Safra banking family for $ 2.8 billion. The joint venture continues to own the building as of 2022 . The General Motors Building is at 767 Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City . It is bounded by 59th Street to the north; Fifth Avenue and Grand Army Plaza to the west; 58th Street to the south; and Madison Avenue to
22560-495: The largest ever paid for a office building in United States. However, the asking rate of $ 312.5 per square foot ($ 3,364/m ) was less than the comparable rate for the Manufacturers Hanover Corporation office at 350 Park Avenue , which had sold the same year for $ 334 per square foot ($ 3,600/m ). By December 1981, Manhattan real estate company Corporate Property Investors (CPI) was negotiating to buy
22748-421: The largest mortgage ever for an office property in New York City, also made CPI the managers of the building. The loan allowed GM, which then had a low supply of cash, to increase its current assets while also deferring payment of the city's capital gains tax . The mortgages were significantly below market rates. Even so, some tenants signed leases of over $ 50 per square foot ($ 540/m ) during this time. Among
22936-399: The largest single windows ever made for a building at the time of their installation. The other twenty panels were 38 to 39 inches (970 to 990 mm) wide. These windows enclosed a General Motors (GM) showroom. The building has about 1.7 million square feet (160,000 m ) of space, though its rental space is also estimated at 1,774,000 square feet (164,800 m ). According to
23124-399: The late 20th century. In Hardenbergh's original design, a main corridor connects the primary spaces on the ground floor. The corridor, which still exists, connects the lobbies on 58th Street, Grand Army Plaza, and Central Park South. The layout of the ground-floor hallways dates largely from the 1921 expansion by Warren and Wetmore. The corridor wraps around the south, east, and north sides of
23312-479: The main entrance on Central Park South and a private entrance for long-term residents on 58th Street. The main entrance, in the center of the Central Park South facade, contains a porch above the three center bays, and large doorways. Since the hotel's 2008 renovation, the Central Park South entrance has served as the entrance to the building's condominiums. The Grand Army Plaza side originally contained
23500-486: The marble facade below it and the mansard roof above. At the center of the Central Park South facade, the five center bays at the twelfth and thirteenth stories (floors 11 and 12) contain an arcade composed of arches with paired pilasters. On the Grand Army Plaza side, there are horizontal band courses above the thirteenth story. The 58th Street facade is a scaled-down version of the two primary elevations on Central Park South and Grand Army Plaza. A marble balcony runs above
23688-687: The market for between $ 3.2 and $ 3.5 billion. Such a sale would generate tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue for the city government and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority due to its high price. The GM Building was sold in May 2008 for an estimated $ 2.8 billion to a joint venture between Boston Properties, Goldman Sachs Real Estate Opportunities Fund (backed by funds from Kuwait and Qatar ), and Meraas Capital (a Dubai-based real estate private equity firm). The sale served in part to pay off Macklowe's debt on
23876-536: The meeting place of the literary group, the Algonquin Round Table , and Hotel Chelsea , also in New York City, has been the subject of a number of songs and the scene of the stabbing of Nancy Spungen (allegedly by her boyfriend Sid Vicious ). Some hotels are built specifically as a destination in itself to create a captive trade, example at casinos , amusement parks and holiday resorts . Though hotels have always been built in popular destinations,
24064-496: The men's grill acted as a social club where discussing business was socially inappropriate, while the bar was a space to talk business. Sometime between 1912 and the start of Prohibition in the United States in 1920, the brokerage office near the entrance, now the Oak Bar, was turned into an extension of the bar room. The Champagne Porch along Grand Army Plaza was the most exclusive area of the hotel, with meals costing between $ 50 and $ 500. The basement's grill room hosted ice-skating in
24252-418: The mezzanine foyer. The Plaza Hotel's condominiums and suites start on the third story, labeled as floor 2. As originally built, they contained three primary types of suites: those with one bedroom and one bathroom; those with two bedrooms and two bathrooms; and those with a parlor and varying numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms. The walls were originally painted in rose, yellow, cream, and gray hues. No wallpaper
24440-629: The mid-18th century, and consequently grew in grandeur and in the level of service provided. Sudhir Andrews traces "the birth of an organised hotel industry" to Europe's chalets and small hotels which catered primarily to aristocrats. One of the first hotels in a modern sense, the Royal Clarence , opened in Exeter in 1768, although the idea only really caught on in the early-19th century. In 1812 Mivart's Hotel opened its doors in London , later changing its name to Claridge's . Hotels proliferated throughout Western Europe and North America in
24628-434: The modern-day Oak Bar. In total, there were six brokerage houses scattered across the ground floor. During Warren and Wetmore's expansion, the Grand Army Plaza lobby, also called the Fifth Avenue lobby, was created as the hotel's new main lobby, which occupied the former Plaza Restaurant's space. The lobby contains a U-shaped mezzanine running above the northern, eastern, and southern walls, with three entrance vestibules below
24816-399: The most attractive public houses in the wide world". Despite being described as fashionable, it was not profitable. The New York Times reported in 1891 that the hotel netted $ 72,000 in rental income, against the $ 1.8 million that New York Life had spent to complete the hotel, including loans to Phyfe and Campbell. The first Plaza Hotel had been relatively remote when it was completed, but by
25004-553: The new office tenants in the 1980s were Sanford C. Bernstein and Company . After GM's relocation, the 13th floor was renamed floor 12A at the request of Estee Lauder, a change that confused many building visitors. By the late 1980s, the General Motors Building, along with the Solow Building and the Seagram Building , charged some of the city's highest rents. In spite of the fact that architects considered neither
25192-428: The next month, contractors were clearing the old hotel's foundation. The new hotel was to use 10,000 short tons (8,900 long tons; 9,100 t) of steel, and a group of 100 workers and seven derricks erected two stories of steelwork every six days. The Fuller Company decided to hire both union and non-union ironworkers for the hotel's construction, a decision that angered the union workers. Patrolmen were hired to protect
25380-416: The non-union workers, and one patrolmen was killed during a dispute with union workers. By October 1906, the facade of the new hotel was under construction. Hardenbergh and Sterry directed several firms to furnish the interior spaces. Sterry recalled that all of the interior features were custom-designed for the hotel, such as 1,650 crystal chandeliers and the largest-ever order of gold-rimmed cutlery. Much of
25568-703: The north; 500 Park Avenue to the east; the Fuller Building and Four Seasons Hotel New York to the southeast; the LVMH Tower and 3 East 57th Street to the south; the Solow Building and Bergdorf Goodman Building to the southwest; and the Plaza Hotel to the west. In addition, The Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary within Central Park is to the northwest, across Grand Army Plaza. Fifth Avenue between 42nd Street and Central Park South
25756-470: The notes' value. After the September 11 attacks , Deutsche Bank was unable to provide such a guarantee because the General Motors Building was seen as a "trophy" property vulnerable to terrorism. Trump then filed a lawsuit against Conseco, alleging that the company had blocked him from refinancing the building. Conseco ultimately won the lawsuit and took over Trump's stake. Furthermore, the retail space in
25944-495: The oldest hotel in the world. During the Middle Ages , various religious orders at monasteries and abbeys would offer accommodation for travellers on the road. The precursor to the modern hotel was the inn of medieval Europe , possibly dating back to the rule of Ancient Rome . These would provide for the needs of travellers, including food and lodging, stabling and fodder for the traveller's horses and fresh horses for mail coaches . Famous London examples of inns include
26132-606: The ones above St Pancras railway station and Charing Cross railway station . London also has the Chiltern Court Hotel above Baker Street tube station , there are also Canada's grand railway hotels . They are or were mostly, but not exclusively, used by those traveling by rail. The Maya Guesthouse in Nax Mont-Noble in the Swiss Alps, is the first hotel in Europe built entirely with straw bales. Due to
26320-461: The original investors, was among the residents of the new Plaza; when he died in 1911, his funeral was held at the hotel. Most of the public rooms were not originally given formal names. Although Hardenbergh had predicted that gender-segregated spaces were going out of fashion, there was a women's reception room near 58th Street; and the bar room and men's grill (respectively the present Oak and Edwardian Rooms) were exclusively used by men. In practice,
26508-517: The other motels which remain in operation joined national franchise chains, often rebranding themselves as hotels, inns or lodges. Some examples of chains with motels include EconoLodge , Motel 6 , Super 8 , and Travelodge . Motels in some parts of the world are more often regarded as places for romantic assignations where rooms are often rented by the hour. This is fairly common in parts of Latin America . Hotels may offer rooms for microstays ,
26696-408: The other seven buildings The sale was finalized the next month, being the largest single-asset transaction of 2008. Macklowe's ownership and subsequent sale was characterized in the 2014 book The Liar’s Ball by Vicky Ward. Also in 2008, GM leased some space at Citigroup Center and reduced its occupancy at the GM Building to three floors. By 2012, GM had moved the last of its executives out of
26884-505: The past look perfectly horrible". The load-bearing marble piers are rhomboid in shape and contain a 7 ⁄ 8 -inch (22 mm) thick cladding, behind which are hollow concrete columns with service ducts. At the ground and second stories, the General Motors Building was originally clad with thirty large windows, measuring 30 feet (9.1 m) tall and 0.875 inches (22.2 mm) thick. Ten of these panels, weighing 3,080 pounds (1,400 kg) and measuring 9 feet (2.7 m) wide, were
27072-427: The plans had been filed. The George A. Fuller Company was again hired as the builder. To fund the construction of the annex, the Plaza Operating Company took out mortgage loans worth $ 2.275 million. The Champagne Porch was only frequented by the extremely wealthy; and in 1921, after the start of Prohibition, Sterry decided to remove the room altogether. An enlarged entrance took its place. The work also included building
27260-584: The plaza remained empty for several years despite its redesign. In 2003, Conseco sold the building for $ 1.4 billion to developer Harry B. Macklowe 's Macklowe Organization, representing the highest price for a North American office building at the time. Macklowe placed a nonrefundable down payment of $ 50 million to secure his acquisition of the GM Building. He also received a floating-rate mortgage from Deutsche Bank , as well as short-term equity and debt financing from George Soros and Vornado Realty Trust , using other buildings as collateral . The acquisition
27448-446: The plaza's basement, damaged by the October 1969 fire, opened in 1970. Additional tenants signed leases for the GM Building during the decade, including Bank of Boston International and Mercantile and Marine Inc. A pipe bomb, linked to the terrorist group Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña , was placed outside the GM Building in 1977, but a homeless man dismantled the bomb before it could detonate. GM moved 700 of
27636-560: The plaza's northern and southern sides. The Apple store's entrance, at the center of the plaza, is a 32 ft (9.8 m) glass cube that has been likened to the Louvre Pyramid ; the cube allows a descent into the store via glass elevator and spiral staircase. This addition was designed by Apple and the firm of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson . The Savoy-Plaza Hotel was purchased in 1962 by Webb and Knapp . The same year,
27824-468: The proposed closure of the Savoy-Plaza. Cecilia Benattar, president and chief executive officer of the North American holdings of London Merchants, was to oversee development of the new structure. A group called Save Our Landmarks threatened a boycott of GM products if the project proceeded. Even so, the Savoy-Plaza was already being shuttered in stages, and the Savoy-Plaza closed permanently at
28012-476: The result here fell short of the mark considerably." When plans for the General Motors Building were announced, they were received largely negatively by the public, with many protests over the project. Glenn Fowler wrote for The New York Times that the building's construction, and the simultaneous conversion of Fifth Avenue from a two-way to a one-way route, were "momentous changes in the life of Fifth Avenue", for which "change can be measured only in decades". In
28200-425: The room a garden-like ambiance. The Palm Court initially had a stained glass ceiling, which was removed in a 1940s renovation; it was restored in the mid-2000s. There were also mirrors on the western wall, against which are four caryatids carved by Pottier & Stymus , which frame the wall mirrors and represent the seasons. The Palm Court was renovated in 2014; its modern design includes four palm trees as well as
28388-402: The second story, is directly above the ground floor. The building was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh in 1907, with a later addition, by Warren and Wetmore , being built from 1919 to 1922. The interiors of the main public spaces were primarily designed by Hardenbergh, Warren and Wetmore, and Schultze & Weaver . The other interior spaces were by Annabelle Selldorf and date largely to
28576-552: The site was occupied either by the New York Skating Club, or was vacant. When John Anderson died in 1881, his will stipulated that his land would pass to his son, John Charles Anderson. The first development on the site was proposed in 1882, when Ernest Flagg was enlisted to design a 12-story apartment building for a syndicate led by his father, Jared. However, the Flagg apartment development was not built, likely due to
28764-579: The spot in New York most likely to honor the pedestrian)." An unnamed architect quoted in The New York Times described the facade as "salami architecture", in that the facade "would look the same no matter where you chopped it off". Writer Brendan Gill described the building as "bruising" the sky in a 1981 exhibition, which a Times writer said "immediately makes its gracelessness quite clear". Carter B. Horsley wrote: "The GM Building actually tried to make some good urban design gestures [but]
28952-485: The staff rooms to the basement kitchen, allowing guests to order meals and eat them in-suite. In each room were three buttons, which guests could use to contact that floor's staff, the maid, or the bellhop. Following its 2008 renovation, the building contains 181 privately owned condominiums, which are marketed as the Plaza Residences or One Central Park South. The condominiums are on the north and east sides of
29140-485: The structure. At the end of that month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the building might sell for $ 385 million. Rather than selling the building outright, GM sold an option to CPI in January 1982, which allowed the latter firm to buy the building after 1991 at a minimum price of $ 500 million. CPI paid $ 500 million in cash to GM and, in exchange, received ten-year, 10 percent notes with annual interest payments of $ 50 million. The deal, believed to represent
29328-434: The studio opened that November. By late 1999, Trump said he had leased office space in the building at $ 100 per square foot ($ 1,100/m ); at the time, the tenants included Bank Melli Iran . That December, Conseco and Trump decided to divide the General Motors Building into 115 condominium units, ranging in size from a closet to the building's 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m ) parking garage. The condominium arrangement, which
29516-411: The subbasement originally contained nine 3,500 horsepower (2,600 kW) boilers; a coal plant with a capacity of 750 short tons (670 long tons; 680 t); fourteen ventilating fans; and an electric generating plant with a capacity of 1,100 kilowatts (1,500 hp). Also in the subbasement was a refrigerating plant that could make 15 short tons (13 long tons; 14 t) of ice every 24 hours, as well as
29704-441: The summer, as well as a "dog check room" where residents' dogs could be fed luxuriously. In its first decade, the Plaza employed a staff of over 1,500. From the start, the Plaza Operating Company was already preparing for the possibility of expansion, and it acquired the lots between 5 and 19 West 58th Street in the first two decades of the 20th century. This land acquisition commenced before the second hotel had even opened. By 1915,
29892-426: The terrain. Some English towns had as many as ten such inns and rivalry between them became intense, not only for the income from the stagecoach operators but for the revenue from the food and drink supplied to the wealthy passengers. By the end of the century, coaching inns were being run more professionally, with a regular timetable being followed and fixed menus for food. Inns began to cater to richer clients in
30080-490: The thirteenth story on all sides. The top three floors are within a green-tile mansard roof with copper trim. The Grand Army Plaza side contains a gable , while the 58th Street and Central Park South sides have three stories of dormer windows. The turrets on the northeastern and southeastern corners are topped by domed roofs, which are painted green to match the color of the trees in Central Park. A penthouse occupies
30268-437: The top three stories, which are labeled as floors 19–21. The hotel originally contained three sets of pneumatic tube mail systems: one for guest mail, another for guests to order food from the kitchen, and a third for the hotel's various operating departments. The hotel also originally had 10 passenger elevators, 13 dumbwaiters, and three sidewalk elevators. These elevators included four at the Central Park South lobby, three at
30456-529: The two primary lobbies, as well as a corridor connecting the large ground-floor restaurant spaces, including the Oak Room , the Oak Bar, the Edwardian Room, the Palm Court, and the Terrace Room. The upper stories contain the ballroom and a variety of residential condominiums , condo-hotel suites, and short-term hotel suites. At its peak, the Plaza Hotel had over 800 rooms. Following a renovation in 2008,
30644-579: The two streets. As completed in 1907, it measured 145 feet (44 m) along 58th Street and 250 feet (76 m) along Central Park South, with an "L" running the entire 200-foot depth of the lot along Grand Army Plaza. The hotel is near the General Motors Building to the east; the Park Lane Hotel to the west; and the Solow Building , Paris Theater , and Bergdorf Goodman Building to the south. The hotel's main entrance faces
30832-413: The union, the film crew threw eggs at the facade to dirty the facade again after filming was completed. Three of the stores in the plaza had opened by October 1969, when one of the retail spaces, leased to a Longchamps , caught fire and was nearly destroyed. The next month, an anti-Vietnam War bombing occurred on the 19th floor, damaging an elevator and slightly injuring one person. The Longchamps in
31020-520: The walls. Originally, the north wing of the lobby had a GM showroom with 20,000 square feet (1,900 m ) of display rooms on the ground and mezzanine levels. The space housed toy store FAO Schwarz from 1986 to 2015. The store, featured in the 1988 film Big , won an award for its lighting in 2005. On the second floor is the Savoy Club, an amenity space spanning 26,000 to 33,000 square feet (2,400 to 3,100 m ). The amenity space includes
31208-452: The western part of the ground floor, was built in 1907 as the bar room. It is west of the Central Park South foyer, separated from the foyer by a corridor. Compared to other spaces in the hotel, it retains more details from the original design. The Oak Room was designed in a German Renaissance style, originally by L. Alavoine and Company. It features oak walls and floors, a coved ceiling, frescoes of Bavarian castles, faux wine casks carved into
31396-638: The woodwork, and a grape-laden brass chandelier. The eastern wall contains a gridded glass double door leading to the main hallway, while the northern wall contains two openings to the Oak Bar. The Oak Bar is just north of the Oak Room, at the northwest corner of the ground floor. It is designed in Tudor Revival style with a plaster ceiling, strapwork , and floral and foliage motifs. The bar room contains walnut woodwork with French furnishings. It also has three murals by Everett Shinn , which were added in
31584-465: Was attended by people such as businessman Diamond Jim Brady ; actresses Lillian Russell , Billie Burke , Maxine Elliott , and Fritzi Scheff ; producers David Belasco and Oscar Hammerstein I ; actor John Drew Jr. ; and author Mark Twain . Though the opening coincided with the Panic of 1907 , the hotel suffered minimal losses. The new hotel more than doubled the capacity of the first structure, and it
31772-639: Was closed with the creation of the Fifth Avenue lobby. The space housed the Green Tulip and Plaza Suite restaurants in the late 20th century; by the 2000s, it was known as One CPS. The Palm Court, previously known as the tea room , is in the center of the ground floor. Its design was inspired by the Palm Court at the Carlton Hotel in London . The space has Caen stone and Breche Violette walls, mosaic floors, and marble pilasters and columns with bronze capitals. Tropical plants, rubber trees, and palms gave
31960-430: Was covered over with office space in a 1940s renovation. Hardenbergh, in designing the Central Park South foyer, had believed the lobby to be the most important space in the hotel, as did Warren and Wetmore when they designed the Fifth Avenue lobby. Furthermore, Warren and Wetmore had thought restaurants to be the second most significant space in a hotel, in designing the Terrace Room. There were originally laundry rooms in
32148-428: Was created as part of the 2008 renovation, and is part of a four-bedroom penthouse, the largest condominium in the building. In the early- and mid-20th century, several designers, such as Elsie de Wolfe and Cecil Beaton , were hired to design special suites for the hotel, which has also offered suites or experiences that are themed to notable books or films set there. During 2013, a 900-square-foot (84 m) suite on
32336-417: Was developed by London Merchant Securities and was half occupied by General Motors (GM) upon its opening. The building's facade is made of vertical piers of white Georgia marble, alternating with strips of glass. The building has about 1.7 million square feet (160,000 m ) of space, and the lobby originally contained a GM showroom, later an FAO Schwarz department store. The public plaza outside
32524-401: Was dismissed the same year. The property was first recapitalized in January 2005, with new senior debt of $ 1.1 billion, and $ 300 million of preferred equity from Jamestown, a German retail real estate syndicator. Macklowe renovated the building for $ 150 million, creating the Apple Fifth Avenue space as well as 14,000 square feet (1,300 m ) of new retail space on the Madison Avenue side of
32712-555: Was expected to net $ 2.25 billion, was highly atypical for an office building. Disagreement arose in 2000 when Stephen Hilbert resigned as the chief executive of Conseco; he was replaced by Gary Wendt, who sought to sell the company's stake to Trump for at least $ 295 million. Trump secured $ 900 million from Deutsche Bank to refinance the building and, in July 2001, Trump agreed to pay Conseco $ 295 million in cash, notes, and residual interest, though Conseco wanted Deutsche Bank to guarantee
32900-431: Was finalized that September. Another bidder, developer Sheldon Solow , sought to block the sale before it was closed. Solow, as well as fellow bidder Leslie Dick, filed separate lawsuits against Macklowe in 2006 over the sale, which they both alleged was rigged in favor of Macklowe. Dick's lawsuit, which alleged a conspiracy from George Soros to prevent Dick from buying the building, was dismissed in 2009. Solow's lawsuit
33088-405: Was further leveled and low L-shaped parapets were installed at the four corners of the plaza, framing its sides. Shallow decorative pools were installed on the north and south sections of the plaza, surrounded by tables, chairs, planters, and a few honey locust trees. In its configuration following the 2005 renovation, the plaza is slightly raised above ground level, with pools, trees, and benches on
33276-455: Was initially designed by Warren and Wetmore, and had a capacity of 800 people for dinners and 1,000 people for dances. The room contained a coved ceiling designed by Smeraldi, with crosses, hexagons, and octagons, as well as six chandeliers. The ballroom had a stage on its western wall, within a rectangular opening. A balcony ran across the three other walls and was supported by pilasters with bronze capitals. In 1929, Warren and Wetmore's ballroom
33464-418: Was intended as a largely residential hotel at opening, although the terms for "hotel" and "apartment" were largely synonymous at the time. Estimates held that ninety percent of the units were for long-term residents. The owners charged short-term guests $ 2.50 nightly. In addition to the apartments, there were 500 bathrooms, ten elevators, a myriad of marble staircases, and two floors of public rooms. Gates, one of
33652-433: Was one of the most lavish suites in the entire hotel; it had a drawing room, antechambers, dining rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms, and food storage. Also on floor 1 were private banquet, reception, and card rooms. The apartment was turned into a private dining area and restored in 1974. Similarly ornate suites were located along the Central Park South side on eleven of the upper floors. The twenty-first story (labeled as floor 20)
33840-441: Was raised to street level around 1999. Slightly elevated groves of trees were installed on the plaza's north and south ends while fountains, benches, and a 21,500-square-foot (2,000 m ) retail pavilion were built below grade, accessed by stairs at the center of the Fifth Avenue facade. The plaza was again reconstructed around 2005 for the construction of Apple Fifth Avenue , a large Apple Store . The building's public plaza
34028-466: Was reconstructed according to a neoclassical design by Schultze & Weaver. The room has a white-and-cream color scheme with gold ornamentation, evocative of the original ballroom's design. The stage remains on the western wall, but is within a rounded opening. The redesign added audience boxes, with decorative metal railings, on the north and east walls. The ballroom contains a coved ceiling with roundels, lunettes, bas reliefs, and two chandeliers. South of
34216-403: Was relatively undeveloped through the late 19th century, when brownstone rowhouses were built on the avenue. By the early 1900s, that section of Fifth Avenue was becoming a commercial area. The corner of Fifth Avenue, Central Park South, and 59th Street was developed with the Plaza, Savoy, and New Netherland hotels during the 1890s. The site of the General Motors Building was then occupied by
34404-509: Was relaxed. The space occupied by the present-day Oak Bar became the offices of brokerage EF Hutton . The Plaza had become the city's most valuable hotel by 1923, and contributed to the parent U.S. Realty Company being highly profitable and paying increasingly high dividends during the 1920s. For unknown reasons, Warren and Wetmore's ballroom was reconstructed from June to September 1929, based on neoclassical designs by Schultze & Weaver. Shortly afterward, U.S. Realty's stock price collapsed in
34592-481: Was replaced by a nightclub called the Persian Room, which had red and Persian-blue upholstery by Joseph Urban , five wall murals by Lillian Gaertner Palmedo , and a 27 ft (8.2 m) bar. The room operated until 1978. The original double-height ballroom from Hardenbergh's plan was on the north side of the second story, or floor 1 according to the Plaza Hotel's floor numbering system. The old ballroom, with
34780-409: Was securitized in a number of commercial mortgage-backed security transactions by multiple banks including Citigroup , JPMorgan Chase , Bank of America Merrill Lynch , Wells Fargo, UBS , and Deutsche Bank . By early 2021, Boston Properties had taken half of the retail space allocated for Under Armour for a tenant-amenity space. Under Armour itself was no longer planning to open a flagship store at
34968-507: Was subsequently sold to Sahara India Pariwar in 2012 and then to Katara Hospitality in 2018. The hotel has been managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts since 2005. Since its inception, the Plaza Hotel has become an icon of New York City, with numerous wealthy and famous guests. The restaurant spaces and ballrooms have hosted events such as balls , benefits, weddings, and press conferences. The hotel's design, as well as its location near Central Park, has generally received acclaim. In addition,
35156-481: Was to come due within twelve months. Macklowe personally pledged $ 1 billion, as well as interests in the GM Building and eleven other properties, as a guarantee . By February 2008, the Macklowe Organization had no way to refinance the debt from the previous year. Macklowe received an extension on his loans to avoid foreclosure of the GM Building. At the same time, Macklowe put the GM Building on
35344-440: Was used in the rooms, which were instead finished in plain plaster. For decorative effect, the rooms contained wooden wainscoting and furniture, while the plaster ceilings supported crystal chandeliers. A guest or resident could request multiple suites, since there were smaller private hallways adjacent to the main hallway on each floor. There were also staff rooms at the corners of the main corridor on each floor. Dumbwaiters led from
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