 Plaza Hotel, New York City
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The Plaza Hotel is a luxury hotel in Manhattan, New York City. It is a 19-storey building on the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it got its name. It extends along Central Park South. On the east side of Grand Army Plaza is Fifth Avenue. It was designed in the French Renaissance chateau-style by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, and built at a cost of $17 million. It opened on 1 October 1907.
The Plaza is renowned for groundbreaking events that took place there, including the September 1985 Plaza Accord, signed at The Plaza among the foreign ministers of the United States, Japan, West Germany, France and Britain, to lower the value of the US Dollar against the currencies of the other signataries. The Plaza was where The Beatles stayed on their first visit to the United States in 1964.
Numerous notable personalities have owned The Plaza. Conrad Hilton bought it for $7.4 million in 1943, and spent another $6 million to refurnish it. He sold it when he bought the Waldorf-Astoria. Donald Trump bought it for $407.5 million in 1988, comparing it to the Mona Lisa, and saying that he did it not for economical reasons. He sold it for $325 million in 1995. During his tenure, he appeared in a cameo of Home Alone 2, in 1992, shot in The Plaza.
The Plaza last changed hands in 2004, for $675 million. The new owner, El Ad Properties of Manhattan, closed it for renovations on 30 April 2005. The reopening is scheduled for 1 January 2008, when the Plaza will offer 130 hotel rooms and 152 private condo hotel units. In May 2007, one of those units sold for a record $50 million.
The Plaza was designated National Historic Landmark, in 1986, making it only one of the two hotels in New York City - the other being the Waldorf-Astoria, to receive such a recognition.
Plaza Hotel, as viewed from the Pond at Central Park, New York City
Author: OptimumPx (public domain)
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