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Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel

Coordinates: 40°45′45″N 73°58′54″W / 40.7625°N 73.9817°W / 40.7625; -73.9817
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Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel
Map
Hotel chainSheraton Hotels and Resorts
General information
LocationNew York, NY
Address811 Seventh Avenue
Coordinates40°45′45″N 73°58′54″W / 40.7625°N 73.9817°W / 40.7625; -73.9817
OpeningSeptember 25, 1962
OwnerHost Hotels & Resorts[1]
ManagementSheraton Hotels and Resorts
Height152.7 m (501 ft)
Technical details
Floor count51
Floor area16,598 m2 (178,660 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s)Morris Lapidus & Associates
Kornblath, Harle & Liebman
Other information
Number of rooms1,750
Website
www.sheratonnewyork.com
[2][3][4][5]

The Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel is a 152.7 m (501 ft), 51-story hotel located in New York City near Times Square. It faces 7th Avenue, West 52nd Street, and West 53rd Street. It is one of the world's top 100 tallest hotels, and one of the tallest hotels in New York City.

History

The 2000-room hotel opened on September 25, 1962,[6] as the Americana of New York. It was constructed by brothers Laurence Tisch and Preston Tisch,[7] co-owners of the Loews Corporation[8] and was the first over 1,000-room hotel to be built in New York since the Waldorf Astoria in 1931.[9] With 51 floors reaching up to 152.7 m (501 ft), it was acclaimed for many years in its advertising and by the media as the tallest hotel in the world,[10] based on the number and height of its inhabited floors [11] (though the spire of the 1957 Hotel Ukraina in Moscow was taller). The Americana was built, along with the New York Hilton facing Sixth Avenue on the next block, to serve the huge number of tourists that the 1964 New York World's Fair would bring, as well as the business and convention market. Architect Morris Lapidus was the original designer of both hotels, but new owners of the Hilton project objected and Lapidus chose to resign from that project. The hotel was also marketed as Loews Americana of New York.

The 1963 Tony Awards were held in the hotel's Imperial Ballroom on April 28, 1963.[12] In 1965, portions of the French movie Gendarme in New York, starring Louis de Funès, were filmed at the Americana. On May 14, 1968, John Lennon and Paul McCartney held a press conference at the Americana to announce the formation of Apple Corps, their music label.[13] The Americana also hosted the New York portion of the 1967 and 1968 Emmy Awards. The hotel's supper club, The Royal Box, hosted performances by musical legends including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald,Julie London and Peggy Lee.[14] In 1971, a scene in The Godfather was filmed in a suite at the Americana.[15]

On July 21, 1972, American Airlines leased the Americana of New York from Loews, as well as the City Squire Motor Inn across the street, and the Americana Hotels in Bal Harbour, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a period of thirty years. American merged the hotels with their existing Sky Chefs Hotels chain, and marketed all the properties under the Americana Hotels brand.[16] The Americana hosted the 1974 NFL Draft[17] and served as Democratic headquarters for the 1976 Democratic National Convention and 1980 Democratic National Convention.[18]

The Americana of New York and the City Squire were sold to a partnership of Sheraton Hotels and the Equitable Life Assurance Society[18] on January 24, 1979.[19] The Americana was renamed the Sheraton Centre Hotel & Towers.[20] Sheraton bought out Equitable's share in the hotel in 1990, freeing them to undertake a nearly $200 million renovation in 1991,[18] when the hotel was renamed the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Lehman Brothers' Investment Banking division temporarily converted the first-floor lounges, restaurants, and 665 guestrooms of the hotel into office space.[21][22] Starwood Hotels (which had bought Sheraton in 1998) sold the hotel, along with 37 other properties, to Host Marriott for $4 Billion on November 14, 2005.[23] The hotel continued to be managed by Sheraton, however, and was again renovated from 2011-2012, at a cost of $180 million,[24] with the name shortened to Sheraton New York Hotel in 2012[25] and then changed to Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel in 2013.[26]

Design

The hotel was built with a two-story podium originally containing the lobby, five restaurants, ten ballrooms and a large convention hall, and "an acre of kitchens", with the hotel rooms in narrow slabs above. To achieve this, Lapidus employed three structural systems: Floors 1 through 5 are steel-concrete composite columns, floors 5 through 29 are concrete shear walls, and 29 to 51 reinforced concrete columns. At the time of its completion, the building was the tallest concrete-framed structure in the city.[citation needed]

The main block of accommodation is a tall thin bent slab form, angled towards the 52nd Street corner, emphasized by the horizontal striped facade of strip windows and yellow glazed brick spandrels. On the north side facing Sixth Avenue, a lower 25-story wing is placed at right angles to the bent slab, and so at a slight angle to the street, and includes the entrance and lobby in a two-story podium.

The dominant feature at ground level is the two story circular rotunda projecting from under the end of the bent wing on the 52nd street corner. An image of the hotel in the 1960s can be found in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York here.[27]

The sidewalk on all sides originally had striped paving at the slight angle of the entry and bent wing, effectively turning the Seventh Avenue sidewalk into a forecourt for the hotel.

The facades of the accommodation blocks are generally intact, but the podium levels were reclad in the 1991 renovation, replacing the varied, light 1960s details with Postmodern squared granite.

References

  1. ^ https://www.hosthotels.com/our-portfolio/portfolio-overview
  2. ^ "Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel". CTBUH Skyscraper Center.
  3. ^ Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel at Emporis
  4. ^ "Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel". SkyscraperPage.
  5. ^ Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel at Structurae
  6. ^ PHILIP BENJAMIN (September 25, 1962). "AMERICANA OPENS; PUBLIC SWARMS IN; Thousands Inspect Interior as Hotel Is Dedicated". The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  7. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ MARYLIN BENDER (February 18, 1973). "Loews and Its 'Mutual Fund'". The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  9. ^ MCCANDLISH PHILLIPS (September 24, 1962). "AMERICANA HOTEL WILL OPEN TODAY; 50-Story Structure Is First of 1,000 Rooms or More Built Here Since '31 SPELLMAN TO BLESS IT Ballroom, Largest in City, to Seat 3,000-Oak, Marble and Teak Used in Decor AMERICANA HOTEL WILL OPEN TODAY". The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  10. ^ DOUGLAS MARTIN (November 16, 2005). "Preston Robert Tisch, Owner of Loews Hotels and Giants, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  11. ^ "Worlds Tallest Hotel Americana". British Pathé. September 24, 2012. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  12. ^ https://medium.com/@ronfassler/the-1963-tony-awards-861ae61cc3ac
  13. ^ "Apple's American Debut – The Original 1968 Press Kit". Beatle.net. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  14. ^ "Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel - New York | SPG". Sheratonnewyork.com. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  15. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 23, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. ^ ROBERT E. BEDINGFIELD (July 21, 1972). "American Airlines in Loews Hotel Pact". The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  17. ^ Kantowski, Ron (May 5, 2014). "Steelers' 1974 draft defines greatest single-team haul". Las Vegas Review-Journal.
  18. ^ a b c DAVID W. DUNLAP (April 28, 1991). "Commercial Property: Manhattan Hotels; Redoing the Sheratons for the Convention and After". The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  19. ^ CARTER B. HORSLEY (January 25, 1979). "Continental Corp. Plans to Build 35‐Story Skyscraper Downtown". The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  20. ^ "The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana on February 18, 1979 · Page 144". Newspapers.com. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  21. ^ WISE, MONIQUE; LAKE, MARK (September 19, 2001). "Lehman Bros. Sets Up Offices in Hotel". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  22. ^ "Lehman Checks Into Sheraton - New York Daily News". May 14, 2012. Archived from the original on May 14, 2012. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  23. ^ "Host Marriott To Buy 38 Hotels". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  24. ^ "Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel - New York | SPG". Sheratonnewyork.com. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  25. ^ "Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel - New York | SPG". Sheratonnewyork.com. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  26. ^ Hotel News Resource (May 6, 2013). "Major Renovation Programs Announced for Starwood New York Properties". Hotelnewsresource.com. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  27. ^ http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWL0CLHNJ&SMLS=1&RW=1282&RH=716
Preceded by
Belmont Plaza Hotel
 Venues of the
NFL Draft
1973-1974 		Succeeded by
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