Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel
Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel | |
---|---|
Hotel chain | Sheraton Hotels and Resorts |
General information | |
Location | New York, NY |
Address | 811 Seventh Avenue |
Coordinates | 40°45′45″N 73°58′54″W / 40.7625°N 73.9817°W |
Opening | September 25, 1962 |
Owner | MCR Hotels[1] & Island Capital Group[2] |
Management | Sheraton Hotels and Resorts |
Height | 501 ft (153 m) |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 51 |
Floor area | 178,660 sq ft (16,598 m2) |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Morris Lapidus & Associates Kornblath, Harle & Liebman |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 1,780[1] |
Website | |
[1] | |
[3][4][5][6] |
The Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel is a 501 ft (153 m), 51-story hotel located near Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It faces 7th Avenue, 52nd Street, and 53rd Street. It is one of the world's 100 tallest hotels, and one of the tallest hotels in New York City.
The hotel was opened in 1962 as the Americana of New York. It was sold to
Site
The Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel is located at 811
The site had previously been occupied by the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company, built in 1892 to designs by James E. Ware. The warehouse, designed in the Italianate style, had been demolished in 1957.[9]
History
Americana of New York
The Americana of New York was designed by
The hotel was developed to serve the large business and convention market in New York City.
Construction began in September 1960,
The concrete work finally began in late 1961, and the concrete superstructure was initially built at a rate of one story every three days. Above floor 29, one story was completed every two days.[22] In November 1961, workers hosted a party to celebrate the completion of the main ballroom's floor, which Loew's dubbed "the world's largest ballroom".[30] Loew's Hotels vice president Claude Philippe and actress Barbara Eden attended the hotel's topping out ceremony on May 8, 1962, when a maple tree was hosted to the top floor.[31] The hotel ultimately cost $45 million to construct.[32] Claude Philippe served as the hotel's manager for only one year after it opened, resigning in 1963.[33]
The Americana of New York opened on September 24, 1962,
Shortly after the Americana opened, officials conducted an extensive inspection of the hotel after detecting several building-code violations.[39] The hotel's Royal Box nightclub was renovated in early 1963,[40] having opened in October 1962 with a performance by Harry Belafonte.[41] The hotel hosted several events, such as the 1963 Tony Awards, which were held in the Imperial Ballroom on April 28, 1963.[42][43] John Lennon and Paul McCartney announced the formation of their music label Apple Corps at a press conference in the Americana in 1968.[44] In addition, the Americana also hosted the New York portion of the Emmy Awards in 1967[45][46] and again in 1968.[47] The Royal Box hosted performances by musical artists including Harry Belafonte,[41] Nancy Ames,[48] Thelma Houston,[49] Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Peggy Lee;[50] it also hosted other performers such as comedian Woody Allen.[51]
On July 21, 1972,
Sheraton
The Americana of New York and the City Squire were sold to a partnership of
Starwood Hotels (which had bought Sheraton in 1998) sold the hotel on November 14, 2005, to
Architecture
The Americana was one of at least eight hotels that Loews Hotels developed in Manhattan during the early 1960s, as well as one of four developed by Morris Lapidus.[12] The Diesel Construction Company was the hotel's general contractor,[24] and Farkas & Barron was the structural engineer.[22]
Form and facade
At 51 floors, with a height of 501 feet (153 m), the hotel was acclaimed for many years in its advertising and by the media as the tallest hotel in the world,[68] based on the number and height of its inhabited floors.[69][a]
The base is three stories high and contains the hotel's public rooms. The main entrance, on Seventh Avenue, occupies the northern part of the hotel's Seventh Avenue
The main part of the Sheraton is a 47-story slab, which is bent in the center. The western part of the massing is angled toward the corner of Seventh Avenue and 52nd Street, while the eastern part runs parallel to the Manhattan street grid. The hotel was designed in this way because zoning regulations prohibited the upper stories from being built any closer to 52nd Street. On the north side, a 25-story wing is perpendicular to the western part of the slab (and slightly angled from the street grid).[9] Lapidus said the bent massing strengthened the upper stories against wind forces, rather than being intended for aesthetic effect.[9][32] Architectural Forum said the slab looked "slim, tall, and elegant" from the east but had a completely different appearance from the west.[10]
The slab is clad in yellow brick and marble.[12][16] On the longer elevations of the slab, each story originally contained horizontal strips of windows, installed in stainless-steel frames.[70] The windows on different floors are separated by spandrel panels of yellow glazed brick. The shorter elevations of the slab are clad with white Vermont marble.[9] The building also used precast concrete Mo-Sai panels.[72] The facades of the accommodation blocks are generally intact, but the podium levels were reclad in the 1991 renovation, replacing the varied, light 1960s details with Postmodern squared granite.
Features
The hotel's superstructure is composed of three structural systems.[9][22] Floors 1–5 are made of steel members encased in concrete, since these stories contained large public spaces; these steel beams were anchored in the bedrock underneath the building. Floors 5–29 are composed of concrete shear walls for wind resistance. Floors 29–51 are supported by reinforced concrete columns.[22] The concrete frame was both easier to pour and cheaper to build compared to a conventional steel frame.[22][73] According to Lapidus, his previous projects had all used reinforced concrete, and he did not intend to use steel.[74][75] At the time of its completion, the building was the tallest concrete-framed structure in the city.[73] The hotel's concrete frame saved at least $1 million compared to a steel frame of similar size, since steel costs generally exceeded concrete costs by about $1 per square foot ($11/m2).[76]
Lowest stories
The lobby contained gold-and-white and teak furniture, as well as a floor made of white marble.[9] There was a colonnade of white-marble columns with gold veins, supporting a ceiling with gold domes.[9][38] In addition, a set of concrete arches supported a staircase that led to a lower lobby.[9] This "floating staircase" was made of marble and bronze. The lobby also connected to a bank of elevators.[38]
The hotel contained "nearly an acre of kitchens",[77] which could accommodate up to 11,000 diners at once.[32][78] There were seven kitchens, which took up four basement levels.[23] The dining rooms were capable of accommodating 6,800 guests.[17] The dining areas included the 60-foot-long (18 m) Wooden Indian men's bar,[79] which was themed to the Old West and contained themed wooden carvings.[38] The La Ronde cocktail lounge, housed within the semicircular rotunda, contained mirrored columns as well as damask tapestries. Wood, copper, and leather furnishings were used extensively in the Golden Spur restaurant.[38] The hotel also contained a nightclub called the Royal Box,[78][79] which had a capacity of 380 seats.[78]
The main ballroom, known as the Imperial Ballroom, could fit 3,000 people at a banquet[32][78] or 4,000 at a business dinner.[78] It measured either 190 ft × 110 ft (58 m × 34 m)[30] or 195 ft × 100 ft (59 m × 30 m).[79][80] The room was extensively ornamented with bronze, gold-leaf, and marble decoration.[32][79][80] The chandelier, which could be raised and lowered on a winch, cost $50,000. The Imperial Ballroom's projection booth could retract into the ceiling when it was not being used.[23][79][80] There was also a hydraulically-powered revolving stage, which covered 1,700 square feet (160 m2)[23] and could be lifted in four sections.[78][80] A vehicle lift, which could fit two limousines simultaneously, connected the Imperial Ballroom with street level, allowing guests of honor to drive directly into the ballroom.[23][81] There were two large sliding panels, allowing the Imperial Ballroom to be divided into three smaller spaces.[32][78]
There were also three smaller ballrooms that fit up to 1,000 people;[24] they were known as the Royal, Versailles, and Princess.[79][78] The Royal (or Georgian) Ballroom could fit 1,200 guests and could be divided into a primary ballroom and a separate foyer. The Versailles Ballroom could fit 400 diners or 500 business guests, and the Princess Ballroom could fit 300 people.[78] The exhibition hall spanned 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2) at ground level.[17] The hotel also had 38 private meeting rooms, each with a capacity of 25 to 500 people.[24][17] The basement contained a parking garage with 350 spots. Also part of the hotel was a swimming pool on the 25th story.[24][17]
Hotel rooms
When the hotel was developed, it contained 2,000 rooms, including 90 large suites.[17] Originally, the smallest room in the Americana Hotel was a single-bedroom unit measuring 9.5 by 15 feet (2.9 by 4.6 m). By contrast, the hotel's largest unit had six bedrooms, a three-sided terrace, and its own butler and maid.[32]
Lapidus designed most of the hotel's original furniture.
References
Notes
- Hotel Ukrainain Moscow was taller.
Citations
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- ^ "Island Capital Group and MCR Acquire Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel for $373M".
- ^ "Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel". CTBUH Skyscraper Center.
- ^ "Emporis building ID 115534". Emporis. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016.
- ^ "Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel". SkyscraperPage.
- ^ Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel at Structurae
- ^ a b c "811 7 Avenue, 10019". New York City Department of City Planning. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Stern, Mellins & Fishman 1995, p. 436.
- ^ a b "New York Nears Completion—Almost" (PDF). Architectural Forum. Vol. 116. October 1962. p. 16.
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- ^ a b c Landmarks Preservation Commission 2005, p. 3.
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Sources
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- Stern, Robert A. M.; Mellins, Thomas; Fishman, David (1995). New York 1960: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Second World War and the Bicentennial. New York: Monacelli Press. OL 1130718M.