The W New York Union Square is a 270-room, 21-story
boutique hotel
Boutique hotels are small inventory, design driven, unique hotels with their own character, personality and storytelling at the heart of their concept. Positioning is secondary for these hotels as they focus on authenticity and personalization ...
operated by
W Hotels
W Hotels is an American upscale lifestyle hotel chain owned by Marriott International that is marketed towards a younger age group.
History
W Hotels was launched in 1998 with W New York, a conversion of the former Doral Inn hotel on Lexingto ...
at the northeast corner of
Park Avenue
Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...
South and 17th Street, across from
Union Square
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
in
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 ...
, New York. Originally known as the Germania Life Insurance Company Building, it was designed by
Albert D'Oench
Albert F. D'Oench (December 25, 1852 – July 20, 1918) was an architect of office buildings and Superintendent of Buildings in New York City. During his career, he had two partnerships, first D'Oench and Simon with Bernhard Simon. Later in h ...
and
Joseph W. Yost
Joseph Warren Yost (1847–1923) was a prominent architect from Ohio whose works included many courthouses and other public buildings. Some of his most productive years were spent as a member of the Yost and Packard partnership with Frank Packar ...
and built in 1911 in the
Beaux-Arts style.
The W New York Union Square building was initially the headquarters of the
Germania Life Insurance Company. In 1917, when the company became
the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America is one of the largest mutual life insurance companies in the world. Based in Manhattan, it has approximately 8,000 employees in the United States and a network of over 3,000 financial representativ ...
, the building was renamed the Guardian Life Insurance Company Building. A four-story annex to the east was designed by
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 ...
and was completed in 1961. Guardian Life moved its offices out of the building in 1999, and the W New York Union Square opened the following year.
The main building, part of the hotel, was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2001, and was designated a city landmark by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in 1988. The Guardian Life annex, not part of the current hotel, was designated as a city landmark in 2007.
Site
The W New York Union Square building's site measures along Park Avenue South and along 17th Street.
The building is located at the northeast corner of that intersection, diagonally across from
Union Square
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
to the southwest.
Its immediate neighbors include the four-story
International Style Guardian annex and several rowhouses to the east; the former
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
building at
44 Union Square
44 Union Square, also known as 100 East 17th Street and the Tammany Hall Building, is a three-story building at 44 Union Square East in Union Square, Manhattan, in New York City. It is at the southeast corner of Union Square East/Park Avenue So ...
to the south; the
Everett Building across Park Avenue to the west; and a five-story commercial building and a twenty-story loft structure to the north.
The building is one of the few remaining major insurance company "home office" structures in New York City.
Architecture
![W_New_York_Union_Square](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/W_New_York_Union_Square.jpg)
The W New York Union Square building is designed in the
Beaux-Arts style. It is 21 stories tall, with the 18th through 21st stories being located within the
mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...
. A "
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 ...
" on the north side of the building gives it a U-shaped footprint.
According to building plans, D'Oench and Yost considered the Germania Life Building's main roof to be a flat roof above the 17th floor.
The building is divided into three horizontal sections: a three-story base with a ground floor and two-story "transitional section"; a 12-story "shaft" below another 2-story "transitional section"; and the four-story roof.
The building rises above ground level. Two basement levels are located below ground level, and there is a mezzanine between the second and third floors.
The interior structure is supported by steel
plate girder
A plate girder bridge is a bridge supported by two or more plate girders.
Overview
In a plate girder bridge, the plate girders are typically I-beams made up from separate structural steel plates (rather than rolled as a single cross-section), w ...
s below the fourth floor. Above that level, the structure is composed primarily of I-beams, with
flange
A flange is a protruded ridge, lip or rim (wheel), rim, either external or internal, that serves to increase shear strength, strength (as the flange of an iron beam (structure), beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam); for easy attachment/transfer of ...
plates at their tops and bottoms.
The building also incorporates
curtain walls in its design.
According to critic A. C. David, the optimal building design included high ceilings and large windows to maximize natural light coverage. The Germania Life Building not only included these features, but also had a corner location that was conducive toward the maximization of natural light.
However, unlike many buildings being built on Park Avenue in the 1900s and 1910s, the Germania Life Building also retained traditional design features.
For instance, the building used masonry instead of a
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
-clad metal structure for fireproofing.
Facade
The W New York Union Square building
facade is composed mostly of gray Concord
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
interspersed with
brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
,
except for the red Numidian-granite
water table
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated.
T ...
, and the red Spanish-tile mansard roof.
The foundation walls are made of brick, mortar, and cement.
On all floors, there are eight architectural
bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
, three facing Park Avenue to the west and five facing 17th Street to the south.
The ground floor facade is
rusticated with several rows of
bevel
A bevelled edge (UK) or beveled edge (US) is an edge of a structure that is not perpendicular to the faces of the piece. The words bevel and chamfer overlap in usage; in general usage they are often interchanged, while in technical usage they ...
ed masonry blocks, and deep crevices between each row of blocks. In each of the ground-floor bays, there are rusticated arches with foliate
keystones
A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...
.
The arches formerly contained storefronts until the building's conversion into a hotel.
The main entrance is from the northernmost arch on Park Avenue South. A
belt course
A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the f ...
runs on the facade between the ground and second floors.
The second and third floor facades are also rusticated with beveled blocks but have shallower crevices between each row. The center bay on Park Avenue South and the center three bays on 17th Street contain double-story arched openings with keystones at top, while each of the bay at the ends of each facade contain two windows per floor.
On the Park Avenue South side, there is a small iron balcony projecting from the third story of the double arch, with the initials "G" and "L" on the iron railing.
The third floor facade is topped by a denticulated (tooth-like) cornice.
Signs with the company name were formerly located above the third floor on both the Park Avenue South and 17th Street sides.
The facades of the fourth through fifteenth floors are largely uniform, with shallow belt courses and
quoin
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
s in the spaces between each set of windows. Shallow balconies on the fourth floor, with stone colonnades, are located above the denticulated third-floor cornices on the Park Avenue South and 17th Street sides, and run across nearly the entire width of both facades. On the west and east facades, the
fenestration
Fenestration may refer to:
* Fenestration (architecture), the design, construction, or presence of openings in a building
* Used in relation to fenestra in anatomy, medicine and biology
* Fenestration, holes in the rudder of a ship to reduce the w ...
or window arrangement is in a 2-3-2 format, i.e. there are two windows per floor on the side bays and three windows per floor in the central bay. On the south facade, the fenestration is in a 2-2-2-2-2 format, i.e. five bays with two windows each.
The beige-brick-clad north facade contains the recessed "light court" and is divided into two asymmetric sections, both with simple window openings.
The center bays on the west and south facades contain projecting windowsills on the fourth through fourteenth floors. Above the 15th and 17th stories are stone cornices.
The 16th story also used to have a cornice above it, but the cornice was replaced around 1940 with a
fascia
A fascia (; plural fasciae or fascias; adjective fascial; from Latin: "band") is a band or sheet of connective tissue, primarily collagen, beneath the skin that attaches to, stabilizes, encloses, and separates muscles and other internal organs. ...
of sheet metal.
The 16th floor contains panels depicting torches and shields in the spaces between each bay, while the 17th floor facade is unadorned.
Roof
![W_New_York_Union_Square_mansard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/W_New_York_Union_Square_mansard.jpg)
The W New York Union Square building's most prominent feature is its four-story mansard roof, which contains
dormer
A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window.
Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...
windows,
escutcheons, and five decorative
keystones
A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...
with
garland
A garland is a decorative braid, knot or wreath of flowers, leaves, or other material. Garlands can be worn on the head or around the neck, hung on an inanimate object, or laid in a place of cultural or religious importance.
Etymology
From the ...
s.
On the 18th story, the west and east facades contain fenestration in a 2-3-2 format and the south facade contains fenestration in a 2-3-3-3-2 format. On the 19th story, the west and east facades' fenestration is in a 1-3-1 format and the south facade's fenestration is in a 1-3-3-3-1 format.
There are carved scallops atop each of the window groupings on the 18th and 19th stories.
On the 20th story, the west and east facades contain a triple window in the center, topped by a large triangular
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
, while there are two standalone dormer windows on each side of the triple window, all with smaller pediments. The south side of the 20th story contains ten dormer windows, all with pediments. On the 21st story, there are five round-arched dormer windows on the west and east facades, and eight round-arched dormer windows on the south facade. A horizontal band runs at the top of the 21st story facade, below a cornice, while vertical
acroteria
An acroterion, acroterium, or akroteria is an architectural ornament placed on a flat pedestal called the ''acroter'' or plinth, and mounted at the apex or corner of the pediment of a building in the classical style. An acroterion placed at th ...
run along the roof's corners.
The roof was influenced by both 19th-century
French architecture
French architecture consists of numerous architectural styles that either originated in France or elsewhere and were developed within the territories of France.
History
Gallo-Roman
The architecture of Ancient Rome at first adopted the exter ...
and the
Second Empire Second Empire may refer to:
* Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783
* Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396)
* Second French Empire (1852–1870)
** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...
style.
Inspiration also came from the now-demolished
New York Tribune Building
The New York Tribune Building (also the Nassau-Tribune Building) was a building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, across from City Hall and the Civic Center. It was at the intersection of Nassau and Spruce Streets, at 154 ...
(completed 1905) in
Civic Center, Manhattan
The Civic Center is the area and neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, Manhattan, New York City, that encompasses New York City Hall, One Police Plaza, the courthouses in Foley Square, the Metropolitan Correctional Center and the surrounding ar ...
, which was topped by a three-story mansard roof.
In addition, during the 1870s, Germania had added a mansard roof to their otherwise unadorned
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
headquarters in the Financial District.
D'Oench and Yost had decided to retain this feature in their design for the new building.
The roof also incorporates several features of
German architectural styles
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
because of the company's and D'Oench's German roots. For example, the designs of the dormer windows are different for each floor, and there is elaborate decoration, consistent with 16th-century German architecture.
On top of the roof is a horizontal lighted sign with white letters. It originally contained the letters "Germania Life". The sign was changed to "Guardian Life" in 1917 upon the company's renaming.
Most of the letters seem to have been reused when the sign was replaced, while the letters "E" and "M" were replaced with a "U" and "D".
The sign was later replaced with a "W Union Square" sign.
Interior
The floors are made of multicolored marble pattern on the ground-floor main entrance, tile on the ground-floor retail area,
terrazzo
Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bindi ...
with mosaic borders on the second through fourth floors, and cement on the fifth through 20th stories and in the basements. The ground-floor entrance area also contains white English veined marble on the walls, capped by stucco decoration. The restrooms are designed with hexagonal-tiled floors, tile wainscoting, and stalls made with marble barriers.
Inside the building are eight elevators, five for passenger use and three for freight transport. There are also two enclosed hallways on each floor, and two enclosed staircases within the building.
One particularly heavily-ornamented interior space is the second-story elevator lobby, which contains a marble floor and English marble walls and ceilings.
The elevator lobby is supported by round arches that divide it into 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 five domes. Directly to the south, accessed through three sets of openings,
is a , double-height space, originally used for selling insurance before being converted into the W Hotel ballroom. The lower halves of the ballroom's walls contain marble
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 ...
.
Various ornaments, cartouches, and motifs are located throughout the ballroom, including several instances of Guardian Life's initials.
Guardian Life annex
The Guardian Life Insurance Company Annex, also known as 105 East 17th Street, was completed in 1961.
It is located just to the east of the 20-story hotel tower, between Irving Place to the east and Park Avenue South to the west. It contains two 4-story facades: the southern facade abuts 17th Street to the south while the northern facade is adjacent to 18th Street to the north.
The 17th Street facade is slightly wider, measuring long with nineteen architectural bays, while the 18th Street facade is long and contains twelve bays.
On both sides, the facades contain aluminum
spandrel
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
s and thin projecting
mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
s between each architectural bay. There is a rolldown metal gate and a revolving door on the western portion of the annex's 17th Street facade, on the portion adjacent to the hotel. The western portion of the annex's 18th Street facade contains a recessed brick portion with metal emergency doors.
History
Context and planning
Union Square was first laid out in the
Commissioners' Plan of 1811
The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was the original design for the streets of Manhattan above Houston Street and below 155th Street, which put in place the rectangular grid plan of streets and lots that has defined Manhattan on its march uptown u ...
, expanded in 1832, and then made into a public park in 1839.
By the first decade of the 20th century, Union Square had grown into a major transportation hub with several
elevated
An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train for short) is a rapid transit railway with the Track (rail transport), tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast i ...
and
surface
A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is t ...
railroad lines running nearby, and 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
14th Street–Union Square station opening in 1904.
In August 1909, the ''Real Estate Record and Guide'' announced that
D'Oench & Yost had been hired to build a new 20-story headquarters for the
Germania Life Insurance Company at the northeast corner of Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South) and 17th Streets.
The company, founded in 1860 to serve New York City's German community,
occupied several successive buildings before settling at a six-story building at Cedar and Nassau Streets in Manhattan's
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
.
The Nassau Street building had suffered from structural problems, the most serious being a sinking
foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
, and it was sold to the
Fourth National Bank of New York
The Fourth National Bank of New York was an American bank based in New York City.
History
The Fourth National Bank of New York was organized in January 1864. At the time of its organization, many, including Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Ch ...
in March 1909.
The company also could no longer rent out its vacant space at Nassau Street at a profit, and its directors sought to build a new headquarters in advance of its 50th anniversary. When Germania's directors decided to buy the Park Avenue site in mid-1909 at a cost of $350,000 (), the directors wanted to ensure that their headquarters would not be overshadowed by its neighbors, so they directed D'Oench & Yost to build a structure of at least 16 stories. The four-story
mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...
was added to the plans later.
At the time of the Guardian Life Building's construction, life insurance companies generally had their own buildings for their offices and branch locations. According to architectural writer Kenneth Gibbs, these buildings allowed each individual company to instill "not only its name but also a favorable impression of its operations" in the general public.
This had been a trend since 1870,
with the completion of the former
Equitable Life Building in Manhattan's Financial District.
Furthermore, life insurance companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries generally built massive buildings to fit their large clerical and records-keeping staff.
Use as office building
![W_Hotel_in_Union_Square_New_York_City](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/W_Hotel_in_Union_Square_New_York_City.JPG)
Germania Life moved to its new Union Square headquarters on April 24, 1911.
When the building was completed the following month, the total cost of the structure was about $1.45 million (equal to $ million in ).
Germania Life made additional profit by leasing out its unused space at its headquarters.
In 1918, during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the company was renamed the Guardian Life Insurance Company to avoid associations with Germany, which had become one of the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
against which the United States was fighting.
The company then changed the large "Germania Life Insurance Company" sign on the headquarters' roof to read "Guardian Life Insurance Company".
Several other alterations took place over the years, including the removal of the 16th-story
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 ...
in 1940 and replacement of the storefront windows in 1957.
Further, the entrance lobby from Park Avenue South was renovated in the 1960s and the 1980s.
By the mid-20th century, Guardian Life had grown significantly, with $2 billion in assets by 1960 (equal to $ billion in ).
Guardian had also occupied all of its vacant space in the building,
and to alleviate the shortage of space, considered moving uptown to
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 ...
or further north to
Westchester County
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...
.
Sites in
White Plains and
New Rochelle
New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...
in Westchester were considered, but both proposals faced opposition from residents and Guardian Life employees, leading the company to decide to expand its Union Square location.
In 1959, the company announced that it would build an adjacent , four-story annex at 105 East 17th Street. The annex, designed by
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 ...
,
was completed in 1961.
Unlike the original structure, the annex occupied the full width of the block to 18th Street.
During the 1980s, Guardian Life expanded again to
225/233 Park Avenue South, signing a lease for . Guardian signed a lease for in a fourth building, 215 Park Avenue South, in the early 1990s.
Conversion to hotel
In 1998, Guardian Life moved its headquarters to the Financial District of Manhattan, with plans to sell their old headquarters.
The next year,
The Related Companies
The Related Companies, L.P. is an American real estate firm in New York City, with offices and developments in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco, Abu Dhabi, London, São Paulo and Shanghai. Related has more than 3,0 ...
announced that the Guardian Life Insurance Company Building would be renovated into a 250-room hotel operated by
Starwood
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. was one of the largest companies that owned, operated, franchised and managed hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties. It was acquired by Marriott International in 2016.
...
. The hotel would be the first in the Union Square neighborhood. As part of the conversion, Related planned to remove the red neon "Guardian Life Insurance Company" sign and replace it with "W New York Union Square", the name of the
W Hotels
W Hotels is an American upscale lifestyle hotel chain owned by Marriott International that is marketed towards a younger age group.
History
W Hotels was launched in 1998 with W New York, a conversion of the former Doral Inn hotel on Lexingto ...
resort that would occupy the building. Workers removed the last two letters of the sign before the city announced that the removal had been illegal and saying that the Landmarks Preservation Commission had to approve the action, thereby temporarily halting the process. The hotel opened in December 2000, with 270 rooms, and the "W Union Square" sign was added to the roof.
The basement was used by several event spaces,
including
Rande Gerber
Rande Gerber (born April 27, 1962) is an American businessman and former model. He founded tequila brand Casamigos alongside actor George Clooney and real estate businessman Mike Meldman, as well as nightlife companies Midnight Oil, Caliche Ru ...
's Underbar lounge and
Todd English
William Todd English (born August 29, 1960) is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, and television personality, based in Boston, Massachusetts. He hosted the TV cooking show, ''Food Trip with Todd English,'' on PBS. In 2005 he was ...
's Olives restaurant.
The annex was not included in the hotel conversion and continued to be used as offices.
The W New York Union Square was sold in 2006 for $285 million to
Istithmar World
Istithmar World ("istithmar" (Arabic) for "investment" (English)) is an investment firm based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). This company is a state-run business owned by Dubai World, a Dubai government-owned company, and was established ...
, a
Dubai government The Government of Dubai ( ar, حكومة دبي) is the subnational authority that governs the Emirate of Dubai, one of the seven constituent monarchies which make up the United Arab Emirates. The executive authority and head of the government is th ...
-owned investment group. The sales of the W New York Union Square and the
Four Seasons Resort Hualalai
Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Kaūpūlehu is a AAA Five Diamond Award, AAA Five Diamond rated Four Seasons Hotel, Four Seasons resort in Kaupulehu, Hawaii, Kaūpūlehu, on the Kona-Kohala Coast of the island of Hawaii (island), Hawaii.
...
in Hawaii, both at rates of over $1 million per room, at the time were the highest-ever selling rates for hotels that were not scheduled for renovation.
In 2014, Gerber Group took over the Olives restaurant at the W New York Union Square and renovated it into a restaurant called the Irvington, after
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
, the namesake of nearby
Irving Place
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 its ...
.
Marriott Hotels & Resorts
Marriott Hotels & Resorts is Marriott International's brand of full-service hotels and resorts based in Bethesda, Maryland. As of June 30, 2020, there were 582 hotels and resorts with 205,053 rooms operating under the brand, in addition to 16 ...
purchased the W New York Union Square in October 2019 for $206 million, with plans to renovate the building.
The next year, the LPC reviewed a proposal for a seasonal rooftop garden, designed by
Beyer Blinder Belle
Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP (BBB) is an international architecture firm. It is based in New York City and has an additional office in Washington, DC. The firm's name is derived from the three founding partners: John H. Beyer, Ri ...
.
Landmark designations
In 1988, the Guardian Life Building was designated a
New York City landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
.
The building, along with the Everett Building at the northwest corner of Park Avenue South and 17th Street, were described by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
as forming an "imposing terminus to Park Avenue South".
The W New York Union Square building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
(NRHP) on May 25, 2001.
The annex, not part of the present hotel and not on the NRHP, was also made a city landmark in 2007.
See also
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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 ...
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References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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External links
W New York Union Square Marriott website
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{{National Register of Historic Places in New York
Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City
Hotels established in 2000
Hotels in Manhattan
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
Office buildings completed in 1911
Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
Union Square, Manhattan
New York Union Square