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The Peninsula New York

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The Peninsula New York

The Peninsula New York is a luxury hotel at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Built in 1905 as the Gotham Hotel, the structure was designed by Hiss and Weekes in the neoclassical style. The hotel is part of the Peninsula Hotels group, which is owned by Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (HSH). The structure is 23 stories high and, as of 2022, contains 241 rooms.

The facade, made of limestone and granite, was intended to complement the neighboring University Club of New York building. It is divided horizontally into a base, shaft, and capital. A three-story glass penthouse, completed in the 1980s to designs by Stephen B. Jacobs, rises above the original roof and contains the hotel's pool and fitness center. The lower stories contain two restaurants, a lobby, and various other rooms across multiple levels. The hotel originally had 400 guestrooms, although this was downsized in the 1980s to 250 rooms, including a multi-room presidential suite near the roof.

The 55th Street Company acquired the site in April 1902 and developed the Gotham Hotel, which opened on October 1, 1905. The hotel was sold in 1908 after several failed attempts to procure a liquor license, and it was resold several times over the next three decades. The Gotham was acquired in 1932 by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which added ground-level storefronts in 1938 and continued to own the hotel until 1944. The Gotham was resold several more times in the 1950s and 1960s before Sol Goldman and Alex DiLorenzo acquired it in 1965. Rene Hatt leased the Gotham in 1979 and attempted to renovate it into the Hotel Nova-Park Gotham, but he gave up his lease in 1984 following several lawsuits and financial issues. A joint venture of several companies completed the renovation and reopened the hotel in November 1987 as the Hotel Maxim's de Paris, an outpost of Parisian restaurant Maxim's. HSH acquired the hotel's lease in 1989, renaming it the Peninsula New York, and renovated the hotel again in 1998.

The Peninsula New York is in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue to the east and 55th Street to the north. The land lot is rectangular and covers 12,552 sq ft (1,166.1 m2), with a frontage of 100 ft (30 m) on Fifth Avenue and a depth of 125 ft (38 m) along 55th Street. To the west and south, the hotel is surrounded by the clubhouse of the University Club of New York. The site shares the block with 5, 7, 9–11, 13 and 15 West 54th Street; 46 West 55th Street; and the Rockefeller Apartments to the west. The hotel is also near the Museum of Modern Art to the south; Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church and 712 Fifth Avenue to the north; 550 Madison Avenue to the northeast; the St. Regis New York hotel to the east; and 689 Fifth Avenue to the southeast.

The hotel was built in 1905 as the Gotham Hotel and was designed by Hiss and Weekes in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. The hotel building is shaped like a "C" and is arranged around a light court that faces the University Club building to the south.

The facade was made of limestone and granite to complement the neighboring University Club building. The facade is divided vertically into five bays on Fifth Avenue and six bays on 55th Street. Similar to other Beaux-Arts buildings, the facade is divided into three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column, namely a base, shaft, and capital. Despite its sturdy-looking appearance, the facade is actually a curtain wall hung from the building's steel superstructure. Originally, the hotel was 19 stories high and rose 254 ft (77 m) above the sidewalk. After a renovation in the 1980s, the hotel had 23 stories.

The base of the hotel is three stories high; the first two stories were originally one double-height level. Along the base is a series of triple-height piers made of rusticated blocks, which in turn form an arcade that wraps around both Fifth Avenue and 55th Street. On Fifth Avenue and the easternmost part of the 55th Street elevation, the first story contains flat-arched openings, while the second story contains round arches. There was originally a balustrade facing Fifth Avenue, which was removed after 1908 when the avenue was widened. There are shields with festoons above the second-story windows. The third story contains rectangular windows that are recessed from the facade and contain carved soffits. The entablature above the third story was intended to be a continuation of the cornice above the University Club's first tier.

The hotel's main entrance is at the center of the 55th Street elevation and is placed within a rectangular opening. Above the doorway is a segmentally-arched broken pediment, which contains swags and a pair of sculptures on either side of a circular window. The sculptures depict the ancient goddesses Ceres and Diana. The doorway is flanked by large engaged columns in the Ionic order, placed atop pedestals. The columns are ornamented with vertical fluting and horizontal bands, and they support an entablature at the third floor. There are three bays of windows on either side of the 55th Street entrance. The two easternmost bays contain storefronts, while the other four bays contain double-height openings.

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