Plaza Hotel

"There were few finer views in New York at mid-century than the panorama from 's second-floor corner suite at the Plaza Hotel. Beyond its tall arched windows facing and , the city's premier green space, , stretched north in one unbroken 843-acre swath. Along the east side of the park stood prestigious residences and great cultural institutions, including the , the , and "," once home to a procession of opulent turn-of-the-century mansions built by some of New York's wealthiest families. To the south, fashionable department stores, and chic shops marched toward midtown. Thirty blocks to the north on Fifth Avenue, between East Eighty-Eighth and East s, stood the site upon which the would soon begin to rise. Stunning views aside, the Plaza was an ideal location for Wright's Manhattan home base. The hotel's peerless address and tradition of excellence were well suited his rarified personal tastes and exacting standards. Above all, the Plaza was regarded by many as the finest hotel in a city of splendid hotels, and Wright had great affection for the building."

"Work on the original Plaza Hotel began in 1883 using plans drawn up by architect George W. DeCunha. The builders ran out of money prior to completion. In 1888, foreclosed and brought in to redesign the interior. The eight story, 400 room Plaza opened in the fall of 1890 ... The demise of the "old" Plaza was decreed at the one afternoon over lunch. ... The old hotel had too few rooms to generate sufficient cash flow. ... New York architect, , was retained to design the "new" Plaza Hotel. He opted for the new steel skeleton technology that had been used earlier by , the hotel's co-owner, when he built the . The eighteen-story brick and marble French Renaissance-style Plaza Hotel cost over $12.5 million. The hotel had eight hundred rooms and five hundred baths when it opened in the fall of 1907. It had centrally controlled electric clocks and telephones in every room. The public area had crystal chandeliers, marble fireplaces and staircases, and no end of elegant appointments."

"... Growing up in New York, with s at the Plaza from a very early age, my appreciation of the past and even my feeling for New York is undoubtedly conditioned by associations with that solid structure. I did not learn until years after those teas that the architect was and the date of its construction 1907, and that it was a high point of , inside and out. ... Although it is an official New York City landmark, the has jurisdiction only over what happens to its exterior. What is going on inside, where the interiors were of a piece, or to be more elegant, de l'epoque, is a kind of creeping, crawling bad taste in which even the authentic is being made to look fake. Through atrociously ill‐advised remodeling, touted as the hotel's entry into the 1970's, the Plaza is being adulterated to look and feel like any number of other older big city hotels of residual grandeur, cheapened with tricksy restaurants full of familiar and rather loathesome design gimmicks and arch menus and publicity to match."

"In its eighty-plus years, the Plaza has had seven owners. The United States Realty and Improvement Company, whose construction subsidiary built it, owned it until 1943. then ran it until 1953. The Boston industrialist owned it up to 1958; then , a New York lawyer and realty investor, had it fleetingly before Sonnabend repurchased it. The ... took over the hotel in 1975 ... A partnership made of the of , and the bought it in January 1988 for about $300 million but barely had time to take a get-acquainted tour of the place before agreeing to sell it for a quick and handsome profit to the casino operator and real estate wheeler-dealer , who paid a rather exorbitant $390 million."

"Originally built in 1907 and added to in 1921, the Plaza Hotel has long been one of the most famous hotels in the city. The 20-floor building rises 280 high. With its addition, it has 1,098 guest rooms and 12 elevators. ... the Plaza is located on between Fifty-eighth and s at the , adjacent to the southeast corner of . It was designed by , who also created the famous on where lived. The Plaza Hotel has been seen in numerous movies and is the setting of the famous Eloise series of children's books. It was recently renovated and turned into a combination hotel/residential space."

"This new 18-story Plaza was indeed a skyscraper. Like the new 42-story when in was built at and in 1931. The Plaza offered unobstructed views of both the and s. From the top of its you had a wonderful view on clear moonlit nights of the torch of the far to the South in ."

"The oft-married American actress , who became a household name in the 1890s for her delightful performances at “Lady Teazle” and other musical comedies of the day, was frequently a luncheon guest of at the Plaza. But she didn't come alone. She wheeled up to the hotel's steps on her diamond-studded bicycle which a few years earlier had helps her shed nearly 30 pounds of her ample girth. She usually left her bejeweled bicycle with the doorman, who put it behind lock and key in a luggage room to the right of the entrance."