Park Central Hotel (New York City, New York)

 hotel, 1927_construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture)

358-foot, 31-story Renaissance-revival hotel completed in 1927. Designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag with decoration by J. Scott Williams, it opened as the Park Central Hotel, later becoming the Park Sheraton and the Omni Park Central before resuming its original name. Its famous guests have included Eleanor Roosevelt (1949-53, 1958), columnist Walter Winchell, filmmaker D.W. Griffith (1935), boxer Joe Louis, actor Jackie Gleason (who shot some Honeymooners scenes here) and actress Mae West. Two of New York City's most famous mob hits occurred here: Gambler Arnold Rothstein was fatally shot here November 4, 1928, and hitman-turned-capo Albert Anastasia was shot to death in the barber shop here October 25, 1957.

A part of the hotel building, with their own separate lobbies and entrances, are a pair of luxury serviced apartment suites hotel called WestHouse (on 55th Street) and The Manhattan Club (on 56th Street). Both of the timeshare hotels were converted from space in the original hotel. The Manhattan Club opened in 1996, and the WestHouse opened in 2013.

The building is clad in dark-brown brick above a 3-story base. The ground floor is clad in pinkish-grey rusticated granite (painted white at the four bays on 55th Street west of the WestHouse entrance) above a black polished granite water table, and the upper two floors of the base are beige marble. The building has an H-plan above the base, with large light wells on the east and west sides.

The east facade on 7th Avenue is 16 bays wide, with the hotel's main entrances in the center four bays (the middle two have revolving doors and the other two have traditional glass double-doors). These are all covered by a broadly-projecting, suspended brown metal marquee. The rest of the bays have plate-glass storefronts with modern styled light fixtures mounted on the piers between them. A stone cornice caps the ground floor at the five outer bays on each side. At the 2nd floor the middle six bays have round-arches, each containing a pair of narrow round-arched windows. These are separated by slender colonnettes with Corinthian capitals, with small medallions centered above and between the window arches, below the main arches. The main arches are divided by short, rounded columns with large Corinthian capitals, and bands of dentils line the upper sweep of each arch. The outer bays also have paired round-arched windows separated by the same colonnettes, but they are topped in alternating fashion by either dentiled arches with medallions like those at the center, only smaller - or simple paired and arched dentil bands over the windows. There are no openings at the 3rd floor in the middle section. The outer bays have square-headed single-windows with dentiled sills alternating with small, square bas-reliefs panels of owls, squirrels, pelicans, bears, deer, and sea lions. A stone cornice caps the base, with dentil bands at the outer bays. In the middle, a pair of flagpoles projects from the front of the light well.

On the north facade on 56th Street there are eight lighted, bronze poster boxes at the east end of the ground floor, with the last one separated by a bronze service door. To the right is The Manhattan Club entrance, with two large bronze columns separating a central revolving door from the traditional glass-and-bronze doors at the sides, all covered by a bronze canopy. The west end of the ground floor has two more poster boxes and a recessed bay with metal service doors. The 2nd & 3rd floors have 15 bays. The alternating pattern of paired round-arch windows on the 2nd floor, and square-headed windows with animal bas-relief panels on the 3rd floor continues from the east facade.

The south facade's ground floor on 55th Street has no openings at the east end, where it is painted grey. To the left is the entrance to the WestHouse Hotel, with a sleek black metal-and-glass revolving door next to a traditional door, below a gleaming stainless-steel canopy. The four bays to the west have black metal-framed glass, with a glass door and two windows in the first bay, and four windows each in the next three; the spaces between each bay have an elegant light fixture. The narrower, far west end bay is not painted, and has a freight entrance. The 2nd & 3rd floors match the north facade, also 15 bays wide, but with two projecting flagpoles at the 2nd floor flanking the entrance.

On the upper floors of the east facade, the two wings created by the light well span five bays, with brick piers alternating with single-windows in the end bays and double-windows in the middle bays; beige metal spandrel panels separate the floors within each bay, and each bay is lined with thin black metal mullions. The inward-facing side walls of the wings have five bays of single-windows, and the rear wall of the light well has eight bays, with double-windows in the middle and single-windows at the end bays. The end bays of both wings set back above the 20th floor, and above the 22nd floor at the middle bays and inward-facing side walls. Each setback is marked by a projecting, corbeled stone cornice. The wings are capped by sloped copper roofs at the 25th floor, topped by 2-story further-setback portions that are capped by their own copper roofs at the 27th floor, ending the wings. At the rear wall of the light well, the 24th floor is topped by segmental-arches at the double-window bays; the end bays terminate one floor higher. The 27th floor has paired round-arched windows, and the 28th floor has double-windows. The 29th floor has smaller paired square-headed windows, and the 30th floor has smaller paired round-arched windows. The 31st floor has square single-windows and is topped by a large corbeled cornice. There is a short attic level above the cornice, with the central tower crowned by a sloped copper roof.

The Park Central hotel contains 934 guest rooms. The WestHouse has 172 bedrooms and suites, and The Manhattan Club another 266 suites. Besides the lobby spaces, the ground floor is occupied by a Starbucks coffee, a gift shop, Fancy Apple Bike & Scooter Rental, and Glosslab Nail Salon.

www.parkcentralny.com/
hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015086699306?urlappend=%3Bseq...