The Hyatt Grand Central New York is a
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
located at 125 East
42nd Street, adjoining
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
, in the
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
neighborhood of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It operated as the 2,000-room Commodore Hotel between 1919 and 1976. Hotel chain
Hyatt
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacat ...
and real estate developer
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
converted the hotel to the 1,400-room Grand Hyatt New York between 1978 and 1980, encasing the facade in glass and renovating the interior. , the hotel is planned to be replaced with a skyscraper named Project Commodore after 2023.
The
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...
had acquired the site in 1910 and started constructing the hotel in October 1916. The Commodore was designed by
Warren & Wetmore
Warren and Wetmore was an architecture firm in New York City which was a partnership between Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles Delevan Wetmore (June 10, 1866 – May 8, 1941), that had one of the most extensive practices of its time and w ...
, with the
Fuller Company
George A. Fuller (1851 – December 14, 1900) was an American architect often credited as being the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and the modern contracting system.
Early life and career
Fuller was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, near W ...
as the hotel's general contractor. The hotel was either 26 or 28 stories high and had an "H"-shaped floor plan and a brick-and-terracotta facade. It contained a large lobby designed in a manner resembling an Italian courtyard, as well as various dining rooms and ballrooms. The Commodore opened on January 28, 1919, and was originally operated by
Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Bowman-Biltmore Hotels was a hotel chain created by the hotel magnate John McEntee Bowman.
The name evokes the Vanderbilt family's Biltmore Estate, whose buildings and the gardens within are privately owned historical landmarks and tourist attracti ...
. Zeckendorf Hotels took over the Commodore's operation in 1958 before handing it to New York Central subsidiary Realty Hotels in 1966. Due to declining profits, the Commodore closed on May 18, 1976.
Trump and Hyatt offered in 1975 to take over the Commodore and renovate it into the Grand Hyatt. After the city government granted a
tax abatement
A tax holiday is a temporary reduction or elimination of a tax. It is synonymous with tax abatement, tax subsidy or tax reduction. Governments usually create tax holidays as incentives for business investment. Tax relief can be provided in the ...
for the renovation, Trump and Hyatt completely remodeled the hotel from June 1978 to September 1980, spending $100 million and removing almost all of the Commodore's original decorations. The renovated hotel includes a glass facade, a three-story atrium, a restaurant
cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
ed over a sidewalk, and the Commodore's original ballroom. Trump and Hyatt's partnership deteriorated during the early 1990s, and the
Pritzker family
The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and List of wealthiest families, one of the wealthiest families in the United States of America (staying in the top 10 of ''Forbes'' magazine's "America's Riche ...
, which operated the Grand Hyatt, acquired Trump's stake in the hotel in 1996. Hyatt renovated the hotel in the late 1990s and again in the early 2010s. The Project Commodore skyscraper was announced for the site in 2019, and the Grand Hyatt closed in 2020 during the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City
The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...
. The hotel reopened in 2021 as the Hyatt Grand Central, although the hotel is scheduled to close permanently after 2023.
Site
The Hyatt Grand Central New York is at 125 East 42nd Street in the
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
neighborhood of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
It occupies a rectangular site on the northwestern corner of
Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated as "Lex", is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street. Along it ...
and
42nd Street, near
Pershing Square Plaza, and abuts the
Park Avenue Viaduct
The Park Avenue Viaduct, also known as the Pershing Square Viaduct, is a roadway in Manhattan in New York City. It carries vehicular traffic on Park Avenue from 40th to 46th Streets around Grand Central Terminal and the MetLife Building, th ...
to the west.
The
land lot
In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the same thing) in ...
covers about ,
with a
frontage
Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...
of on Lexington Avenue and on 42nd Street.
The hotel shares the
city block
A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design.
A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...
with
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
to the west, the
MetLife Building
The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed in the Internation ...
to the northwest, and the
Graybar Building
Graybar is an American employee-owned corporation, based in Clayton, Missouri. It conducts a wholesale distribution business for electrical, communications and data networking products, and is a provider of related supply-chain management and l ...
and
450 Lexington Avenue to the north. Other nearby buildings include the
Pershing Square Building
The Pershing Square Building, also known as 125 Park Avenue or 100 East 42nd Street, is a 25-story office building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the eastern side of Park Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets, across fro ...
and
Bowery Savings Bank Building to the southwest, the
Chanin Building Chanin is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Alabama Chanin, American fashion designer
*Irwin Chanin (1891–1988), American architect
*Jack Chanin (1907–1997), US-based Ukrainian magician
*Jim Chanin (born 1947), American attor ...
to the south, the
Socony–Mobil Building
The Socony–Mobil Building, also known as 150 East 42nd Street, is a 45-story, skyscraper in the Murray Hill and East Midtown neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It occupies the block bounded by 41st Street, 42nd Street, Lexingto ...
to the southeast, and the
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
to the east.
The
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
's
Grand Central–42nd Street station
The Grand Central–42nd Street station (also signed as 42nd Street–Grand Central) is a major station complex of the New York City Subway. Located in Midtown Manhattan at 42nd Street between Madison and Lexington Avenues, it serves trains o ...
, serving the , is located directly underneath the Hyatt Grand Central, and the
Lexington Avenue Line platforms cut diagonally underneath the hotel.
There is a subway entrance at the base of the hotel on Lexington Avenue, with a stair and an elevator.
The site was formerly occupied by the Hospital for Crippled Children.
Before the hotel opened, the site occupied an entire city block, which was bounded by Depew Place to the west and 43rd Street to the north.
The
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...
acquired the site in November 1910 as part of the
construction of Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal is a major commuter rail terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, serving the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines. It is the most recent of three functionally similar buildings on the same sit ...
.
Architecture
The Hyatt Grand Central New York was originally known as the Commodore and was designed by
Warren & Wetmore
Warren and Wetmore was an architecture firm in New York City which was a partnership between Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles Delevan Wetmore (June 10, 1866 – May 8, 1941), that had one of the most extensive practices of its time and w ...
.
The
Fuller Company
George A. Fuller (1851 – December 14, 1900) was an American architect often credited as being the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and the modern contracting system.
Early life and career
Fuller was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, near W ...
was the hotel's general contractor,
although the project also involved numerous other contractors and engineers.
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
and
Hyatt
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacat ...
renovated the hotel in the 1970s to designs by Gruzen & Partners and
Der Scutt
Der Scutt (October 17, 1934 – March 14, 2010) was an American architect and designer of a number of major and notable buildings throughout New York City and the United States.
Scutt worked on Trump Tower next to the Tiffany & Co. fla ...
.
Commodore Hotel
When the Commodore opened, it contained 2,000 rooms and was either 26
or 28 stories high.
[ ] There were also five basement stories.
Because of
superstition surrounding the number 13, the hotel did not have a
thirteenth floor
The thirteenth floor is a designation of a level of a multi-level building that is often omitted in countries where the number is considered unlucky. Omitting the 13th floor may take a variety of forms; the most common include denoting what wo ...
, nor did it have any rooms, mailboxes, elevators, or other fixtures with the number 13.
The Commodore's
facade was largely made of buff-colored brick with
architectural terracotta
Architectural terracotta refers to a fired mixture of clay and water that can be used in a non-structural, semi-structural, or structural capacity on the exterior or interior of a building. Terracotta pottery, as earthenware is called when not us ...
trim; the first three stories were clad in
Indiana Limestone
Indiana limestone — also known as Bedford limestone in the building trade — has long been an economically important building material, particularly for monumental public structures. Indiana limestone is a more common term for Salem Limestone, ...
. The hotel's lowest three stories occupied the entire site. Above the third story, the hotel was shaped like a "H", with
light court
In architecture, a lightwell,light well, light-well sky-well,skywell, sky well or air shaft is an unroofed or roofed external space provided within the volume of a large building to allow light and air to reach what would otherwise be a dark or ...
s to the north and south.
At the top of the facade was a
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
with copper faces.
The design of the nearby
245 Park Avenue was intended to complement not only the Commodore's original facade but also that of the nearby
New York Biltmore Hotel
The New York Biltmore Hotel was a luxury hotel at 335 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The hotel was developed by the New York Central Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and operated from 1913 to 1981. ...
, which was gutted in the early 1980s.
The hotel contained large amounts of materials, including of steel,
4.256 million bricks, 1.653 million terracotta blocks, and of fireproof floor arches.
The hotel's heating system included 4,400 radiators, supplied by a pair of boilers in the basement. The ventilation system contained 17 fans that were capable of supplying of air per minute. The Commodore contained ten passenger elevators, eight service elevators, one freight elevator, and two
dumbwaiter
A dumbwaiter is a small freight elevator or lift intended to carry food. Dumbwaiters found within modern structures, including both commercial, public and private buildings, are often connected between multiple floors. When installed in restaur ...
s.
The hotel received water from the
city's water supply system, with two intakes from 42nd Street and one from Lexington Avenue. The water-drainage system included two sewers to 42nd Street and one to Lexington Avenue, as well as
sump pumps that drained water from the basements into the city's sewage system. The Commodore also contained a
telautograph
The telautograph is an analog precursor to the modern fax machine. It transmits electrical impulses recorded by potentiometers at the sending station to servomechanisms attached to a pen at the receiving station, thus reproducing at the receivin ...
system with 75 stations, as well as a
fire alarm system
A fire alarm system warns people when smoke, fire, carbon monoxide or other fire-related or general notification emergency, emergencies are detected. These alarms may be activated automatically from smoke detectors and heat detectors or may also ...
, which at the time of the hotel's opening was an uncommon feature.
Ground level
The hotel's main entrance was at 42nd Street, just east of Grand Central Terminal.
At ground level was a vestibule, consisting of a central hallway flanked by wide stairways that ascended to the lobby.
The central hallway continued to the grill room and to the Commodore Passageway at the rear of the ground level.
At the rear of the vestibule was a grill room, used for supper and dancing;
it was also known as the supper room.
The grill room's entrance was on a terrace with stone walls and columns and a tiled floor.
A short flight of steps descended to the main part of the grill room, which had chestnut walls with alcoves and leaded windows. On the ceiling were large beams painted by
John B. Smeraldi
John B. Smeraldi (died May 14, 1947) was an Italian-born American muralist, and furniture and interior designer. He painted the ceilings of many buildings, including the ballroom inside the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
Life
Smerald ...
, consisting of heraldic designs taken from illuminated manuscripts.
The center of the grill room contained a dance floor measuring .
At the north end of the ground story was the Commodore Passage, which still exists but was renamed the Lexington Passage after the Commodore closed.
The passage leads directly to Grand Central Terminal and also connects to Lexington Avenue.
This passageway also connects the hotel to the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
's
Grand Central–42nd Street station
The Grand Central–42nd Street station (also signed as 42nd Street–Grand Central) is a major station complex of the New York City Subway. Located in Midtown Manhattan at 42nd Street between Madison and Lexington Avenues, it serves trains o ...
via the terminal's corridors.
Additional passageways connected with other buildings such as the
Biltmore and
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Rooseve ...
hotels, the
Yale Club Building, the
Graybar Building
Graybar is an American employee-owned corporation, based in Clayton, Missouri. It conducts a wholesale distribution business for electrical, communications and data networking products, and is a provider of related supply-chain management and l ...
, and the
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
.
In the late 1990s, the passageway was redesigned as a shopping arcade with marble storefronts.
Lobby level
The lobby itself was designed in a manner resembling an Italian courtyard, surrounded by an
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
with a mezzanine above it.
At the hotel's opening in 1919, architectural media described the Commodore's lobby as the largest hotel lobby in the world.
The lobby had a metal-and-white-glass ceiling
supported by light-colored stucco arches.
There was a large palm tree in the middle of the lobby, which reached nearly to the ceiling.
The lobby's walls were made of rough plaster above a wainscoting of soft Italian stone, and the paneling on the walls consisted of blue Italian tiles.
The lobby also included vases with concealed lighting.
At the center of the main lobby was a small retreat surrounded by palm trees.
The lobby's mezzanine contained a lounge, which was accessed by a wide staircase on the west wall and smaller stairs along the lobby's perimeter.
The mezzanine railing contained boxes with plants.
The mezzanine gallery was designed in the Italian Renaissance style, with flowers and palms. The walls contained satin hangings in blue, red, and yellow with green stripes, which were intended to complement the design of the floor. The gallery also had period furniture, including chairs and vases; the chairs were covered with blue and gold satin and velvet. Leading off this gallery were various writing rooms, the barber shop, the manicure shop, and the Commodore Hotel's executive offices, as well as numerous small alcoves and retreats.
Men's and women's rooms were positioned on opposite sides of the lobby.
West of the lobby were offices, a stock-brokers' room, check rooms, a men's writing room, an English-style men's restaurant, telephones, telegraph services, and other business functions.
On the lobby's west wall was a cafe with natural-oak
wainscoting
Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials.
Panelling was developed in antiquity to make roo ...
; a blue-and-gold carpet; Flemish oak chairs; and a ceiling with white-and-green plaster frescoes.
East of the lobby, and a few steps above it, was the palm room, where after-dinner coffee and afternoon tea were served.
The palm room was separated from the lobby by large
majolica
In different periods of time and in different countries, the term ''majolica'' has been used for two distinct types of pottery.
Firstly, from the mid-15th century onwards, was ''maiolica'', a type of pottery reaching Italy from Spain, Majorca a ...
vases with palm trees.
Behind the palm room was the main dining room, which contained a walnut wainscoting and a purple, green, and rose-colored vaulted ceiling in low relief.
Next to the main dining room were the lobby supper room and the breakfast room, both designed in a similar manner to the main dining room.
Stairs led from the dining room to the mezzanine, the hair-dressing parlor, and ladies' public rooms.
The hotel's kitchen was on the same level as the men's restaurant and the main dining room; there were also stairs leading down to the street-level grill room.
The kitchen was capable of serving 10,000 meals per day,
including 4,000 meals for employees.
The kitchen was divided into several departments.
These included a main kitchen, measuring wide; a separate kitchen for banquets, measuring wide; and a "preparatory kitchen" above the main kitchen, which was used for food preparation. Paper slips with guests' orders were delivered to the kitchen via a series of
pneumatic tube
Pneumatic tubes (or capsule pipelines, also known as pneumatic tube transport or PTT) are systems that propel cylindrical containers through networks of tubes by compressed air or by partial vacuum. They are used for transporting solid objects, ...
s, and dumbwaiters connected the kitchen with each guestroom floor.
Ballrooms and other spaces
When the hotel was built, the ''New-York Tribune'' called the main ballroom "the largest private ballroom of any hotel in the world".
The space was described as being in the French Empire style.
It covered and was originally decorated in white, purple, and gold, with green accents.
The main ballroom could accommodate up to 3,000 guests for entertainments such as plays, and it could seat 2,000 guests during banquets.
There were 56 boxes in the room,
connected by a promenade
and split across two tiers.
This arrangement, inspired by the layout of seats in a Mexican
bullring
A bullring is an arena where bullfighting is performed. Bullrings are often associated with the Iberian Peninsula, but they can also be found through Iberian America and in a few Spanish and Portuguese ex-colonies in Africa. Bullrings are o ...
, was intended to maximize the number of boxes for sale during charity events, as well as provide sufficient space for a dance floor below. There was a
roof garden
A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, recreational oppo ...
above the ballroom for tea and luncheons.
The ballroom was redecorated in coral and black during a 1937 renovation, with a yellow, blue, and tan carpet.
Two smaller ballrooms opened off the main ballroom and could be used separately or in tandem.
These ballrooms contained silk and satin tapestries in the
Louis XV style
The Louis XV style or ''Louis Quinze'' (, ) is a style of architecture and decorative arts which appeared during the reign of Louis XV. From 1710 until about 1730, a period known as the Régence, it was largely an extension of the Louis XIV style ...
, as well as black-and-green satin chairs.
To the north of the main ballroom was a vestibule that spanned the entire width of the room.
The vestibule's high ceiling had three chandeliers and was painted blue and white, and the marble floors were covered by a carpet.
The western end of the vestibule contained a direct entrance from the Park Avenue Viaduct.
The hotel also contained a vehicular elevator from 42nd Street, which ascended to the viaduct level
and could carry up to .
Another popular spot was the Century Room, which had its own orchestra.
''
The Billboard
The Billboard () is a massive granite monolith in the Sarnoff Mountains of the Ford Ranges of Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, standing just west of Mount Rea between Arthur Glacier and Boyd Glacier. It was discovered in November 1934 by a Secon ...
'' magazine described the Century Room in 1947 as "one of the top name
rchestraspots in the city".
Major bands played at the Century Room from the 1930s to 1948, when the Century also started booking smaller bands.
The shows in the Century Room were discontinued permanently in 1949 after the federal government imposed a 20 percent
excise tax
file:Lincoln Beer Stamp 1871.JPG, upright=1.2, 1871 U.S. Revenue stamp for 1/6 barrel of beer. Brewers would receive the stamp sheets, cut them into individual stamps, cancel them, and paste them over the Bunghole, bung of the beer barrel so when ...
on such shows, and the Century Room became a luncheon room.
Other amenities included a parking garage, which the Commodore shared with the Biltmore and the
Hotel Manhattan,
as well as a children's playroom.
Rooms
The hotel had 2,000 rooms when it opened. Each room faced either the street or a light court, and all guestrooms had bathrooms.
Rooms on the light courts received more sunlight than rooms on the street, as the light courts were wider than any of the surrounding streets.
Initially, approximately 1,000 rooms had rates of $2.50 a night, advertised as "a room and a bath for two and a half"; the remaining rooms cost $3 to $4 a night.
Each guestroom floor contained its own "floor clerk", stationed outside the elevators.
Floor clerks acted as concierges for their respective stories. The floor clerk coordinated room service, provided supplies, and obtained tickets and schedules for guests, among other tasks.
When the Commodore opened, the corridors and rooms all had gray-and-black carpets above two layers of linings. The rooms had translucent curtains and shades that could be unhung, allowing each room to be ventilated during the summer and winter. Each bedroom typically contained a bed, a dressing table, two small chairs, a large armchair, and a small table with a telephone. The bedrooms contained ornate light fixtures on the ceiling, as well as small writing tables with lamps.
Each bathroom had a cold-water tap,
as well as a shower and an illuminated wall mirror, which were novel features at the time of the hotel's construction.
Grand Hyatt New York
The rebuilt hotel was 32 stories high with 1,400 rooms. The Grand Hyatt also had five restaurants that contained a combined 2,000 seats, as well as of retail space.
If gambling in New York were legalized, the retail space was designed to be easily converted to a casino,
but this conversion never happened.
Lobby
![Hyatt_Grand_Central_New_York_Lobby_2022](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Hyatt_Grand_Central_New_York_Lobby_2022.jpg)
Trump had wanted to redesign the lobby as a "big
atrium
Atrium may refer to:
Anatomy
* Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart
* Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods
* Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain
* Pulmona ...
", but this was impossible because of the presence of the Commodore's original interior columns.
Furthermore, the lobby had a relatively low ceiling because the original ballroom had to be preserved.
The lobby covered ,
measured long,
and was three stories high.
A set of escalators led to the lobby from a street-level foyer one story below.
The lobby was originally clad with Italian Paradiso marble and contained mirrored walls and large bronzed columns.
The center of the lobby had a cascading fountain and a brass sculpture by Peter Lobello, which measured high.
When the lobby was renovated in 2013, it was clad in stone and dark wood, and a carpet with gray stripes was installed. The ceiling was retrofitted with uplights that changed color depending on the time of the day. In addition, there were black leather chairs, as well as registration and concierge desks made of white quartz.
The lobby's fountain was also reduced in size.
During the early-2010s renovation,
Jaume Plensa
Jaume Plensa i Suñé (; born 23 August 1955) is a Spanish visual artist, sculptor, designer and engraver. He is a versatile artist who has also created opera sets, video projections and acoustic installations. He worked with renowned Catalan t ...
designed a pair of sculptures of female heads, for the lobby;
known as ''Awilda and Chloe'', the sculptures were intended to resemble ''
moai
Moai or moʻai ( ; es, moái; rap, moʻai, , statue) are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, Rapa Nui in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main mo ...
'' heads.
One of the sculptures was placed on an onyx wall, while the other was placed atop the fountain.
On the lobby's rear wall was a blackened-steel archway that led to Market, a grab-and-go restaurant
that operated 24 hours a day.
Market contained concrete counters, glass displays, wooden floors, and tiled walls.
Amenity spaces
The renovated hotel includes a second-story restaurant,
cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
ed over the 42nd Street sidewalk;
the restaurant measures wide.
Because the restaurant overhangs a public sidewalk, the
New York City Board of Estimate
The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments effec ...
had to approve plans for the restaurant,
and the Grand Hyatt's operators had to pay an annual fee to the city government.
The space was originally a cocktail lounge called the Sun Garden.
In the early 2010s, the former lounge was converted into a restaurant called New York Central,
which covers .
As part of the renovation, the firm of Bentel & Bentel covered the lounge with white louvers.
The renovated restaurant includes multiple tiers of seating that slope downward in the direction of the lobby,
as well as a ceiling sculpture designed by Bentel & Bentel.
In addition, the restaurant contains a lounge and a private dining area.
Next to the restaurant was a wine gallery with white-quartz counters and gray-marble wall.
The wine gallery included a glass artwork by
Per Fronth,
which depicted oceanic scenes.
One of the service elevators, known as the "flying kitchen", was equipped with a telephone and was used for room service.
The grand ballroom was one of the only parts of the Commodore Hotel to be preserved when it was renovated in the 1970s.
The space, on the ballroom level (three stories above ground),
was renamed the Empire State Ballroom and expanded to during the renovation. The ballroom retains its carved ceiling, which measures high.
There are also metal grilles that resembled the large windows in Grand Central's
Main Concourse
The Main Concourse is the primary concourse of Grand Central Terminal, a railway station in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The space is located at the center of the terminal's station building.
The distinctive architecture and design of the ...
, as well as chandeliers that consisted of 7,000 pieces of
art glass
Art glass is a subset of glass art, this latter covering the whole range of art made from glass. Art glass normally refers only to pieces made since the mid-19th century, and typically to those purely made as sculpture or decorative art, with ...
. The Empire State Ballroom could be divided into five sections and could fit 100 to 1,500 guests.
There are numerous smaller ballrooms on the mezzanine and conference levels.
A event venue called the Gallery On Lex was added during the hotel's 2010s renovation.
The event venue is on the ground floor near the Lexington Passage.
It contains a foyer with artwork, stone floors, and leather furniture. This leads to an open-plan meeting space with stone counters, wooden floors, two wooden "pavilions", and a glass wall in the front.
The ground floor also contains the Manhattan Ballroom and a foyer for that ballroom.
Rooms
There were originally 1,407 rooms, including 125 guestroom suites.
These rooms were arranged in 38 different layouts because of site constraints.
According to the ''New York Daily News'', the rooms originally included 576 twin-sized beds and 549 king-sized beds, as well as "17 sitting suites, 88 junior suites, 30 VIP suites, 4 deluxe suites, 2 executive suites and just one presidential suite".
GKR Design Consultants and Dale Keller & Associates designed the original furniture in the renovated Grand Hyatt. The decorations included brass-framed mirrors, curved wooden furniture, and upholstered seats.
Guestrooms started on the sixth story above ground level, which at Trump's request was labeled as floor 14. Although the renovation architects opposed this floor numbering system, Hyatt endorsed Trump's decision.
Looney & Associates redesigned most of the suites and rooms in the early 2010s;
after this renovation, there were 1,306 rooms, including 51 suites.
The renovated rooms contain Australian walnut furniture and various types of textiles.
The rooms also include indirect lighting, and each of the beds contain a headboard designed by Fronth.
In addition, Looney & Associates designed twenty VIP suites, themed as either lofts or modern residences. The loft suites contain walnut furniture and other "masculine" design features, while the residence suites carry a more neutral color palette. George Wong Design also designed four premier suites, which were inspired by
pieds-à-terre and are themed to either
uptown Manhattan
Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park (110th Street), ...
townhouses or
downtown Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
lofts.
History
In the 19th century, New York Central Railroad lines north of
Grand Central Depot
Grand Central Terminal is a major commuter rail terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, serving the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines. It is the most recent of three functionally similar buildings on the same ...
in
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
were served exclusively by
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s, and the rising traffic soon caused accumulations of smoke and soot in the
Park Avenue Tunnel
A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...
, the only approach to the depot. After a fatal crash in 1902, the New York state legislature passed a law to ban all steam trains in Manhattan by 1908. New York Central's vice president
William J. Wilgus
William J. Wilgus (1865–1949) was an American civil engineer. In 1902 he was responsible for the design and construction of New York City's Grand Central Terminal. Wilgus coined the term "taking wealth from the air" from his idea to lease the ...
proposed electrifying the line and building a new electric-train terminal underground,
a plan that was implemented almost in its entirety. The old Grand Central Depot was torn down in phases and replaced by the current Grand Central Terminal.
Construction on Grand Central Terminal started in 1903, and the new terminal was opened on February 2, 1913. Passenger traffic on the commuter lines into Grand Central more than doubled in the years following the terminal's completion.
The terminal spurred development in the surrounding area, particularly in Terminal City, a commercial and office district created above where the tracks were covered. Terminal City soon became Manhattan's most desirable commercial and office district.
A 1920 ''New York Times'' article said, "With its hotels, office buildings, apartments and underground Streets it not only is a wonderful railroad terminal, but also a great civic centre." The Commodore was one of several hotels developed in Terminal City, along with other hostelries such as the
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Rooseve ...
, the
Biltmore, and the
Barclay.
Development
Planning
The New York Central acquired several lots on the west side of Lexington Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets in November 1910; the lots had formerly housed the site of the Hospital for Crippled Children.
The railroad had already acquired multiple adjacent lots on the north side of 42nd Street several years prior.
The following year, news media reported that the New York Central was considering erecting a hotel on the site.
''The New York Times'' also said that the railroad initially considered leasing the hotel to H. C. Griswold.
When Grand Central Terminal opened in February 1913, the New York Central was already clearing the site of the old hospital.
The hotel was to be named the Commodore after "Commodore"
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...
, the New York Central's founder.
As part of the
Dual Contracts
The Dual Contracts, also known as the Dual Subway System, were contracts for the construction and/or rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in the City of New York. The contracts were signed on March 19, 1913, by the Interborough Ra ...
, the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT w ...
(IRT) was planning a
subway station for the
IRT Lexington Avenue Line
The IRT Lexington Avenue Line (also known as the IRT East Side Line and the IRT Lexington–Fourth Avenue Line) is one of the lines of the A Division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Lower Manhattan north to 125th Street in East H ...
at 42nd Street, which was to run diagonally from Park Avenue in the southwest to Lexington Avenue in the northeast. Because the station was partially located under the Children's Hospital site, the Public Service Commission had to acquire an
easement
An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...
from the New York Central, which would enable the commission to build part of the station under the proposed hotel. The commission was unwilling to pay the New York Central's asking price for the easement, so the IRT modified its plans in April 1913, avoiding the hospital site entirely. The Public Service Commission voted on the modification in June 1913, and the modified route was adopted that November. The commission voted in favor of the original diagonal route in February 1914. The commission subsequently acquired the easement in February 1915 for $902,500.
Construction
The New York State Realty and Terminal Company, a division of the New York Central, leased the hotel to
John McEntee Bowman
John McEntee Bowman (1875 – October 28, 1931) was a Canadian-born businessman, American hotelier and horseman, and the founding president of Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corp.- -
Biography
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Bowman began his American worki ...
in January 1916.
Bowman paid $175,000 a year for 21 years, with two renewal options.
In addition, Bowman was obligated to pay 91 percent of the taxes and six percent of the total construction cost every year.
The Commodore became part of the
Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Bowman-Biltmore Hotels was a hotel chain created by the hotel magnate John McEntee Bowman.
The name evokes the Vanderbilt family's Biltmore Estate, whose buildings and the gardens within are privately owned historical landmarks and tourist attracti ...
chain in 1918 after Bowman and rival hotel operator
Benjamin L. M. Bates agreed to merge their respective companies.
The New York Central filed plans with the
New York City Department of Buildings
The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is the department of the New York City government that enforces the city's building codes and zoning regulations, issues building permits, licenses, registers and disciplines certain construction tra ...
in May 1916. The hotel, to be designed by Warren and Wetmore, was to rise 26 stories and cost $6 million.
The
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
gave the New York Central a $4.5 million loan for the site in September 1916.
The ''Real Estate Record'' wrote at the time: "the release of such an enormous amount of money into a single building project is being regarded as highly significant inasmuch as there has been a marked tendency on the part of many builders to hold their projects in abeyance" during World War I.
The excavations for the subway station had been completed by this point, and the George A. Fuller Company, the hotel's general contractor, took over the site.
Construction commenced in October 1916;
the project was expected to cost $6 million.
Francis T. Gilling and several assistants spent six months creating a plaster model of the hotel,
which was exhibited in several cities during 1917.
Warren and Wetmore also drew up plans for a small airplane hangar north of the hotel.
The project involved numerous extremely large material orders, including a contract for 159,000 pieces of silverware
and of mesh reinforcement.
The hotel's completion was delayed by supply-chain issues and steel shortages during World War I,
although the hotel's managers had awarded almost all construction contracts before the beginning of the war.
Most of the steel beams were delivered by truck, train, or barge,
but in at least one case, a large girder was delivered by a pack of 18 horses.
Even after the
American Bridge Company
The American Bridge Company is a heavy/civil construction firm that specializes in building and renovating bridges and other large, complex structures. Founded in 1900, the company is headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pitt ...
had finished manufacturing steel beams for the hotel, these were sometimes delayed due to steel
embargo
Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they m ...
es. There were also delays in delivering limestone, linen, and carpets.
Some of the rivets used in the hotel's frame had to be mailed to the construction site.
In addition, rising labor and material prices increased the hotel's cost.
By early 1918, the hotel was expected to cost $7.5 million, of which the furnishings were to cost $2 million.
The Commodore's steel frame topped out on July 25, 1918.
Commodore Hotel operation
Opening and Biltmore-Bowman operation
The Commodore opened on January 28, 1919.
The Commodore's managers mailed out 10,000 invitations for the hotel's opening, and hundreds of businesspeople from across the United States had reserved rooms for the hotel's opening day.
A women's club opened within the hotel in March 1919.
The Commodore's opening coincided with an increase in the number of passengers that used Grand Central Terminal, in part because the subway station under the hotel had opened one year prior, in 1918.
During the hotel's first decade, it hosted such events as car shows,
charity balls,
a circus,
fashion shows,
and wrestling matches.
The Commodore also hosted a party in 1924 to celebrate the removal of the
Grand Central elevated station on 42nd Street,
which had been directly above the hotel's main entrance.
U.S. president
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer ...
attended a large party at the Commodore in 1925 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of 42nd Street's opening.
Bowman also hosted a circus in 1927, with an elephant in the grand ballroom, to impress visiting hoteliers.
By 1930, the Commodore was the second-most valuable hotel in New York City (after the
Savoy-Plaza Hotel
The Savoy-Plaza Hotel was a 33-story hotel overlooking Central Park at Fifth Avenue and East 59th Street (Manhattan), 59th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 1927 and was demolished in 1965.
History Original Savoy Hotel
The ...
), with an assessed value of $16.3 million.
Bowman continued to operate the Commodore until he died in 1931,
and David Mulligan took over as Bowman-Biltmore's president the next year.
Frank J. Crohan began operating the Commodore after he became president of Bowman-Biltmore in 1934.
The Commodore began serving alcoholic drinks in December 1933, after
Prohibition in the United States
In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a Constitution of the United States, nationwide constitutional law prohibition, prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtai ...
was repealed, although patrons could initially order drinks from rolling carts.
After New York state repealed a Prohibition-era ban on standing bars in May 1934,
Bowman-Biltmore Hotels installed a bar in the Commodore.
That October, the Commodore's managers opened an English-style grill room, decorated with recessed lighting and wooden panels.
Biltmore-Bowman subsequently added a bar at the Commodore in 1936, hiring 25 bartenders.
The hotel was renovated in 1937 for $750,000; according to Crohan, this was the first major renovation of the Commodore in its history. The project involved renovating three ballrooms and all 2,000 guest rooms; installing ten new elevators; and adding a new kitchen and grill room.
The renovations were completed by 1939.
Crohan died in 1940,
and Martin Sweeny was appointed as the Commodore's general manager.
The hotel's guests during this time included
Wendell Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican ...
, Republican nominee for the
1940 United States presidential election
The 1940 United States presidential election was the 39th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1940. Incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican businessman Wendell Willkie to be re ...
, who opened his personal headquarters there.
The Officers Service Committee also took up some space in the hotel during World War II; at the end of the war, the committee's space became a bureau for United Nations delegations.
An air-conditioning system was installed in the Century Room in 1946, allowing the room to operate during the summer,
and the entire hotel was air-conditioned by the next year.
Sweeny died in 1950, shortly after becoming chairman of the Commodore Hotel's board.
The storefront at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street was leased by a drugstore in 1954
and was extensively remodeled at a cost of $200,000.
Zeckendorf and Realty Hotels operation
Webb and Knapp
Webb and Knapp was a real estate development firm.
The company is most famous for developing the Roosevelt Airfield, which was the launching site of the transatlantic flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. It was also the firm at which ...
, led by developer
William Zeckendorf
William Zeckendorf Sr. (June 30, 1905 – September 30, 1976) was a prominent American real estate developer. Through his development company Webb and Knapp — for which he began working in 1938 and which he purchased in 1949 — he developed ...
, offered to buy all of the Commodore Hotel's outstanding common stock in October 1957 for $18 per share.
At the time, Webb and Knapp wished to control 8,000 hotel rooms in New York City.
Zeckendorf Hotels, took over the Commodore in September 1958, acquiring 96 percent of the stock.
As part of a leaseback agreement, Zeckendorf immediately sold the lease on the land to Joseph I. Lubin for $6 million, subleasing the site from Lubin for three years.
[ Zeckendorf also began looking to sell his lease of the hotel building itself in early 1960, although he would continue to operate the hotel.] Claude Philippe
Claudius Charles Philippe, also known as Philippe of the Waldorf or The Host of the Waldorf, (10 December 1910—24 December 1978) was a British-born French-American restaurateur, catering director, hotelier and businessman, who was the hotel ba ...
was hired as the hotel's general manager in June 1960, but Philippe resigned seven months later to work for the nearby Summit Hotel.
The Glickman Corporation (renamed the Franchard Corporation in 1963) bought the land lease from Lubin in November 1960. Glickman's lease ran until the end of December 1967, after which control of the hotel would revert to the New York Central. Around the same time, Zeckendorf contemplated selling his leases of the Astor, Commodore, and Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
hotels to raise money for the Freedomland U.S. amusement park in the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, in which Zeckendorf also owned a majority stake. This plan was approved in June 1961, and Freedomland U.S., assumed the leases on the three hotels. The hotel was renovated the same year. As part of the project, a cocktail lounge and two large obelisks were installed in the lobby, and two ballrooms were also refurbished. In 1962, amid competition from other hotels, the Biltmore, Commodore, and Roosevelt hotels formed an alliance to attract conventions with 1,500 to 5,000 guests. The alliance allowed the three hotels to host a single convention across 4,000 guestrooms, 90 meeting rooms, 15 restaurants, and of exhibit space.
78013 Corp, the subsidiary of Webb and Knapp that operated the hotel, owed over $850,000 in back rent by February 1964. Amid continued rent disputes, Franchard evicted Webb and Knapp as the hotel's operator in May 1964 and began managing the Commodore directly. This prompted a dispute between Franchard and several companies that had supplied materials for the hotel, which were collectively owed $590,000. As a result, in September 1964, a creditors' committee was convened to resolve the dispute.
Realty Hotels, a subsidiary of the New York Central, agreed in November 1966 to take over the Commodore from Franchard, effective January 1, 1968. The chain formally acquired the hotel's leasehold in June 1967, several months ahead of schedule. Realty Hotels immediately announced plans to spend $6 million renovating the Commodore. During the 1960s, Realty Hotels replaced about half of the manually operated elevators at the Barclay, Biltmore, Commodore, and Roosevelt, and it renovated these hotels as part of a $22 million modernization program. Realty Hotels' president said the renovations had helped attract new and returning customers to the hotels.
Conversion into Grand Hyatt
The New York Central had experienced financial decline during the 1960s, merging with the Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
in 1968 to form the Penn Central
The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad ...
Railroad. Penn Central continued to face financial issues and failed to make mortgage
A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any pu ...
payments. By late 1970, the Commodore Hotel was facing foreclosure
Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.
Formally, a mortg ...
, as were several other buildings that Penn Central owned around Grand Central Terminal. After Penn Central went bankrupt that year, the company sought to sell its properties, including the land below the Commodore Hotel. The buildings were placed for auction in October 1971, but the proceedings were delayed for several years. Penn Central, which had placed all of Realty Hotels' properties for sale, subsequently withdrew its offer to sell the hotels. Both Penn Central and the Commodore continued to struggle financially, and the hotel recorded a 49 percent occupancy rate in 1974. Penn Central, which had not paid taxes on the site since June 1970, owed over $10 million in back taxes
Back taxes is a term for taxes that were not completely paid when due. Typically, these are taxes that are owed from a previous year. Causes for back taxes include failure to pay taxes by the deadline, failure to correctly report one's income, or ...
by the beginning of 1976. The Commodore could not be converted to an apartment building because of its large size and inefficient room layouts. Even razing the hotel would cost $7 million.
Trump offer and closure
Donald Trump's Trump Organization
Trump most commonly refers to:
* Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th president of the United States (2017–2021)
* Trump (card games), any playing card given an ad-hoc high rank
Trump may also refer to:
Businesses and organizations
* Donald J. T ...
and the Pritzker family
The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and List of wealthiest families, one of the wealthiest families in the United States of America (staying in the top 10 of ''Forbes'' magazine's "America's Riche ...
's Hyatt hotel chain entered a formal agreement in May 1975, making a joint offer to purchase the Commodore. Trump planned to buy the hotel for $10 million and convert it into a hotel called the Hyatt Regency, spending $70 million on renovations. Trump had one year to purchase the hotel and another 18 months to conduct renovations, after which Hyatt would take over the hotel. Trump planned to re-clad the hotel with a glass facade and expand its public rooms, providing additional space for conventions. The project would create 1,500 jobs, boosting the city's struggling tourism industry, and would be one of Donald Trump's first major projects. One unidentified real-estate expert said that, if Trump succeeded in redeveloping the Commodore, "you could call him 'the William Zeckendorf of Bad Times'". Trump wanted to buy an option from Penn Central, allowing him to purchase the Commodore at a later date, but he did not have $250,000 on hand to pay for the option. City officials asked Trump to supply a copy of his agreement with Penn Central, but Trump sent the option agreement paperwork without signatures.
Penn Central spent $1 million on renovations in 1975, remodeling the Commodore's bar and renaming it the "New York, New York". In early May 1976, Penn Central asset manager Victor Palmieri announced that the Commodore would be closed the next week, having lost $1.3 million in 1975. By then, the hotel's occupancy rate had decreased to 33 percent, and hotel officials said the Commodore was projected to lose $4.6 million that year. Trump was still negotiating to buy the option. The hotel closed on May 18, 1976, and Penn Central laid off all of the hotel's 500 employees. The Commodore hosted 19 guests and four small events on its last day of operation; the very last guest had not been notified of the hotel's closure until the day before.
Tax abatement and financing
Then-mayor Abraham Beame
Abraham David Beame (March 20, 1906February 10, 2001) was the 104th mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977. As mayor, he presided over the city during its fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, when the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy.
...
had proposed a tax abatement
A tax holiday is a temporary reduction or elimination of a tax. It is synonymous with tax abatement, tax subsidy or tax reduction. Governments usually create tax holidays as incentives for business investment. Tax relief can be provided in the ...
in January 1976 to encourage commercial and industrial development in New York City. Beame and Trump's father Fred Trump
Frederick Christ Trump Sr. (October 11, 1905 – June 25, 1999) was an American real estate developer and businessman. A member of the Trump family, he was the father of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States.
In partnership w ...
had a longtime political connection, and Beame's deputy mayor Stanley Friedman championed the tax-abatement program, even as the city experienced the worst fiscal crisis in its history. Trump formally requested a tax abatement from city officials in March 1976; he was the first developer to request a tax abatement under Beame's program. Hyman B. Cantor of the Carter Hotels Corporation made another offer for the Commodore in April 1976, while city officials continued to discuss the tax abatement. Although Beame had originally planned to give the hotel a 50-year tax abatement, he subsequently proposed reducing the tax abatement to 35 years, to which Trump objected. By then, several members of the New York City Council had expressed concerns about the proposed abatement, as did rival developers and hotel operators. Opponents said the city government would forfeit $4 million a year in tax revenue if the abatement was approved.
The New York City Board of Estimate
The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments effec ...
approved the Commodore's tax abatement two days after the hotel closed. To receive the abatement, Trump would pay Penn Central $10 million and resell the hotel for $1 to the Urban Development Corporation
Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the New York Job Development Authority (JDA). T ...
(UDC), a New York state government agency, which would lease back the hotel to Trump Organization subsidiary Wembley Realty Inc. for 99 years. Trump would make payments in lieu of taxes A payment in lieu of taxes (usually abbreviated as PILOT, or sometimes as PILT) is a payment made to compensate a government for some or all of the property tax revenue lost due to tax exempt ownership or use of real property.
Canada
The federal g ...
during the hotel's renovation. The hotel's rent would be discounted for 40 years, and the rent payments would increase gradually to $2.27 million after 40 years. The tax abatement would allow Trump and Hyatt to save $56 million over forty years. If the hotel earned more than $5.5 million per year, the city government would receive half of the hotel's profits. Law professor Leon Wein filed a lawsuit, alleging that the tax abatement violated the Constitution of New York
The Constitution of the State of New York establishes the structure of the government of the State of New York, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of New York. Like most state constitutions in the United States, New York's constitut ...
, but the New York Court of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...
(the highest court in New York state) ruled in December 1977 that the tax abatement was constitutional.
The Commodore remained largely empty after its closure, except for some stores that continued to operate at ground level. One apparel-store owner at the Commodore's base refused to vacate the site and ultimately signed a long-term lease with Trump. Penn Central agreed in September 1976 to pay the city government $5 million after it sold the hotel to Trump, and the UDC agreed to buy the hotel from Trump the same month. Trump exercised his option for the hotel in January 1977, placing a down payment
Down payment (also called a deposit in British English), is an initial up-front partial payment for the purchase of expensive items/services such as a car or a house. It is usually paid in cash or equivalent at the time of finalizing the transactio ...
of $250,000. Penn Central's trustees next asked a federal district court for permission to sell the Commodore, as the railroad was bankrupt and could not sell the hotel by itself. In December 1977, the Bowery Savings Bank
The Bowery Savings Bank was a bank in New York City, chartered in May 1834. By 1980, it had over 35 branches in the New York metropolitan area. In 1992, it was sold to H. F. Ahmanson & Co. for $200 million.
The bank's first branch at 130 Bowe ...
agreed to lend Trump and Hyatt $45 million for the Commodore's redevelopment, and the Equitable Life Assurance Society agreed to lend $35 million. Trump and Hyatt were to provide the remaining $20 million. Ultimately, Trump received $140 million in long-term financing and short-term loans for the Hyatt Regency's renovation.
Renovation
In preparation for the hotel's renovation, National Content Liquidators started auctioning off about one million furnishings and decorations in January 1978. Thousands of people visited the hotel on the first day of the auction. Trump announced in May 1978 that he would start renovating the hotel. He wanted the hotel to reopen in time for the completion of Javits Center
The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, commonly known as the Javits Center, is a large convention center on Eleventh Avenue between 34th Street and 38th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by architect James ...
, a convention center on Manhattan's west side. HRH Construction, a division of the Starrett Housing Corporation, received the general contract for the Commodore's renovation. The firm of Gruzen & Partners was hired to redesign the hotel, and architect Der Scutt
Der Scutt (October 17, 1934 – March 14, 2010) was an American architect and designer of a number of major and notable buildings throughout New York City and the United States.
Scutt worked on Trump Tower next to the Tiffany & Co. fla ...
(who later designed Trump Tower
Trump Tower is a 58-story, mixed-use skyscraper at 721–725 Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, between East 56th and 57th Streets. The building contains the headquarters for the Trump Organization, as well ...
) was hired as a design consultant. Trump hired Barbara Greene of GKR Design Consultants, as well as Dale Keller & Associates, to design the interiors. A groundbreaking
Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are o ...
ceremony for the Hyatt Regency took place on June 28, 1978, with Beame, mayor Ed Koch
Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was may ...
, and governor Hugh Carey
Hugh Leo Carey (April 11, 1919 – August 7, 2011) was an American politician and attorney. He was a seven-term U.S. representative from 1961 to 1974 and the 51st governor of New York from 1975 to 1982. He was a member of the Democratic Party. ...
in attendance.
The Hyatt Regency was one of several hotels in midtown Manhattan to be developed during the late 1970s. The hotel's renovation was temporarily delayed by a labor strike
Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the I ...
in August 1978. The city government originally planned a sales tax
A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
on construction materials to fund other improvements in the area, including $2 million for a cleaning of Grand Central Terminal's facade. The city waived the sales tax after Trump agreed to fund the facade-restoration project directly. As part of the project, a mezzanine was constructed between the Hyatt hotel and the terminal. The project had become known as the Grand Hyatt New York by early 1979. The Commodore was gutted almost entirely to its steel frame, although the Trump Organization salvaged 200 copper faces on the original facade's cornice. The Hyatt's new facade was being installed by the end of 1979. Hotel officials began conducting job interviews in mid-1980, and they hired Fred Alexander as the hotel's first general manager. The renovation ultimately cost $100 million. This amounted to approximately $80,000 per room, although Trump estimated that a new hotel on the same site would have cost twice as much.
Hyatt operation
Reopening and early years
The hotel officially reopened in September 1980 as the Grand Hyatt New York. The Grand Hyatt was one of 13 large hotels, with a combined 9,000 rooms, that had opened in New York City during the early 1980s. The Grand Hyatt's opening coincided with the revival of the surrounding area, although there was disagreement over whether the hotel's renovation impacted the neighborhood's revival. At the time of its reopening, all of the rooms had been booked, but an unidentified hospitality-industry expert estimated the next year that as many as 40 percent of the hotel's rooms were empty. Nonetheless, the Sun Garden bar quickly became popular with nearby office workers. The Grand Hyatt began hosting Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
teams during World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
games, accommodating all visiting MLB teams.
A restaurant called Trumpets opened within the hotel's base in early 1981. The same year, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
(MTA) announced that they planned to use eminent domain
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
to acquire of the Grand Hyatt's basement and reconstruct a subway entrance there. Regional newspaper ''Newsday'' estimated that, in the first five years of the hotel's operation, the tax abatement saved Trump and Hyatt $5.5 million annually. Local civic group Grand Central Partnership installed floodlights on the hotel's facade in 1989, both for illuminating Grand Central Terminal and discouraging crime on nearby streets. The terminal's operators also proposed constructing a loading dock and garbage-collection facility next to the Grand Hyatt, but Trump opposed these plans. This loading dock, which separated the Grand Hyatt from the Graybar Building
Graybar is an American employee-owned corporation, based in Clayton, Missouri. It conducts a wholesale distribution business for electrical, communications and data networking products, and is a provider of related supply-chain management and l ...
, was replaced in the 1990s with a pedestrian passageway.
Financial troubles and decline of partnership
In late 1989, state officials ordered the hotel to pay the city government $2.9 million in back rent, which the hotel had withheld in 1986 after changing its accounting procedures. An investigation by city auditors found that the hotel was missing basic financial records and was using procedures that violated Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
Publicly traded companies typically are subject to rigorous standards. Small and midsized businesses often follow more simplified standards, plus any specific disclosures required by their specific lenders and shareholders. Some firms operate on th ...
. Mayor Koch asked the UDC to collect the rent from Trump, but the UDC declined to do so. New York City's auditor general had been investigating the case, but Koch's successor David Dinkins
David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office.
Before enteri ...
subsequently disbanded the auditor general's office. Several of Trump's companies were struggling financially by 1990, and he considered selling his stake in the Grand Hyatt to pay off outstanding debt. That June, Trump offered his stake in the Grand Hyatt as collateral
Collateral may refer to:
Business and finance
* Collateral (finance), a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan
* Marketing collateral, in marketing and sales
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Collate ...
for a $65 million syndicated loan from several banks. At the time, the hotel had a relatively high net operating income
In accounting and finance, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) is a measure of a firm's profit that includes all incomes and expenses (operating and non-operating) except interest expenses and income tax expenses.
Operating income and ope ...
of $15.7 million; real-estate experts estimated that Trump's stake was worth between $157 million and $186 million. By the following year, Trump was negotiating to sell most of his stake in the Grand Hyatt to one of his lenders, Bankers Trust
Bankers Trust was a historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons in 1997 before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. Deutsche Bank sold the Trust and Custody division of Bankers Trust to State Street Corpor ...
.
Trump and Hyatt's partnership deteriorated during the early 1990s. Trump sued several members of the Pritzker family in 1993, accusing them of racketeering; he sought full control of the hotel and $500 million in damages. Trump claimed that Hyatt wanted to force him out of the partnership because their agreement prevented the chain from operating other Hyatt-branded convention hotels in New York City. Due to a non-compete clause, Hyatt could not advertise the nearby UN Plaza Hotel as being part of the chain. Hyatt also wished to renovate the hotel for $35.7 million, funded equally by Trump and the Pritzkers, so the Grand Hyatt could "remain competitive" with other hotels. Trump initially agreed to pay for his half of the renovation, but he later reneged, claiming the repairs were too extravagant. When the Pritzkers opened arbitration
Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...
proceedings to force Trump to pay for the renovations, the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division granted a stay of proceedings
Stay may refer to:
Places
* Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US
Law
* Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment
* Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a ...
in late 1993, blocking the arbitration proceedings.
The Pritzkers countersued in March 1994, alleging that Trump had violated their partnership by failing to remain solvent, using his share as collateral for loans, and refusing to fund his portion of the renovation. The Pritzkers also sued Bankers Trust and Chemical Bank
Chemical Bank was a bank with headquarters in New York City from 1824 until 1996. At the end of 1995, Chemical was the third-largest bank in the U.S., with about $182.9 billion in assets and more than 39,000 employees around the world.
Beginning ...
, claiming that Trump had diluted the partnership by conveying his financial interest to his lenders while retaining veto power. Trump and the Pritzkers ultimately agreed to a settlement in mid-1995. Trump and Hyatt announced in March 1996 that they would renovate the hotel for $25 million. Hughes Design Associates designed the renovation, which included updated furnishings and a new fitness center. The hotel continued to undergo renovations through mid-1997.
Pritzker family control
The Pritzkers bought Trump's share in the hotel for $140 million in October 1996, which lifted the non-compete clause against the UN Plaza. Following the acquisition, Hyatt owned a 99 percent stake in the hotel, while the Pritzker Family Philanthropic Fund owned the remaining share. By the early 2000s, the hotel's lobby was a popular place for informal meetings. Hyatt agreed to replace the hotel's cooling system in 2003 after over a thousand workers went on strike. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
(MTA), which operated Grand Central, repaired a steam room under the Grand Hyatt in 2005; the steam room supplied the terminal and had partially collapsed during the preceding decade. By 2007, the Grand Hyatt was the fourth-most valuable hotel in New York City, having been appraised at $300.9 million.
Hyatt announced in mid-2009 that it would spend $12 million renovating the Empire Ballroom. The next year, Hyatt commenced a wider-ranging renovation of the hotel for $130 million. The hotel remained open during the renovation, and only a few floors were closed at any given time. Carol and Paul Bentel of the firm Bentel & Bentel were hired to renovate the public spaces, while Looney & Associates redesigned most of the suites and rooms. During the renovation, a restaurant called New York Central opened next to the hotel's lobby in late 2010. In addition, Hyatt added the Market, a food market where customers could select what they wanted instead of waiting for room service. At the time, only about 50 daily guests ordered room service, while other guests chose to leave the hotel to eat. After the Market opened, Hyatt cut back its room-service hours.
The Grand Hyatt installed several green building
Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...
features in early 2016, including a new exhaust-control system, LED lighting, and an updated HVAC
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HV ...
system. In addition, as part of the development of the nearby One Vanderbilt
One Vanderbilt is a 93-story supertall skyscraper at the corner of 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, the building was proposed by developer SL Green Realty ...
skyscraper, the subway station under the hotel was renovated in the late 2010s. The project involved relocating several of the hotel's support columns, demolishing 40 percent of the Hyatt's basement to expand the subway mezzanine, and expanding a subway entrance within the hotel's base.
Project Commodore
The New York City government enacted the Midtown East
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building ...
rezoning in the 2010s; this allowed developers to transfer unused air rights
Air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by others.
This legal ...
from Grand Central Terminal to neighboring sites, enabling the construction of high-rise buildings on these sites. Developers expressed interest in redeveloping several sites around the terminal, including the Grand Hyatt. In February 2019, the media reported that TF Cornerstone, MSD Partners, and RXR Realty
RXR Realty is a real estate owner, manager, and developer located in New York City and surrounding areas of Westchester County, Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The company is headquartered in New York, New York and Uniondale, New York. RX ...
planned to redevelop the Grand Hyatt site. A new mixed-use structure with office and retail space, as well as a smaller hotel, would be built on the site. The proposal required approval from the state and city governments of New York, though no final agreement had been signed. Before the developers could construct the skyscraper, they had to buy out Hyatt's lease, which ran through 2077. At the time, the developers planned to close the hotel permanently after the end of 2020.
In November 2020, preliminary plans for an 83-story mixed-use tower on the site, known as Project Commodore, were revealed. The tower, designed by T. J. Gottesdiener of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
, would be tall, making it the second-tallest in New York City if completed. The structure would contain office space on the 7th through 63rd floors and a 500-room Grand Hyatt hotel on the 65th through 83rd floors. The basement, first, and second floors would contain retail, and the first floor would also connect to the adjacent railroad terminal and subway station. A public plaza and a stair to the Park Avenue Viaduct would also be built. If the project were approved, the demolition process would take 18 months, and the construction process would take 47 months with a preliminary completion date in 2030. Preliminary renderings were released in February 2021, and the New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs.
The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...
approved the plans that December. The developers still planned to demolish the hotel in 2023.
Temporary closure and reopening
The Grand Hyatt New York was closed indefinitely in early 2020 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City
The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...
. The hotel was supposed to have been closed permanently, but Hyatt officials decided to reopen the Grand Hyatt after the New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs.
The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...
passed legislation in September 2021. The legislation required hotels that closed due to the pandemic to pay severance to their employees if they did not reopen with at least 25 percent of their pre-pandemic staff. The hotel reopened on November 1, 2021, and was rebranded as Hyatt Grand Central New York. Upon its reopening, the Hyatt Grand Central largely served visitors from Europe, particularly those from the United Kingdom. The Hyatt Grand Central offered limited services, as its meeting facilities/function rooms, restaurants and bars remained closed. The hotel's permanent closure date was postponed to at least 2023.
Critical reception
Original hotel
When the original Commodore Hotel opened, multiple media sources described the Commodore as one of the world's largest hotels. ''The American Architect
''The American Architect'' was a weekly periodical on architecture published between 1876 and 1938. Originally titled ''The American Architect and Building News'', in 1909 the magazine changed its name to ''The American Architect''. In 1921, it c ...
'' magazine wrote that the Commodore "adds a very important architectural feature to a location that is bound to become one of New York's busiest civic centers". The ''New-York Tribune
The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...
'' said the hotel "undoubtedly adds strength and decorum to the group of high-class hotels in the vicinity of Grand Central Terminal", while ''The New York Times'' wrote that the Commodore's completion made the surrounding area "the greatest hotel centre in the world". ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' considered it to be "equal from the standpoint of architectural design" to the nearby Hotel Pennsylvania
The Hotel Pennsylvania was a historic hotel at 401 Seventh Avenue (15 Penn Plaza) in Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden in New York City. Opened in 1919, it was once the largest hotel in the world. ...
, which had opened the same week.
Grand Hyatt
Before the renovation of the Grand Hyatt New York began, Paul Goldberger
Paul Goldberger (born in 1950) is an American author, architecture critic and lecturer. He is known for his "Sky Line" column in ''The New Yorker''.
Biography
Shortly after starting as a reporter at ''The New York Times'' in 1972, he was assign ...
of ''The New York Times'' said, "it is too bad that there was no willingness to consider a design in some material other than glass." Nonetheless, Goldberger praised some elements of the design, including the cantilevered restaurant, the large lobby, and an expanded ballroom. By the time the renovation was complete, Goldberger wrote: "It is the sort of flashy hotel one would expect in Atlanta or Houston, but certainly not in New York." ''The Architectural Guidebook to New York City'' referred to the facade as a "mirror box" and an "utter and inexcusable outrage". The ''Guidebook'' continued:Conversely, Ada Louise Huxtable wrote that the Grand Hyatt's atrium had been adapted to the existing steel frame "with ingenuity and elegance, and the result is not only a vast improvement over the spiritless interior court that has become an overreaching cliche, but also—give or take a few details—one of the handsomest public spaces in New York." The ''Atlanta Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the Atlanta metropolitan area, metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Con ...
'' wrote that the atrium "seems vast" despite being only three stories high, while ''The New York Times'' said the lobby was a place for "sitting and watching the custom that flows back and forth before the eyes". Joseph Giovannini of the ''Times'' wrote that the lobby "exemplifies many of the architectural ideas of the 1970's and 80's, along with some of its cliches".
Shortly after the hotel reopened, reporters for ''Newsweek'' said that the "glistening mass of reflecting glass" seemed to be "a world apart from that grubby cluster of porn shops and X-rated movie theaters" along the section of 42nd Street within Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
. A writer for ''The Washington Post'' said the Grand Hyatt "reaches for the present and future", in contrast to the Helmsley Palace Hotel, which had opened the same year but had "tried to embrace the past" by incorporating the historical Villard Houses
The Villard Houses are a set of former residences comprising a historic landmark at 451–457 Madison Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by the architect Joseph Morrill Wells ...
.
See also
*List of hotels in New York City
The following is a list of some notable hotels in New York City.
Number of hotels
Most of the hotels are represented by the Hotel Association of New York City trade organization. As of 2016, the organization had 270 members, representing 75,000 r ...
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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External links
*
{{Hotels in New York City
1919 establishments in New York City
42nd Street (Manhattan)
Bowman-Biltmore Hotels
Grand Central Terminal
Hotel buildings completed in 1919
Hotels established in 1919
Hotels established in 1980
Hotels in Manhattan
Hyatt Hotels and Resorts
Lexington Avenue