Times Square Hotel
The Times Square Hotel is an apartment building and former hotel at 255 West 43rd Street, near Times Square, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Completed in 1923, the 15-story building was designed in the Renaissance Revival style by the firm of Gronenberg & Leuchtag; it is the firm's only hotel design. Since 1991, it has served as a supportive housing shelter operated by the nonprofit organization Breaking Ground. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The facade is divided vertically into multiple bays facing Eighth Avenue to the west and 43rd Street to the south. The first two stories of the facade are clad in white limestone, while the other stories are clad in tan brick with terracotta decorations. Above the first two stories, three light courts on the southern facade divide the hotel into four wings. Originally, the hotel had a dozen storefronts in addition to offices, lounging rooms, and reading rooms. Rooms in the wings extended southward from a "spine" near the north side of the building. The lobby was the only major public room that remained intact by the 1990s. When the hotel was built, it contained 875 bedrooms, but since the 1990s, it has contained 652 units of supportive housing.
The structure was developed by Henry Claman, who had planned to build a movie theater there before deciding to construct a hotel for single men. The hotel was completed in April 1923 as the Claman Hotel and was sold less than a year later to Manger Hotels, who changed the name to the Times Square Hotel. The Manger family sold the Times Square Hotel in 1931, and the grill room became a popular venue for musical performances in the 1940s. The hotel was sold again in 1956, and a partnership headed by Arthur Schwebel leased it in 1962, renovating it into the Times Square Motor Hotel. The hotel was rundown by the 1980s, and nonprofit organization Covenant House bought the hotel in 1984, converting three stories into corporate offices and operating the other stories as a single room occupancy facility. The hotel was sold again in 1987, but the owners soon went into bankruptcy protection, and Tran Dinh Truong took over in 1988. The building was used to shelter homeless families while continuing to deteriorate. Common Ground acquired the hotel in 1991 and renovated it over the next three years.
Site
The Times Square Hotel is at 255 West 43rd Street, on the northeast corner with Eighth Avenue, near Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The land lot is nearly rectangular and covers, with a frontage of on Eighth Avenue and on 43rd Street. The block of 43rd Street outside the building is co-named in honor of Adolph Ochs, a former publisher of The New York Times, the longtime occupant of the neighboring 229 West 43rd Street.The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theatres. 255 West 43rd Street shares the city block with St. James Theatre, the Hayes Theater, and Sardi's restaurant to the northeast on 44th Street, as well as 1501 Broadway and 229 West 43rd Street to the east on 43rd Street. Across 44th Street are the Majestic, Broadhurst, and Shubert theaters to the northeast, as well as the Row NYC Hotel to the north. The Todd Haimes Theatre, Lyric Theatre, Times Square Theater, and New Victory Theater are across 43rd Street to the southeast, while the Hotel Carter and the E-Walk are immediately to the south. The hotel is also surrounded by various other apartment, office, industrial, and commercial buildings. Prior to the Times Square Hotel's development, the abutting block of 43rd Street had contained wood-frame houses, many of which were occupied by physicians; as such, the street was nicknamed "Doctor's Row".
Architecture
The Times Square Hotel was designed in a Renaissance-inspired style. The firm of Gronenberg & Leuchtag, headed by Herman Gronenberg and Albert Leuchtag, drew up plans for the hotel, which was built by developer Henry Claman. The Times Square Hotel is the only hotel building that Gronenberg & Leuchtag are known to have designed. The structure is 15 stories high.Facade
The first two stories are clad in rusticated blocks of white limestone, above a small granite water table, while the other stories are clad in tan brick with terracotta decorations. Above the first two stories, three light courts on the southern facade divide the hotel into four wings. On 43rd Street, each of the wings is further divided vertically into three bays, except the easternmost wing, which is divided into four bays.43rd Street
On the first two stories, there is a round-arched window beneath each light court. All of these windows contain iron railings at the first story and are flanked by Doric-style pilasters, which support a balustrade with a central shield above the second story. The easternmost wing contains the main entrance, which leads to a recessed vestibule with a set of bronze entrance doors. The vestibule has terrazzo floors, a plaster ceiling, and granite walls; there is a bronze service door and a plaque to the left. East of the entrance was a service gate, as well as a granite storefront leading to the Headline Room, which was added in the early 1950s and removed in 1994. In each bay, there are Renaissance-style spandrel panels made of cast iron above the ground level, while the second floor contains metal casement windows. The other three wings contain similar ornamentation, although there are additional doors and storefronts at ground level. Additionally, at the second floor, the central bay of each wing contains a small balcony.The 3rd story is designed as a transitional story and is clad in brick; some of the bricks are recessed, creating a pattern that resembles rustication. This story contains large windows that illuminate the residential units, interspersed with small windows that illuminate the bathrooms. There is a horizontal frieze just above the 3rd floor, as well as embossed geometric patterns above each of the larger windows. The window arrangement on the 4th through 15th stories is the same as on the 3rd story. The 4th through 11th floors constitute the hotel's midsection. On these stories, each window has sills and lintels made of terracotta, and each wing is flanked by embossed brick panels. A horizontal belt course, made of terracotta, runs above the 11th floor. There are terracotta panels at each corner of each large window, as well as a terracotta cornice running above the entire 12th story.
The 13rd through 15th stories comprise the top section of the facade and contain windows with terracotta frames. The window frames on the 13th story are flat, and the windows on that story are flanked by terracotta-framed brick panels. On the 14th and 15th stories, each bay has a Renaissance-style frame, which consists of console brackets that support Doric pilasters on either side of each bay. The rectangular windows on the 14th story and the arched windows on the 15th story are separated by metal spandrels with cartouches, and the 14th-story windows are topped by terracotta lintels with shields. In the two outer bays of the easternmost wing, the 15th-story windows contain terracotta balconies instead of spandrel panels. Above the 15th story is a terracotta cornice and a brick parapet.
Other elevations
In each of the light courts on 43rd Street, the walls are clad with tan brick. The side walls generally do not contain windows, except at the far end of each light court, away from the street. Each light court's side wall is topped by a terracotta coping. The central light court also has a mechanical penthouse with terracotta blind arches. Additional light courts face east and north but are not visible from the street. The eastern and northern light courts are clad in plain brick without any other ornamentation.The Eighth Avenue elevation is also divided horizontally into three sections. The base is flanked by rusticated limestone piers; there are stores on the first story and plate-glass windows on the second story. The center of the second floor contains a double window flanked by a single and a triple window. There are Renaissance-inspired spandrel panels beneath the second-story windows, similar to those on 43rd Street. On the remaining stories, there are six large windows and several smaller windows on each story; the facade is otherwise similar in arrangement to the 43rd Street elevation. On the 13th to 15th floors, the four center bays are placed within a projecting terracotta loggia and are designed similarly to the 43rd Street elevation, while the two outer bays include terracotta balconies on the 14th story.
Interior
The Times Square Hotel was constructed with twelve storefronts and four electric elevators. There were also offices, lounging rooms, and reading rooms. Service functions, such as elevators and stairs, were clustered along a "spine" near the north side of the building. The wings on 43rd Street, in turn, extend southward from the spine.Public rooms
The lobby, covering, was the only major public room that remained intact by the 1990s. The lobby is a double-height, "L"-shaped space that extends to the north and west. The room contains a terrazzo floor with red-and-black decorations on a brown background, as well as pink marble walls with black-marble baseboards. On the eastern wall, two curved staircases with bronze railings lead up to a balcony with cast-iron railing, which in turn is supported by square piers with marble sheathing. The lobby also contains six octagonal piers, which are also sheathed in marble and support the main ceiling. Plasterwork decorations, such as rosettes and moldings, divide the ceiling into panels. There is a marble desk that wraps around the north and west corners of the lobby, as well as a partition to the northwest of the desk, which led to an office space. The west and south walls of the lobby contain windows, which lead respectively to a marble counter and another office. There are three elevators on the northern wall of the lobby's western section, as well as an emergency staircase to the west of these elevators.By the 1990s, the hotel's ground level was divided into four storefronts. The ground level also includes of mezzanine space for social-services programs. There are activities rooms on each of the upper stories, including computer rooms, fitness rooms, art studios, and music-rehearsal rooms. The spaces also include a library, television room, and game room, as well as a rooftop terrace covering. The plans originally called for a kitchen and dining room on the 15th floor, but after city officials refused to fund the dining room and kitchen, Common Ground began looking for private financing to pay for these spaces.