Paramount Hotel
The Paramount Hotel is a hotel in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, the hotel is at 235 West 46th Street, between Eighth Avenue and Broadway. The Paramount Hotel is owned by RFR Realty and contains 597 rooms. The hotel building, designed in a Renaissance style, is a New York City designated landmark.
The hotel is 19 stories tall and is H-shaped in arrangement, with light courts to the west and east. The north and south faces of the hotel contain numerous setbacks. The facade is made of brick, stone, and terracotta; most of the decorative detail is concentrated on the south facade, along 46th Street. The hotel building contains a double-height colonnade at street level, as well as several terraces above each of the setbacks. The building has a double-height hip roof flanked by mansard roofs. The basement contains an event venue named Sony Hall, which has historically been used as a nightclub and theater. The double-height lobby's design dates to a 1990 renovation by Philippe Starck.
Isidore Zimmer, Samuel Resnick, and Frank Locker developed the Hotel Paramount starting in 1927, and it opened on June 12, 1928. The property went into foreclosure shortly after its completion, and Chase National Bank took over in the 1930s. The Paramount became popular after Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe nightclub opened in the basement in 1938. When the Diamond Horseshoe closed in 1951, the hotel began to decline, and the property was sold multiple times over the next few decades. The hotel was known as the Century-Paramount during the 1970s and 1980s. Philip Pilevsky and Arthur G. Cohen acquired the hotel in 1986, and Ian Schrager operated it for the next two decades. Starck renovated the hotel from 1988 to 1990, and several renovations have taken place since then. The hotel was sold in 2004 to Sol Melia Hotels and Resorts and Hard Rock Cafe, then in 2007 to Walton Street Capital. In 2011, the hotel was sold to Aby Rosen's RFR Holding.
Site
The Paramount Hotel is at 235 West 46th Street, on the north sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, near Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The rectangular land lot covers, with a frontage of on 46th Street and a depth of. The Paramount Hotel shares the block with the Lena Horne Theatre to the north and the Hotel Edison and Lunt-Fontanne Theatre to the east. Other nearby buildings include the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre to the north; the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Longacre Theatre, and Morgan Stanley Building to the northeast; the Richard Rodgers Theatre and Music Box Theatre to the southeast; the Imperial Theatre to the south; and the off-Broadway 47th Street Theatre to the west.The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theaters. Prior to the Paramount Hotel's development in the 1920s, the site contained several low-rise buildings.
Architecture
The Paramount Hotel was designed by Thomas W. Lamb and built by the O'Day Construction Company. It was one of Lamb's few non-theatrical buildings; most of his work consisted of over 300 theaters and cinemas. An early source characterized the hotel as being Italian Renaissance in design, but the hotel's own website and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission describe the building as being French Renaissance-inspired.Due to the presence of a mezzanine level above the ground story, sources differ as to how many stories the hotel contains. While the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and SkyscraperPage give a figure of 19 stories, the New York City Department of City Planning cites the hotel as being 18 stories tall, and Emporis gives a figure of 20 stories. Originally, the hotel had 700 rooms.
Form
The hotel is H-shaped in arrangement. The northern and southern elevations are twelve bays wide, while the western and eastern elevations are narrower and have light courts at their centers. The northern elevation faces the center of the block, toward 47th Street, and the southern elevation faces 46th Street. The massing includes several setbacks at the 12th, 14th, 16th, and 18th stories. Because the setbacks are only placed on the northern and southern elevations of the facade, they are only visible from the west and east.Along 46th Street, the first eleven stories occupy nearly the entire site, extending outward to the lot line. The eight center bays on the 12th and 13th stories are recessed from the two end bays on either side. There is another setback across all twelve bays at the 14th story, though the center bays on the 14th and 15th stories are still recessed. Above the 16th story, the three outermost bays on each side are recessed significantly. Diagonal wall sections link the outermost bays with the four center bays, which continue straight up from the 14th-story setback. At the 18th and 19th stories, the outer bays on each side form a copper mansard roof with dormer windows, while the center bays are topped by a hip roof.
Along the north elevation, the lowest ten stories are obscured by neighboring buildings such as the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, though the 11th through 19th stories are visible from 47th Street. The setbacks on this elevation all span the width of the facade.
Facade
The facade is made of brick, stone, and terracotta. Most of the decorative detail is concentrated on the south elevation, facing 46th Street. The most ornate decorations are on the ground story, mezzanine, and 2nd story, since that is the most prominent portion of the facade from the street level. The other floors contain simpler decorative details.Base
At ground level, the 46th Street facade consists of a double-height colonnade with twelve round arches, spanning the width of the hotel. The arches are supported by white marble piers above a granite water table. Most of the ground-level openings contain storefront windows or doors. The third and fourth bays from the right contain the hotel's entrance, while the fifth bay from the left contains an entrance to Sony Hall. Two ornate marquees, one each in front of Sony Hall's and the hotel's entrances, were installed as part of a 2013 renovation. The piers on either side of the Sony Hall entrance contain bronze-framed sign boards. The upper portion of each arch contains a tripartite iron frame, which separates the cast-iron spandrels between the ground and mezzanine windows, as well as the mezzanine windows themselves. The tops of the arches are surrounded by moldings, and the keystone of each arch contains a volute with ribbons on either side. A marble string course runs above the first-story colonnade.The 2nd-story windows are rectangular sash windows surrounded by eared moldings. All of the windows share a paneled window sill, which contains swags just beneath each window. There are volutes flanking each window, above which rise vertical bands of foliate decoration. The tops of each window contain keystones with shells and foliate swags. The windows are separated by marble panels that are alternatively round and rectangular, with ornate frames. The panels contain shells at their bottoms, as well as swags, curved pediments, and angels' heads above. A cornice runs above the 2nd story.
Upper stories
The 3rd through 10th stories are mostly clad in plain brick with rectangular window openings. The 3rd-story window openings are surrounded by eared moldings; above each window are volutes flanking swags, which support segmental-arched and triangular pediments. The 4th- through 10th-story windows are plain in design, except for window sills and air-conditioning vents below each window. Starting on the 3rd story, the two outer bays are flanked by narrow bands of brick quoins. The 11th-story windows contain eared moldings, swags below each window, and elaborate keystones. There are marble panels between most of the 11th-story windows ; the panels have alternating lozenge and circular shapes. Each of these marble panels is topped by three brackets shaped like acanthus leaves. A string course runs above the 11th story.At the 12th-story setback, there is a terracotta balustrade in front of the eight center bays. Each of these bays is separated by an urn with a terracotta finial. Metal security grates are installed between the facade and the urns, dividing the balcony into several sections. The four outer windows on the 12th story are filled with iron balustrades. At the 14th-story setback, there is a string course and a balustrade across all twelve bays; metal grates are installed at several points. Within each bay, the windows at the 12th and 13th stories are placed within the same terracotta molding, as are the 14th- and 15th-story windows in each bay. On each of the 12th through 15th stories, there are bands of quoins separating each of the bays, except for the two outermost bays on either side, which are separated by plain brick. Another cornice runs above the 15th story, supported by pairs of brackets and acanthus leaves.At the 16th and 17th stories, the four central bays rise without setting back further. The three outermost bays on either side are significantly set back, creating the impression of a projecting central pavilion. The central bays and the outer bays are connected by diagonal wall sections, which are decorated with urns atop volutes. The two outermost bays on either side have stone balustrades, while the remainders of the outer pavilions contain iron railings and metal security grates. Within each bay, the windows at the 16th and 17th stories are placed within the same terracotta molding. Each of the four center bays is separated by a row of quoins. At the 17th story, the center bays have pediments decorated with cartouches and volutes. A terracotta frieze separates the 17th story from the roof.
The west and east elevations are generally designed in plain brick with rectangular window openings. The southern sections of these elevations contain chimneys above the 8th story, as well as stone bands at the 12th, 14th, 16th, and 18th-story setbacks. The north elevation contains terracotta balconies at each setback, which span the width of the facade. The setbacks also have metal security grates.