Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel

 hotel, skyscraper, 1962_construction, Modern (architecture)

501-foot, 51-story modernist hotel completed in 1962 for Preston Tisch/Loews Corporation. Designed by Morris Lapidus, it opened as the The Americana of New York. Lapidus designed the giant slab of the building with a bend in the middle so that the tower would be more wind-resistant, and less expensive materials could be used. At the time of its completion, the building was the tallest concrete-framed structure in the city. It was renamed the Sheraton Center Hotel & Towers in the 1970s, and again renamed Sheraton New York in 1991.

The unusual frame system consists of three zones: floors 1 through 5 are supported by steel-concrete composite columns, floors 5 through 29 by concrete sheer walls and 29 to 51 by reinforced concrete columns. On the north side is a 25-story wing located above the entrance and the glass-walled lobby.

The facade consists of horizontal striping of steel-framed windows, slightly recessed between the yellow glazed brick facing in the spandrels. Above the 2-story base there is a 20-story north wing extending from the west end of the main slab, to the west of the bend. The base, redesigned in the 1990s, is clad in grey granite and glass, with its most prominent feature being the semi-circular rotunda that extrudes from underneath the west end of the slab near the southwest corner. North of this protrusion are five bays along the avenue, with the main entrance in the 2nd bay from the rotunda. It has a boldly-projecting marquee covering a low set of steps down to the sidewalk. At the ground floor the other four bays have glass infill that projects out at angles, topped by sloping, triangular glass roofs; these enclose lobby and restaurant areas. The 2nd floor has pairs of plate-glass windows in each bay, divided by grey metal pilasters with a Neo-Art-Deco design. Each of these extends up into a flagpole above the base, and the piers between the bays are topped by Art-Deco finials. There is an open space at the 2nd floor of the northernmost bay.

On the north facade on 53rd Street there is a small, projecting glass storefront with a sloping glass roof at the ground floor of the north wing, next to a pair of metal service doors. To the east of the north wing there is a small recessed section with another set of service doors that connects to the 3-story tall base of the main slab, seven bays long. The first two bays at the ground floor have grey metal louvers, the next bay has a grey metal and glass storefront, the next bay has another hotel entrance with a smaller marquee, the next bay has another storefront, and the eastern two bays have an entrance and exit to the underground parking garage. Between the narrow metal piers, the upper floors of the base have infill of tan concrete panels. At the far east end is a narrow section with another pair of metal service doors. The south facade of the base, along 52nd Street, is 10 bays wide, with the same design as the north side. The ground floor has metal louvers in each bay except for the two eastern bays with garage entrances, and the 4th bay from the east, with an entrance to the Executive Conference Center, with glass doors and a metal marquee.

The slab is set back from the base on the north and south, and slightly overhangs the protruding rotunda at the west end, supported by columns at the 3rd floor. The striped facade of yellow brick and glass is interrupted at the west end of the main slab by simple, grey metal panels at the north two-thirds of the end wall (with the facade angling out slightly at the southern one-third); a narrow recessed area of darker grey panels joins the two. The north wing is joined to the main slab by a narrow section of darker grey-painted concrete. At the top of the north wing, there is a narrow 10-story band topping the narrow joining section, before setting back into the main slab; it has windows at the 21st-28th floors. The north end of the north wing is also clad in grey metal panels, slightly recessed at the west end. Above the north wing, a strip of grey concrete continues up the facade of the main slab, to the west of the bend. There is a large penthouse level at the top, set back at the sides, with giant red-yellow neon lettering reading "SHERATON".

In 1972, American Airlines took over the operation of the hotel from Loews, until it was sold to Sheraton in 1979. During 9/11, the entire hotel became an ad-hoc headquarters for Lehman Brothers which had suffered damage downtown. The hotel contains 1,780 guest rooms under the management of MCR.

www.mcrhotels.com/hotels/sheraton-new-york-times-square...