21-story, French Renaissance-inspired château style luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan at the southeastern corner of Central Park

Overview

The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, and is between 58th Street and Central Park South (a.k.a. 59th Street), at the southeastern corner of Central Park.

The 21-story, French Renaissance-inspired château style building was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. The facade is made of marble at the base, with white brick covering the upper stories, and is topped by a mansard roof. The ground floor contains the two primary lobbies, as well as a corridor connecting the large ground-floor restaurant spaces, including the Oak Room, the Oak Bar, the Edwardian Room, the Palm Court, and the Terrace Room. The upper stories contain the ballroom and a variety of residential condominiums, condo-hotel suites, and short-term hotel suites. At its peak, the Plaza Hotel had over 800 rooms. Following a renovation in 2008, the building has 282 hotel rooms and 181 condos.

Since its inception, the Plaza Hotel has become an icon of New York City, with numerous wealthy and famous guests. The restaurant spaces and ballrooms have hosted events such as balls, benefits, weddings, and press conferences. The hotel's design, as well as its location near Central Park, has generally received acclaim. In addition, the Plaza Hotel has appeared in numerous books and films. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the hotel's exterior and some of its interior spaces as city landmarks, and the building is also a National Historic Landmark.

The hotel is also one of the most popular filming locations in New York City. Films shot or set in the hotel include North by Northwest (1959), Barefoot in the Park (1967), Funny Girl (1968), Plaza Suite (1971), The Way We Were (1973), and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). Other films that show the Plaza include Arthur (1981), Crocodile Dundee (1986), Scent of a Woman (1992), and Sleepless in Seattle (1993).

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Plaza Hotel", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0