Tag Archives: hotel

UN Plaza

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

One UN Plaza and Two UN Plaza are the gleaming angular glass buildings opposite the United Nations on First Avenue, between E 44th and E 45th Streets. The towers are sculpture as much as they are buildings – their angled planes talk to each other and ignore the neighborhood. Their only connection, via color and material, is with the United Nations across First Avenue.

(A third building – Three UN Plaza – was built later in a different style and will be covered separately.)

Wrapped around the United States Mission to the UN and Uganda House, the buildings contain the One UN Plaza (formerly Millennium UN Plaza) hotel and United Nations offices space. The hotel occupies the top 11 floors of each tower and has a single entrance on E 44th Street. Offices occupy the lower floors (except for ground floor shops) and have separate entries in each tower.

One UN Plaza Vital Statistics
  • Location: First Avenue at E 44th Street
  • Year completed: 1975
  • Architect: Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates
  • Floors: 39
  • Style: Postmodern
Two UN Plaza Vital Statistics
  • Location: 329 E 44th Street (through to E 45th Street)
  • Year completed: 1981
  • Architect: Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates
  • Floors: 39
  • Style: Postmodern
UN Plaza Recommended Reading

Google Map

Standard Hotel

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

Standard Hotel, as they are fond of saying, is not your standard hotel. Perched 30 feet above the High Line park, it’s shaped like an open book – a book that’s also open in the sense that the facades are transparent (not mirrored or tinted) glass.

All that glass makes rooms seem larger than they are, but sometimes guests forget(?) to close the drapes, leading the NY Post to dub the Standard Hotel the “eyeful tower.”

The building’s design and location presented some unique engineering challenges. Engineers had to cope with the soil conditions (landfill), flood resistance, a high water table, and strict limits on how close to the existing High Line structure they could build. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat case study describes how Ennead Architects met those challenges.

For all of the Standard Hotel’s non-standard features, the property did try to blend in at street level: The Standard Grill restaurant was constructed with salvaged brick, in a style that closely mimics the meatpacking warehouses of the neighborhood. You’d never guess that it was new construction.

Standard Hotel Vital Statistics
  • Location: 848 Washington Street at W 13th Street
  • Year completed: 2009
  • Architect: Ennead Architects (formerly Polshek Partnership)
  • Floors: 18
  • Style: Postmodern
Standard Hotel Recommended Reading

Google Map

Jane Hotel

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jane Hotel, built in 1908 as the American Seamen’s Friend Society Sailors’ Home and Institute, once hosted Titanic survivors. It was designed by William A. Boring, who was also the architect for Ellis Island’s immigration station. Restored in 2008, the Jane Hotel now hosts financial survivors – in tiny rooms with shared bath priced as low as $79 per night.

The distinctive octagonal tower originally had a beacon, to welcome sailors. The beacon is gone, but other nautical connections remain. For starters, Jane Hotel rooms are called cabins. How tiny? A “remarkably cozy” 50 square feet. Some with bunk beds. The New York Times quipped, Popeye Slept Here and Now Olive Oyl Can, Too. the developers, Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode, also run the Maritime Hotel – a former sailor’s hostelry run by the National Maritime Union.

In 1931 the Home and Institute was downgraded to annex status, and in 1944 the YMCA took over the property, removing the beacon in 1946. Also in 1946, YMCA sold the building; it changed hands several more times over the years, finally becoming Riverview Hotel before MacPherson and Goode took over. (See the Corbin Plays portfolio for historic photos of the building with beacon. The PreservationNation Blog has current interior photos.)

In the 1970s and until 2005, the Jane Street Theater called this home.

The Greenwich Village waterfront now attracts joggers instead of sailors. The Jane Hotel is an architectural reminder of New York’s history as a seaport – and a haven (says the hotel) for travelers “with more dash than cash.”

Jane Hotel Vital Statistics
  • Location: 113 Jane Street at West Street (aka 505 West Street)
  • Year completed: 1908
  • Architect: William A. Boring
  • Floors: 6
  • Style: neo-Classical
  • New York City Landmark: 2000
Jane Hotel Recommended Reading

Google Map

Hotel Belleclaire

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

Hotel Belleclaire was one of the first residences designed by Emery Roth, who went on to become one of New York’s most important apartment house architects.

Although Roth’s later work was primarily in Beaux Arts and Art Deco styles, Belleclaire was designed in Art Nouveau. The original design included a domed turret on the corner, which was removed in the ’50s. The ground floor restaurant and hotel office windows have been replaced with storefronts, and the original Broadway entrance was moved to the W 77th Street courtyard.

Belleclaire began life as an upper class apartment hotel – families lived there more or less permanently, relying on hotel services for housekeeping and meals. Over the years the hotel’s clientele – and facilities – changed. Transients were accepted; kitchenettes were added; for a time it was among New York’s “welfare hotels” for indigent families.

Fast forward to 2008: owners embarked on a total renovation and upgrade, now (May 2014) nearly complete. Later this year they plan to open a rooftop restaurant.

Hotel Belleclaire Vital Statistics
  • Location: 2171 Broadway at W 77th Street
  • Year completed: 1903
  • Architect: Emery Roth
  • Floors: 10
  • Style: Art Nouveau
  • New York City Landmark: 1987
Hotel Belleclaire Recommended Reading

Google Map