New York Hilton Midtown (New York City, New York)
USA /
New Jersey /
West New York /
New York City, New York /
Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), 1335
World
/ USA
/ New Jersey
/ West New York
World / United States / New York
hotel, skyscraper, 1963_construction
487-foot, 47-story modernist hotel completed in 1963. Designed by William B. Tabler and Harrison & Abramovitz, it has the form of a 42-story slab rising toward the north side of a 4-story base extending to the streets. At 1,929 rooms and over 150,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, the hotel is the largest Hilton in the continental U.S.
The main facade is clad in blue-tinted glass and aluminum, and the vertical window shafts are projecting out from the wall in a series of facets zigzagging through the facade. The slab tower spans a total of 30 such angled bays along the north and south elevations. The much narrower ends of the tower are clad in limestone, with only a bay of single-windows and metal spandrels at each end.
The base is also clad mostly in limestone. The east facade is divided into five large bays, with a driveway in the middle bay, underneath the base leading to the hotel's very deeply recessed main entrance. The other bays have glass storefronts at the ground floor. The upper floors of the base have pre-cast concrete infill at the middle and end bays, with a large, blue Hilton logo in the center of the middle bay. The other two bays have dark-tinted glass curtain walls above the ground floor. Cylindrical stainless-steel light fixtures with white striping adorn the piers at the top of the ground floor and the top of the base.
The north and south facades of the base span 17 bays (with an extra half-bay at the west end on 53rd Street), each with infill of glass divided into very narrow panes by projecting concrete fins. Near the west end is a driveway to the hotel's garage and motor lobby, in the 3rd & 4th bays from the west. The two west end bays have loading docks. Secondary hotel entrances are located in the 6th bays from the west and 5th bays from the east on 54th Street, and in the 7th bay from the east on 53rd Street, with glass doors and grey metal canopies. For most of the rest of these facades, the ground floor has polished grey granite piers with a black granite water table, with several plate-glass storefronts. Among the occupants are Bluemercury cosmetics, La Mode Royale boutique, Spice hair salon, Bridges Bar, and Herb N' Kitchen restaurant.
The hotel originally opened with 2,153 guest rooms; a 1990 renovation decreased the number of guest rooms to 1,980. The property underwent further renovations in 1991–1994 and a $100 million renovation in 1998–2000 that included a complete overhaul of the lobby, the addition of an 8,000-square-foot Precor USA Fitness Center on the fifth floor. Around that time the name was changed to Hilton New York. In 2007, the hotel completed its fourth renovation. It now has 47 suites on floors 42 through 44. In 2013, the hotel was renamed the New York Hilton Midtown in honor of its 50th anniversary.
The project was developed by Hilton Hotels Corporation, the Rockefeller Group, and the Uris Building Corporation. The original architect was Morris Lapidus and he proposed to build a curved Fontainebleau Hotel-style building. However, Lapidus had to withdraw since he was also designing the competing Americana Hotel (now the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers) a block away. William B. Tabler was then tapped to finish the project and he designed it as a slab.
On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper made the world's first handheld cellular phone call in public when he called Joel S. Engel at the hotel with a 2-pound Motorola DynaTAC phone. Cooper, a Motorola inventor called his rival at Bell Labs to tell him about the invention. The cell phone base station was next door atop the Burlington House.
www.newyorkhiltonhotel.com/
The main facade is clad in blue-tinted glass and aluminum, and the vertical window shafts are projecting out from the wall in a series of facets zigzagging through the facade. The slab tower spans a total of 30 such angled bays along the north and south elevations. The much narrower ends of the tower are clad in limestone, with only a bay of single-windows and metal spandrels at each end.
The base is also clad mostly in limestone. The east facade is divided into five large bays, with a driveway in the middle bay, underneath the base leading to the hotel's very deeply recessed main entrance. The other bays have glass storefronts at the ground floor. The upper floors of the base have pre-cast concrete infill at the middle and end bays, with a large, blue Hilton logo in the center of the middle bay. The other two bays have dark-tinted glass curtain walls above the ground floor. Cylindrical stainless-steel light fixtures with white striping adorn the piers at the top of the ground floor and the top of the base.
The north and south facades of the base span 17 bays (with an extra half-bay at the west end on 53rd Street), each with infill of glass divided into very narrow panes by projecting concrete fins. Near the west end is a driveway to the hotel's garage and motor lobby, in the 3rd & 4th bays from the west. The two west end bays have loading docks. Secondary hotel entrances are located in the 6th bays from the west and 5th bays from the east on 54th Street, and in the 7th bay from the east on 53rd Street, with glass doors and grey metal canopies. For most of the rest of these facades, the ground floor has polished grey granite piers with a black granite water table, with several plate-glass storefronts. Among the occupants are Bluemercury cosmetics, La Mode Royale boutique, Spice hair salon, Bridges Bar, and Herb N' Kitchen restaurant.
The hotel originally opened with 2,153 guest rooms; a 1990 renovation decreased the number of guest rooms to 1,980. The property underwent further renovations in 1991–1994 and a $100 million renovation in 1998–2000 that included a complete overhaul of the lobby, the addition of an 8,000-square-foot Precor USA Fitness Center on the fifth floor. Around that time the name was changed to Hilton New York. In 2007, the hotel completed its fourth renovation. It now has 47 suites on floors 42 through 44. In 2013, the hotel was renamed the New York Hilton Midtown in honor of its 50th anniversary.
The project was developed by Hilton Hotels Corporation, the Rockefeller Group, and the Uris Building Corporation. The original architect was Morris Lapidus and he proposed to build a curved Fontainebleau Hotel-style building. However, Lapidus had to withdraw since he was also designing the competing Americana Hotel (now the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers) a block away. William B. Tabler was then tapped to finish the project and he designed it as a slab.
On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper made the world's first handheld cellular phone call in public when he called Joel S. Engel at the hotel with a 2-pound Motorola DynaTAC phone. Cooper, a Motorola inventor called his rival at Bell Labs to tell him about the invention. The cell phone base station was next door atop the Burlington House.
www.newyorkhiltonhotel.com/
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Hilton_Midtown
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 40°45'44"N 73°58'46"W
- Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel 0.2 km
- The Plaza 0.5 km
- The Ambassador Hotel 0.7 km
- New York Marriott Marquis Hotel 0.7 km
- Mandarin Oriental 0.8 km
- Waldorf Astoria New York 0.8 km
- The Towers of the Waldorf Astoria New York 0.8 km
- Grand Hyatt New York 1.1 km
- Hotel Pennsylvania site 1.7 km
- The William Vale Hotel 4.8 km
- Midtown (North Central) 0.6 km
- Theatre District 0.6 km
- Times Square Area 0.7 km
- Turtle Bay 1.2 km
- Hell's Kitchen (Clinton) 1.2 km
- Midtown (Manhattan, NY) 1.5 km
- Manhattan 2.2 km
- Hudson County, New Jersey 8.6 km
- Queens 15 km
- The Palisades 22 km
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