Crowne Plaza Times Square Hotel (New York City, New York)

 hotel, skyscraper, 1989_construction

480-foot, 46-story modernist hotel completed in 1989. Designed by Alan Lapidus Architects, it is clad in purple/bronze-tinted glass and pre-cast concrete. The main entrance is at the center of the east facade facing Broadway., recessed between beveled concrete wings of the base on either side. It consists of a grand, 7-story concrete round-arch with glass infill. At the bottom half of the arch is a projecting glass section with a slanted roof. In 2010 a storefront was built out in front of most of the glass projection, out to the front edges of the base at the ground floor. An opening at the south end of the recessed area remains, leading back to the entry doors, covered by a long, narrow, metal canopy. Above a metal band capping the storefront and canopy is a 3-story open framework of grey metal-paneled beams, with a screen above the storefront that includes a video board.

To the north of the entrance is a 2-story storefront of metal, stone, and glass extending to the northeast corner and then along most of the north facade. The ground floor has show-windows, and the 2nd floor has a band of dark-tinted windows. Above, the top floors of the base are covered by a long billboard that curves around the northeast corner, set back from the north end of the storefronts.

There is a small, 4-story connecting section on the south facade between the commercial space and the hotel. It is clad in brown granite, with a deeply-recessed entrance and no openings above the ground floor. Silver metal numbers above the entrance give the address of 1605 and a metal sign reads "American Management Association International". The main south facade of the hotel base is clad in lighter colored brown granite and has two large bays with entrance and exits for the motor lobby and parking garage, and two small loading docks. There is a recessed round-arch of metal and glass centered above one of the vehicle entry bays, with the rest of the base faced in a black metal screen, except for a band of granite across the top.

On the north facade there is a single vehicle entrance bay at the west end, where the base rises up from two to three floors, topped by another recessed metal and glass round-arch. The main tower is set back behind the base on the north, south, and east sides. On the north there is a 7-story wall of brown granite above the vehicle bay with a row of black metal vents near its bottom and a band of windows near the top. At the northeast corner of the tower is a projecting 7-story section with a rounded corner, faced in a grid of metal framing with square concrete panels and a few bands of windows.

The tower is L-shaped, with a slim wing oriented north-south, and a wider section at the north end. The north- and east-facing facades have curtain walls of glass projecting out from concrete ends, with rounded glass corners at the southeast, northeast, and northwest. The south- and west-facing inner faces of the "L" also have flat glass curtain walls, above a large setback above the 15th floor. The narrow west elevation at the north side of the building is concrete with a single narrow bay of windows. On the east facade, above the main entrance's grand arch, is a wide sign with glittering red lights behind metal lettering reading "CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL".

The hotel contains 950 guest rooms. The lobby area houses both Brasserie 1605 – an upscale full-service restaurant – and Broadway 49 Bar & Lounge. The New York Sports Club located on the 15th floor is one of the largest hotel-based fitness facilities in the city. The storefront in front of the entrance and around the southeast corner is occupied by a very large Krispy Kreme donuts, and those at the north end of the building by I (Heart) NY Gifts.

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