Waldorf Astoria New York (closed) (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / Park Avenue, 301

hotel, skyscraper, condominiums, interesting place, Art Deco (architecture), movie / film / TV location, historic landmark, 1931_construction, historic remains

Closed in 2017 for extensive renovations and conversion of most of the building to condos. Reopening has reportedly been pushed back to at least 2025.

625-foot, 47-story Art-Deco hotel/residential building completed in 1931 for Lucius M. Boomer. Designed by Schultze & Weaver with decoration by Louis Rigal, it was actually the second hotel to bear the Waldorf Astoria name. The first Waldorf Astoria, on Fifth Avenue, was torn down to make way for the Empire State Building.

The 3-story ballroom was the largest in the world when it was built, and the combined ballrooms could hold 6,000 guests. 80 percent of the building site, which takes up the entire block between Park and Lexington Avenues and East 48th and East 49th Streets, is supported on steel pylons. It was the world's tallest hotel until 1963, when it was surpassed by Moscow's Hotel Ukraine. The Waldorf Astoria was the first hotel to offer room service.

The building's massing is arranged as 20-story slabs with set-backs on Park and Lexington Avenues, with a tower rising to twin peaks sandwiched between the slabs. The lower floors are faced in grey limestone, with the upper floors in a matching grey brick. The modernistic twin-tower massing of the building is emphasized by the verticality of its bays of recessed windows and spandrels.

Chief among the building's applied ornament are the abstract geometric patterns in the spandrels, in three patterns alternating across the facades on Park and Lexington Avenues. The other major ornamental detail is to be found on such decorative bronze work on all the building's facades as marquees, lanterns, flag-pole bases in the shape of eagles, storefront and window trim, stylized figures and floral motifs in the door surrounds, and an enormous geometrically patterned metal screen over the central windows on the avenue facades. The hotel is identified on both the Park and Lexington Avenue facades by gilded letters spelling out its name; on Park Avenue the letters are framed by gilded reliefs of classically-inspired figures. Triple metal marquees cover the three entry bays on both the Park and Lexington Avenue sides.

The interiors contain some of the most significant Art Deco designs in the city. The third floor contains the Basildon Room, which has colorful wall and ceiling panels acquired/salvaged from an 18th century British mansion. In the main lobby is a gilded clock which was a gift from Queen Victoria to America that made its debut at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893. Additionally, a set of English suites were designed by Barton, Price & Willson in 1930.

The iconic Peacock Alley lobby, interior stairwell, and one of the suites was used as an interior filming location for S1E1 of the USA Network series "Suits" when Mike Ross is interviewing for Pierson Spector as a getaway from a drug sting. As the pilot episode was shot on location in New York rather than in Canada, it used New York buildings.

In 1981, the building was restored by Kenneth E. Hurd & Associates. The hotel was closed in March of 2017 for conversion of most of the rooms to condominiums.

s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1812.pdf
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2591.pdf
archive.org/details/artdeconewyork0000lowe/page/41/mode...
usmodernist.org/AM/AM-1931-11.pdf
archive.org/details/artsdecoration3435newy/page/n505/mo...