The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park Hotel (New York City, New York)

 hotel, skyscraper, condominiums, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

50 Central Park South
New York, NY 10019
(212) 308-9100
www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/nyccp-the-ritz-carlton-ne...

371-foot, 33-story Beaux-Arts hotel/residential building completed in 1930. Designed by Emery Roth, it opened as the St. Moritz Hotel. It was converted to a Ritz-Carlton property in 2002. It is clad in buff-colored brick above a 3-story limestone base, and with a crown of brown sandstone. The ground floor is more heavily rusticated than the other two floors of the base, and sits on a grey granite water table.

The north facade spans 11 bays, with a recessed, central main entrance at the ground floor. It has glass-and-metal double-doors and a transom below a suspended canopy of metal and frosted glass. The entry is flanked by a pair of wall lanterns. To the left is a single-window with a stone surround and three round-arched bays at the east end, with navy-blue canvas clamshell canopies; the first two have windows and the end bay has a pair of metal service doors. To the right of the entry is a bay with glass-and-metal double-doors to a boutique retail space, followed by three single-windows with stone surrounds. The doors and the two end bays also have navy-blue clamshell canopies. The ground floor is capped by a simple stone cornice.

The 2nd floor has a round-arch above the main entrance, with a window pane flanked by purple-grey marble panels; the arched is surmounted by a heraldic shield. All of the other bays on the 2nd & 3rd floors have windows in dark-grey metal framing, with small 2-piece transoms. This style of window continues on the upper floors. A pair of projecting flagpoles are mounted between the 2nd & 3rd floors, between the 3rd & 4th windows from each side. A broad band course caps the base, with paneled spandrels at each bay except for the end bays; the spandrels project out at the 3rd & 5th bay from each side, where they are carried by pairs of console brackets. Each of the spandrels has a central medallion with a carved head.

At the projecting bays, the 4th-floor windows also have rounded, Corinthian colonnettes flanking them, and are topped by shields between paired arches (each decorated with a rosette); the shields are flanked by ribbons, and the ends of these enframements are topped by small urns. The brick spandrels between the 5th & 6th floors have more oval shields of stone at alternating bays, flanked by small, simple, stone rectangles. The windows of the 6th floor also have dentiled sills. A pair of narrow string courses frame the space between the 6th & 7th floors; there are projecting stone panels with beveled edges (and featuring small, carved decoration at the center) on each of the bays that feature the projecting spandrels below at the 4th floor.

From the 7th-19th floors, the brick spandrels have vertical banding, except at the end bays. The seven middle bays have projecting, balustraded balconies at the 20th floor, each carried on a pair of brackets. The piers around these bays are framed by 2-story colonnettes on the 20th-21st floors, rising from bases at the ends of the balconies and ending in brackets to support projecting arches adorned with medallions at the top of the 21st floor. These form the transition to the asymmetrical massing of the top of the building that is quite complex. The end bays at the 21st floor have projecting stone balconies with balustrades, and there are exquisitely detailed carved panels lining the end bays at the 21st-22nd floors, as well as cartouches topping the 22nd-floor windows. The end bays at the 23rd floor have ogeed surrounds and broked pediments on top, which overlap the stone railings of the terraces created by a setback above the outer three bays of the 23rd floor.

The seven middle bays set back above the 21st floor, where they transform into five bays of larger double-windows. The three middle bays continue up to a setback above the 24th floor. Here the design begins to become asymmetrical, and the bays all revert to single-windows. At the west end there are two bays, setting back above the 26th floor, and on the east end there are three bays (projecting slightly from the middle bays), with the end bay setting back above the 24th floor, and all three setting back above the 26th. The middle bays, along with the end bays, have a full-floor setback above the 28th floor. At the east end, the bays combine to form a larger bay of three windows, while at the west end there is a narrow single-window, paired narrow windows, another single-window, and another pair of narrow windows. The center bay has a very narrow window at the 27th & 28th floors, and at the 28th floor there is a slightly-projecting stone surround, carried on two brackets, carved with elongated urns at the edges, and having two narrow arches flanking the narrow window, which itself is topped by an arch. Across the top is a large cartouche.

The 29th floor has two square-headed windows at the east end, and eight large round-arched windows to the west, separated into a group of five, and an end group of three. Short corbel courses top each of these windows, surmounted by balusters. At the 31st floor, the two end bays have a projecting, corbelled base for two blind arches between the windows. The windows are all square-headed on the 30th-32nd floors. The two eastern end bays are crowned by a tall parapet above a short dentil course, crenelated along the top. The five middle bays to the right are topped by a metal railing at the 32nd floor, and the west end bays extend up to an almost-windowless 33rd floor, pierced only by a square window set within a large stone medallion. Above a corbel course, this east section has a short roof of red tile, crowned by an 8-sided tower (with shorter corner facets) that is itself topped by a sloping red tile roof with s small globe at the peak. This tower has a set of paired, narrow round-arched windows on each main facet, and engaged urns at the corners.

The design of the west facade on the avenue is very similar to the north facade, but spanning only 10 bays, and with some other differences at the top floors. The ground floor has four wide storefronts bays, with a narrower storefront entrance at the north, and service doors at the south end. The 4th floor has only two of the projecting spandrel-colonnette elements.

The south elevation is brick, with windows beginning at the 14th floor, interrupted by a light well at the center. The section to the west of the light well has, from the 14th-20th floor, a bay of single-windows at the end, followed by a bay of small bathroom windows, a bay of wider single-windows, and another bay of smaller single-windows. From the 21st floor, the end bay and wider single-window bay continue, also joined to the east by a bay of double-windows. The end bays terminates at a 24th-floor setback, and above the 26th floor, the other bays shift to two bays of larger windows. The section to the east of the light well has four bays of windows, the eastern two being wider. The western two end at the 22nd floor, and there is a setback at the this end above the 24th floor. The rear wall of the light well has three bays of large windows, and the side walls have four bays.

The east elevation is also plain, with three bays of single-windows at the south, beginning at the 22nd floor; another bay to the north begins at the 24th floor, and the 24th-25th floors also have two window at the north end. A band course above the 29th floor is the only decoration, above which there is also a bay of wider windows at the north end. The crenelated parapet from the east end of the north facade continues about halfway across the top of the east elevation as well.

The hotel has 259 guest rooms, including 47 suites, and condominiums known as The Residences at the Ritz Carlton are on the top 12 floors of the building. On the interior were a series of murals by Ruth Seelig who was a noted neo-expressionist painter. The ground floor at the west end is occupied by The Boutiques at 50 Central Park South, consisting of Franck Muller, and Contour, with La Prairie Spa on the 2nd floor.