Millennium Times Square New York
The Millennium Times Square New York is a hotel at 133 and 145 West 44th Street, between Times Square and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Operated by Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, the hotel has 750 guest units, as well as a conference center with 33 conference rooms. The hotel incorporates a Broadway theater called the Hudson Theatre into its base.
The hotel is composed of two guestroom towers flanking the Hudson Theatre. The original 48-story tower west of the theater was designed by William Derman and Perkins & Will, while the 22-story annex east of the theater was designed by Stonehill & Taylor. The original hotel tower contains a lobby with a passageway connecting two entrances on 44th and 45th Streets. In addition, there is a bar, restaurant, and fitness center in the original tower. The conference center in the lower stories extended into the Hudson Theatre, which in 2017 became a Broadway theater. The 22-story annex is branded as the Millennium Premier New York Times Square.
The hotel's original tower was developed by Harry Macklowe as the Hotel Macklowe. Though Macklowe had acquired land for the hotel in the early 1980s, he was penalized after illegally demolishing four structures on the site in 1985, and he could not develop the site until 1987. The original tower opened in early 1990 and incorporated the Hudson Theatre into the conference center. Chemical Bank acquired the hotel from Macklowe through foreclosure in 1994, reselling to CDL Hotels, which renamed it the Millennium Broadway. The Millennium Times Square New York was affiliated with the DoubleTree brand of Hilton Hotels & Resorts from 2019 to 2021, after which Highgate was hired to manage the hotel.
Site
The Millennium Times Square New York is at 133–145 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue near Times Square, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. The hotel is split across two land lots, each with a separate wing of the hotel. The larger lot at 145 West 44th Street covers, with a frontage of on 44th Street and a depth of. That site includes the Hudson Theatre, which is between the two wings of the hotel. The smaller lot at 133 West 44th Street covers, with a frontage of on 44th Street and a depth of.The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theaters. On the same block, 1530 Broadway is to the west and the Hotel Gerard and Belasco Theatre are to the east. Other nearby buildings include the High School of Performing Arts to the northeast, the Lyceum Theatre and 1540 Broadway to the north, One Astor Plaza to the west, 1500 Broadway to the southwest, and the Chatwal New York hotel and the Town Hall to the south. Among the structures that had previously occupied the site were two single room occupancy hotels at 143 and 149 West 44th Street, as well as residences. The eastern section of the site, 133 West 44th Street, had been occupied by the Newspaper Guild from 1946 to the late 1990s.
Architecture
The Millennium Times Square New York consists of two wings flanking the Hudson Theatre. The section west of the theater was originally developed by Harry Macklowe as the Hotel Macklowe. The building has 48 stories according to the New York City Department of City Planning, and a height of. Macklowe's in-house architect William Derman, as well as Perkins & Will, were responsible for the final design. The firm of Gruzen Samton Steinglass had been involved in preliminary designs, but that company was replaced by Perkins & Will during development. To the east of the theater is a 22-story annex, developed in 1999 for Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. The annex was designed by Stonehill & Taylor and Kiat Supattapone; it is known as the Millennium Premier New York Times Square.Form and facade
The facade of the Hudson Theatre is incorporated into the base of the tower. The architectural firm of J. B. McElfatrick & Son was the theater's original architect, but the firm of Israels & Harder oversaw the completion of the theater's design. Both the theater's 44th and 45th Street elevations are clad in tan brick with Flemish bond. The four-story 44th Street elevation, serving as the theater's primary entrance, is divided into five vertical bays and contains entrance doors at ground level. The five-story 45th Street elevation is comparatively plain in design and has little decoration.Macklowe acquired the unused air rights of the Hudson Theatre to make the original tower taller than would normally be allowed under zoning laws. The first seven stories of the hotel are made of stone, designed in a classical style to complement the Hudson Theatre. The main entrance is at 44th Street, while the convention center entrance is at 45th Street. The 44th Street entrance is flanked by silver sconces and contains a canopy. The rest of the hotel was designed in a modern style because, according to William Derman, it would appeal to "high-tech clients". The facade of the upper stories is made of dark glass.
A wall of Deer Isle granite was built in front of the lower stories of the annex, also complementing the theater; it was designed as a standalone slab rather than as a portion of the annex's facade. The entirety of the annex is set back from the stone wall, recessed from the lot line. According to Paul David Taylor of Stonehill & Taylor, the zoning regulations would have required a setback at a low height if the hotel had been built out to the lot line.
Features
According to the DCP, the hotel has of gross floor area. The original hotel building was also designed with of office space. The original hotel was designed with a superstructure made of concrete. The hotel has 750 rooms across its two towers: 625 in the original hotel and 125 in the Premier annex.Lobby
Within the original hotel building, the two entrances are connected by a passageway running the entire block, which functions as a privately owned public space. The southern end of the lobby contains a waiting area on the western wall and the Hudson Theatre on the eastern wall. The center of the lobby has a concierge, hotel check-in desk, stairs, and elevators, while the northern end of the lobby includes a gift shop. The walls contain Day-Night, a pair of oil paintings by Carlo Maria Mariani, which depict an awake man and a sleeping woman. The lobby is also decorated in wood and black marble. Derman designed the original decorations, which included gray-and-black carpets evocative of Rockefeller Center's interiors. The convention-center lobby was designed with mahogany, a reference to the decorative scheme at the Four Seasons Restaurant. The elevator cabs were clad in mahogany and steel. Because the original hotel and the Hudson Theatre were already ornately decorated with marble, the Premier annex was clad in simpler marble.The hotel was designed with one bar and one full-service restaurant. Ali Barker was the original executive chef for the hotel's restaurant. Originally, the restaurant was known as Restaurant Charlotte, which offered both full-service meals and afternoon tea. When the hotel passed under Millennium ownership, the restaurant space became the Bugis Street Brasserie and Bar, serving Singaporean cuisine.
Guestrooms
When the Hotel Macklowe was built, it was variously cited as containing 635, 637, or 638 rooms. Each room had a television that allowed visitors to look for and purchase tickets for airlines, theaters, sports events, and other attractions. The service was branded as "MackTel" and could also be used to request room service. The rooms' decorations were designed with a black and tan color scheme, cherry-wood headboards, and Art Deco armchairs. Rooms were also designed with marble-topped writing desks that contained minibars underneath. Harry Macklowe's then-wife Linda decorated the rooms with prints from architects such as Michael Graves, Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, Morphosis Architects, and Bernard Tschumi., the Millennium Times Square New York contains 625 rooms. These consist of "standard rooms" of each, "superior rooms" of each, and "deluxe rooms" of each. The rooms are spread through floors 16 through 52. Higher units contain views of Times Square and the skyline of New York City. he "Millennium Suites" are at the top of the original hotel tower and cover each. The rooms have writing desks, European tubs, and full-height windows. On the 16th floor is a private fitness center. It contains a massage room, steam room, and a sauna, as well as a room containing weights and exercise machines.
The 22-story Premier at Millennium Broadway is on the east side of the Hudson Theatre and is designed with 125 units. The annex has six units per floor on average. Each of the units has European tubs, full-height windows, three telephone lines, a modem hookup, and a fax machine. The public corridors of each floor were originally decorated with color photographs from The New York Times. There is also a mezzanine containing the Premier Lounge and Boardroom, which serves breakfast and evening cocktails., the Millennium Premier New York Times Square has "premier rooms" of, "deluxe rooms" of, and "executive rooms" of.
Conference center
The hotel's conference center is placed on the first five floors of the hotel. and covers. It was originally known as the Macklowe Conference Center and included 33 conference rooms. These are composed of 12 smaller rooms, 15 medium-sized rooms, and six auditorium spaces. The rooms could fit between five and 125 people. When the hotel opened, each of the meeting rooms had custom furniture and lights, as well as modern audiovisual equipment. The rooms also had leather chairs and their own thermostats. The conference center as a whole had word-processing and secretarial services, fax machines, photocopiers, photographers, and a graphics studio. Internet kiosks occupy the second floor, and the roof had satellites to supplement the conference center. There is also a catering service.The conference center originally extended into the Hudson Theatre, which was converted into the conference center's auditorium when the hotel was built. A new deck, dressing rooms, and stage rigging were added to the theater, and a projectionists' booth and a Dolby sound system were installed as part of the conversion. The auditorium has an orchestra level, boxes, two balconies, promenades on the three seating levels, and a large stage behind the proscenium arch. The auditorium's width is slightly greater than its depth, and the auditorium is designed with plaster decorations in high relief. The auditorium had a capacity of 700 guests when it was being used for theater-style events, but this could be converted to a banquet-style space for 300 guests. In addition to independent corporate events, weddings were hosted in the theater. After its conversion back into a Broadway theater in 2017, the Hudson Theatre has had 970 seats.