Row NYC Hotel

Row NYC Hotel is a hotel at 700 Eighth Avenue, between 44th and 45th Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The hotel is 27 stories tall with 1,331 rooms. Designed by Schwartz & Gross, with Herbert J. Krapp as consulting architect, it was developed by brothers Henry and Irwin Chanin and opened on February 1, 1928, as the Hotel Lincoln. The hotel largely retains its original brick-and-terracotta facade. The interior spaces, which originally included a lobby and various restaurants on the first three stories, have been redesigned substantially over the years.

The Chanin brothers had acquired the site in May 1925 and developed it along with the neighboring John Golden, Bernard B. Jacobs, and Majestic theaters. The Chanins resold the hotel in 1927 to Irving I. Lewine and the United Cigar Stores Company, but the brothers continued to lease the hotel until 1931, when United Cigars acquired their lease. Maria Kramer bought the hotel in 1938 before reselling it in 1956 to Webb and Knapp, operated by real estate developer William Zeckendorf, which extensively renovated the hotel and renamed it the Hotel Manhattan. British firm Grand Metropolitan Inc. bought the hotel in 1969, and it operated as the Royal Manhattan until it was closed in 1974. The Milstein family purchased the hotel in 1978, and it reopened in 1980 as the Milford Plaza Hotel. Rockpoint Group and hotel operator Highgate Holdings bought the hotel in 2011 and renamed it the Row NYC in 2014. Following an influx of asylum seekers to New York City, the hotel began housing asylum seekers in 2023.

The Row NYC Hotel is on 700 Eighth Avenue, on the eastern sidewalk between 44th and 45th Streets, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The land lot is rectangular and covers 19,982 square feet (1,856.4 m²), with a frontage of approximately 200 feet (61 m) on Eighth Avenue and 100 feet (30 m) on either side street. The Row NYC adjoins seven Broadway theaters clockwise from north: the John Golden, Bernard B. Jacobs, Gerald Schoenfeld, Booth, Shubert, Broadhurst, and Majestic. Other nearby structures include the Al Hirschfeld Theatre to the west, Music Box Theatre and Imperial Theatre to the northeast, and the Hayes Theater and the St. James Theatre to the southeast.

The surrounding area is part of the largest concentration of Broadway theaters on a single block. The adjacent block of 45th Street is also known as George Abbott Way, and foot traffic on the street increases box-office totals for the theaters there. The hotel is also approximately 100 yards (91 m) west of Shubert Alley, which separates the seven adjacent theaters from One Astor Plaza and the Minskoff Theatre. The Majestic, Masque (Golden), and Royale (Jacobs) theaters and the Lincoln Hotel (Row NYC Hotel) had all been developed concurrently. The site of all four buildings had previously been occupied by twenty brownstone residences. The site was part of the Astor family estate from 1803 to 1922, when it was sold to Henry Claman. The plots collectively measured 200 feet (61 m) wide along Eighth Avenue, 240 feet (73 m) along 44th Street, and 250 feet (76 m) along 45th Street.

The Lincoln Hotel was designed by Schwartz & Gross, with Herbert J. Krapp as consulting architect. It was constructed by the Chanin Construction Company, headed by Irwin Chanin. The hotel is 27 stories high, although it was originally described as being 30 stories high. Its facade was variously described as being designed in the Byzantine or Italianate style. The ground floor is clad in rusticated blocks of terracotta, and the upper stories contain gold-colored, bonded Roman brick. The brick facade was designed to relate to the adjacent theaters. In contrast to the neighboring theaters, the Row NYC's facade is sparsely detailed.

The hotel's public rooms were originally designed in a red, green, and blue color scheme, with carvings and chandeliers that evoked the designs of skyscrapers. There was originally 25,000 square feet (2,300 m²) of commercial space, consisting of 16 showrooms and storefronts. The first story contained the lobby, shops, and restaurants. Irwin Chanin had planned to furnish the lobby in the Louis XIV style, but Chanin changed his plans because he believed that the flappers of the 1920s would look out of place in the hotel. At the 45th Street end of the lobby was a lounge with a red, blue, green, and silver ceiling, adjacent to which was a library with 3,000 volumes. The restaurants consisted of a 50-seat basement café, a 250-seat grill room, and a 400-seat main dining room. The grill room had wooden beams on its ceiling and was designed in an English style. The second floor was supposed to be a ballroom and banking hall; as built, it had a lounge and two private dining rooms. In addition, there were offices on the second story.

In the 1950s, the first three stories were gutted to make way for a triple-height lobby. The main section of the lobby included a marble registration desk on the second floor, accessed by escalators from the ground floor. Seven blocks of imported marble were installed inside the lobby. When the hotel was rebuilt in 1957, there was a main ballroom capable of accommodating 500 guests, as well as a lower-lobby ballroom with space for 200 guests. In addition, the lobby adjoined three restaurants: a luxury restaurant called the Playbill, a bar called the Manhattan Bar, and a cafe. Jac Lessman designed these dining rooms. In 1980, the hotel's main entrance was relocated to 45th Street to cater to people visiting Broadway theaters nearby. The reopened hotel included two lounges and a "brasserie-style" restaurant; these spaces were named after Broadway theaters.

The design of the Row NYC's lobby dates to a 2014 renovation by Gabellini Sheppard Associates. As part of the renovation, the lobby was converted into a 24-foot-high (7.3 m) space, and an illuminated staircase was placed in the lobby. Local artist Yorgo Alexopoulos designed two light sculptures, one on either side of the reception area. The lobby also includes a restaurant called District M.