The Westin New York Grand Central (New York City, New York)

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384-foot, 41-story modernist hotel completed in 1981 as the New York Harley Hotel. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons for Harry and Leona Helmsley, it was one of several hotels built for the Helmsleys. The name Harley was taken from the first 3 letters of Harry and the first two letters of his wife’s name Leona; they were married in 1972 and Leona named president of the hotel in 1980, while this building was under construction. In 1989 Leona Helmsley is indicted for tax fraud. She was imprisoned from 1992-1993. Harry Helmsley died in 1997, leaving entire estate to Leona. The hotel became the New York Helmsley Hotel following the sale of the Harley Hotel chain in 1998. It was sold to Host Hotels & Resorts in 2011, following Leona Helmsley's death in 2007. It was subsequently renovated and re-branded as a Westin hotel in 2012.

The rear of the hotel is set back from 41st Street, opening onto a courtyard landscape with trees and shrubs; a series of low steps and ramps lead to the glass-enclosed ground floor's entry. Like the front facade on 42nd Street, the 2nd-3rd floors of the base project out over the ground floor, supported by round metal-plated columns. These floors have a curtain wall of brown glass, topped by a sloping 4th floor that angles in toward the facade of the upper floors. The main entrance also features a metal-and-glass marquee, flanked by two projecting flagpoles. The eastern three bays are much more deeply recessed than the western two.

The upper tower is L-shaped, with the north facade spanning four bays, while the south facade is broken into a 3-bay east section and a further-recessed west section of two bays. The bays are divided by white brick piers, and pairs of joined tripartite windows with black metal mullions; black metal spandrels separate the floors between within each bay. The north facade and the east section of the south facade have chamfered corners.

The west elevation is faced in concrete, with a grey-brick-clad connecting section at the middle attaching to the neighboring Lorillard Building; this section has one bay of narrow windows at the west end. The west-facing wall of the south facade's further-south-projecting east section is also faced in concrete, with a vertical band of single-windows.

The east facade, overlooking a public plaza and walkway between 41st & 42nd Streets, has a central bay of paired tripartite windows, framed by concrete end bays. Both of these have beveled inner edges, lined with single-windows up to the 19th floor. Above the 19th floor, both bands have a bay of single-windows running up their centers to the roof line.

The hotel contains 775 guest rooms and a ground-floor restaurant. An entrance to the underground parking garage is located in the eastern bay on 41st Street.

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