"Architect returned to design the bigger, grander Astoria, a task he fulfilled with considerable aplomb. Rising to a height of 18 stories and stretching 350 along West Thirty-fourth Street, it reduced the neighboring Waldorf to the status of poor relation. A mammoth cliff of dark red brick topped by a three-story , the new Astoria dominated the view for blocks up and down , its sheer magnitude setting a new standard for grand hotels of the coming century."