Thompson Central Park New York Hotel

 hotel, skyscraper, 1981_construction, postmodern (architecture)

377-foot, 37-story modernist hotel, opened on March 13, 1981 as the Hotel Parker Meridien. Designed by Philip Birnbaum & Associates and Brodsky, Hopf and Adler, it is faced in concrete, brick, and glass. The main slab of the hotel is on 56th Street, with a narrow through-block arcade extending to 57th Street, which serves as a main entrance. This narrow, 4-story facade is clad in limestone, with a stained-glass skylight-topped atrium and 2-story colonnade along the inside. The glass revolving doors at the ground floor are covered by a metal marquee, and the north-facing walls inside are deeply-recessed, with plate-glass windows between limestone spandrels. Two projecting flagpoles are mounted at the 3rd level, and at the top is a round-arch, surmounted by a triangular pediment.

The pedestrian arcade exits at the center of the main tower's south facade on 56th Street, with a glass revolving door flanked by two traditional glass doors below a large plate-glass window. The west half of the 2-story base here is clad in dark-grey, rough-faced and rusticated stone, while the east half is grey-painted concrete. Directly to the right of the south entrance to the through-block arcade is a glass-and-metal door for a retail space, with a tall black metal panel above it, occupied by Drybar. To the west is the projecting main entrance on 56th Street, with a glass wall recessed behind the projecting stone frame, having a glass revolving door behind sliding glass doors, all below large plate-glass windows. Two pairs of projecting flagpoles are mounted above the entrance. There is a black metal-and-glass restaurant storefront at the west end, with a sloped black canvas awning below the 2nd floor's large plate-glass windows. The east half of the base has two service entrances flanking a loading dock, and an entrance/exit to the underground parking garage at the east end.

The upper floors of the south and north facades have light-grey brick piers dividing 16 bays of windows (all double-windows, except for two bays of triple-windows on each side - next to the end bays, and next to the four center bays). Light-grey concrete spandrels separate the floors within each bay. The smaller east and west facades are clad in brick with exposed concrete floor plates, and three bays of small, square windows at the middle of the top eight floors below the 37th.

The 37th floor has ribbon bands of windows at both ends, interrupted by a tall mechanical penthouse rising from the center-north of the roof. There is a roof deck on top, with a glass solarium at the west end. The hotel has 726 guest rooms, and three restaurants: Norma's, Indian Accent, and Burger Joint.

The site was renamed Parker New York Hotel in 2018, and then Thompson Central Park New York Hotel in 2021.

www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/new-york/thompson-central-par...