The Maxwell Hotel (closed) (New York City, New York)

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211-foot, 19-story Spanish-Renaissance hotel completed in 1928. Designed by Emery Roth, it opened as the Hotel Montclair. It was later renamed the Belmont Plaza Hotel, then the Doral Inn Hotel, then the W New York Hotel in 1998, then The Maxwell in 2018. It closed permanently in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Above the base, the hotel was originally L-shaped; the northwest corner section was built up in the late 1940s up to the 4th floor, but with taller floorplates than the rest of the building (the top of the 4th floor corresponds with the 6th floor at the rest of the building. During the conversion to the W, this section was again extended, this time up to 10 floors. The Maxwell closed in 2020.

Along the Lexington Avenue frontage, the 2-story base is clad in limestone, with tan brick above. The south half has an arcade of seven double-height round-arches, behind which is recessed glass infill and doors. To either side is a bay with a plate-glass window at the ground floor, and a smaller window at the 2nd floor. The large ground-floor windows have stainless-steel lintels across the tops, and stainless-steel bases at the sidewalk, with planter boxes. The lintels match those on the nine bays at the north half of the facade, and the southern two also have the bases with planter boxes. Glass-and-metal canopies project out from each arch above the ground floor, joined by small glass panels where they extend out to the sidewalk. The piers have Corinthian capitals behind these joining glass panels. The hotel's original metal marquee was located at the top of the base, above the arches, supported by poles angling down from four carved stone elephants heads at the 3rd floor, whose trunks wrap around the poles. The elephants still remain, although one's trunk has broken off, as have some of the tusks. There are three projecting flagpoles near the center of the top of the base, and two larger flagpoles at the 3rd floor, just inside the position of the end arches.

The upper floors have seven bays of paired windows, with end bays of wider single-windows. A number of metal air-conditioning vents have been cut below some of the windows. At the 14th-15th floors, the end bays shift to paired windows separated by a 2-story, rounded pilaster. There is a band of five small arches below the 14th-floor end bays, and a segmental-arch capping the 15th-floor end bays. The middle bays set back above the 15th floor to a lower roof as well, with the piers extending up above the crenelated tops of the spandrels. There is a small, recessed 16th-17th-floor section, with two bays of tripartite windows flanking two middle bays of double-windows, and set farther back is the west-facing elevation of the top of the main tower section; on this facade is has a central round window flanked by a bay of paired windows on each side, and is capped by a corbelled parapet.

The north half of the west facade on the avenue, also nine bays wide, has smaller windows at the 2nd-floor end bays, with corbelled sills and bowing, crouching carved figures at the upper corners. The seven middle bays have larger windows that extend higher, into the brick cladding of the 3rd floor, where the piers also transition to brick. These window are topped by round-arches with tan cast-stone infill. The 3rd-4th floors have tall windows in each bay, slightly narrower in the end bays. At the 4th floor the end bays are topped by round-arches surmounted by three very small arched windows, rising above the shallow setback at the center bays. The newer 5th-10th floors are faced in beige pre-cast stone, with square windows. The 5th floor has six bays, between the extended end bays of the 4th floor. The 6th floor has eight bays, with a wider northern end bay that wraps around the corner. There is a small setback above this bay on the north side, so that the end bay on the 7th-8th floors is only half-width. Another setback at the north end and above the two end bays at each side of the west facade leaves four bays at the middle of the 9th floor, which then also sets back to the 10th floor. All of the windows on this north half of the facade has green glass, and the newer, upper windows have metal panels with vents built into them below the panes.

The south facade on 49th Street is symmetrical, with two 15th-story wings flanking a central tower that is recessed above the 2-story limestone base. The base is 11 bays wide, with four at each wing, and three spanning the center section. Between the piers, most of the bays have glass storefronts with panes of varying sizes, in seemingly random patterns. The eastern two bays have a restaurant entrance and service entrance. The middle two bays at each wing have 2-story round-arches like those on the west facade. The pier between the arches has a stylized capital with a carved female bust and gargoyle-like figures at the corners, and the edges of the arches are lined with intricate carvings of grapevines. At the 2nd floor within the arches, there is modern cast-stone infill with squared windows framed by slender, spiral colonnettes. The end bays of the wings have narrower windows at the 2nd floor, with corbelled sills and bowed, kneeling figures carved at the upper corners. The piers between the three center bays have stylized Corinthian capitals above the ground floor; the 2nd floor here was added during the conversion to the W New York, with white pre-cast concrete and three wide windows with various sized panes.

At the brick upper floors of the wings, there are paired windows in the middle bays, and larger single-windows in the end bays; the westernmost of the west paired window is bricked-in at each floor. The 14th-15th floors match those on the west facade, where the wings end. The set-back wall of the center section also has two bays of paired windows flanked by bays of wider single-windows, while the inward-facing sidewalls of the wings have a bay of paired windows at the back, and a bay of wider single-windows towards the front; the 14th-15th floor of the single-window bay matches the treatment of the other facades. Above the 15th floor the center tower has double-height, paired round-arches in the middle bays at the 16th-17th floors, separated by rounded columns. The end bays have very narrow paired windows, joined in double-height openings at the 16th-17th floors, and topped by medallions at the 18th floor. The center of the 18th floor has a large Spanish medallion, and the top of the central tower is capped by a crenelated parapet with a shield at the center.

On the north facade on 50th Street the 2-story base is again limestone. The ground floor has, from west to east, a plate-glass storefront bay, a double-width storefront bay, a narrower display-window bay, a second narrow bay and another wider storefront bay, a wide bay with metal service door flanked by windows, a narrow window bay, and a narrow end bay with a service door. The west end of the 2nd floor matches the north end of the west facade, with two tall bays topped by arches extending to the 3rd floor level, and flanking bays of smaller windows. The east side of the 2nd floor has five bays of paired windows with end bays of wider single-windows.

The newer upper floors at the four west bays have oversized windows at the 3rd-4th floors (the eastern 3rd-floor window is replaced by a black metal vent), and the end bays at the 4th floor match those on the north half of the west facade. Above a small setback the newer upper floors have three bays of windows, with the west one wrapping around the corner at the 6th floor, above which is a setback, with another above the 8th floor. The upper floors at the original, eastern section have five bays of paired windows flanked by end bays of wider single-windows. The east end bay has a deep setback above the 8th floor, and the next bay a shallower setback at the same level. These two bays continue in a series of setbacks. The other bays are capped at the 15th floor is the same manner as the other facades. There is another setback above the 16th floor, up to the lower roof at the 18th floor in the middle of the tower.

The south edge of the rear, east elevation has a bay of large single-windows, behind which are a couple bays of smaller single-windows. The hotel contained 689 guest rooms.