Plaza Hotel

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Plaza Hotel
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
The Plaza Hotel as seen from the corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan
Location:	New York City
Built/Founded:	1907
Architect:	Hardenbergh,Henry J.; Hastings,Thomas,et al.
Architectural style(s):	Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals, Other
Added to NRHP:	November 29, 1978
Reference #:	78001878 ^[1]
Governing body:	Private

The Plaza Hotel in New York City is a landmark 19-story luxury hotel that occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name, and extends along Central Park South in Manhattan. Fifth Avenue extends along the east side of Grand Army Plaza.

1 Grand Army Plaza
2 The Plaza Hotel
- 2.1 Ownership
3 Movie backdrop
4 The adjoining plaza
5 External links and references
6 Source

[edit] Grand Army Plaza

The hotel's main entrance faces the southern portion of Grand Army Plaza— commemorating the Army of the Union in the Civil War. Grand Army Plaza is in two sections, bisected by Central Park South. The section in front of the Plaza Hotel is centered by the Pulitzer Fountain, of Abundance by Karl Bitter, funded by the will of the newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer: the statue in the fountain is actually Pomona, Roman goddess of orchards. The north side of Grand Army Plaza, a cutout from Central Park, has the glorious Augustus Saint-Gaudens part-gilded bronze equestrian statue of General Sherman. Grand Army Plaza provided the original main entrance to the carriage drives of Central Park.

On the south side of the Plaza (between 58th and 59th Streets) once stood the French Renaissance château of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, designed by George Browne Post; rising behind its gated front court, it was the grandest of the Fifth Avenue mansions of the Gilded Age. Bergdorf Goodman occupies its site.

[edit] The Plaza Hotel

The Plaza is the second hotel of that name on the site. The French Renaissance château-style building was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh and opened to the public October 1, 1907.

The Plaza was accorded landmark status by New York City's Landmark Commission in 1969 and is, with the Waldorf-Astoria, the only New York City hotel to be designated as a National Historic Landmark. In the 1950s it was the setting for Kay Thompson's series of Eloise books, Eartha Kitt and Peggy Lee played the Persian Room, unaccompanied ladies were not permitted in the Oak Room bar and the Palm Court was favored for luncheons and teas.

On November 28, 1966, in honor of publisher Katharine Graham, Truman Capote hosted his acclaimed "Black & White Ball" in the Grand Ballroom.

In September 1985, the Plaza Accord was signed at the Plaza. The Accord served as an agreement among the finance ministers of the United States, Japan, West Germany, France and Britain to bring down the price of the U.S. dollar against their currencies.

[edit] Ownership

Donald Trump bought the Plaza for $407.5 million in 1988. Trump commented on his purchase in a full-page open letter he had published in The New York Times:

I haven't purchased a building, I have purchased a masterpiece — the Mona Lisa. For the first time in my life, I have knowingly made a deal that was not economic — for I can never justify the price I paid, no matter how successful the Plaza becomes.

Trump sold the hotel for $325 million in 1995 to a partnership between Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. It was sold again in 2004 for $675 million to a Manhattan developer, Elad Properties. Elad closed The Plaza on April 30, 2005, to undergo extensive renovations. It was projected to reopen in early 2007. When the renovations are complete, the Plaza is expected to offer 282 hotel rooms, including 152 condo hotel units and be managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.

[edit] Movie backdrop

Although the hotel had appeared briefly in earlier films, it made its major movie debut in the 1959 film North by Northwest. It was also a setting for Barefoot in the Park (1967), Funny Girl (1968), Plaza Suite (1971), The Way We Were (1973), Love at First Bite (1979), Arthur (1981), Cotton Club (1984), the first two Crocodile Dundee movies, Big Business (1988), King of New York (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Almost Famous (2000), and Inside the Osmonds (2001), and several episodes of The Sopranos (most notably "The Test Dream," Season 5, Episode 11) feature scenes occurring in a suite at the Plaza.

Then-Plaza owner Donald Trump appears in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, directing the main character Kevin to the lobby.

The book Eloise at the Plaza and its film adaptations are set here as well. The Plaza featured notably in the original 1956 Eloise TV movie starring Evelyn Rudie as Eloise, the child who lived "on the top floor", with cameo appearances by Conrad Hilton and Eloise author Kay Thompson.

The Plaza is also featured throughout the popular TV series "Sex and the City", as a backdrop for Mr. Big's (Chris Noth) engagement party and a variety of other scenes.

[edit] The adjoining plaza

The hotel's main entrance faces the southern portion of Grand Army Plaza— commemorating the Army of the Union in the Civil War. Grand Army Plaza is in two sections, bisected by Central Park South. The section in front of the Plaza Hotel is centered by the Pulitzer Fountain, of Abundance by Karl Bitter, funded by the will of the newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer: the statue in the fountain is actually Pomona, Roman goddess of fruits and nuts. The north side of Grand Army Plaza, a cutout from Central Park, has the glorious Augustus Saint-Gaudens part-gilded bronze equestrian statue of General Sherman. Grand Army Plaza provided the original main entrance to the carriage drives of Central Park.