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NEW YORK - One of New York's most beloved buildings, The Plaza Hotel, is celebrating its 100th birthday after a major face-lift that has shaped it for the next century -- but also made it even harder to book a room.
The Plaza, a 19-story French Renaissance building overlooking Central Park, closed two years ago for a US$400 million (NZ$529m) renovation in which many rooms were converted into luxury apartments and public areas restored to former glory.
The hotel, which first opened its doors to the public on October 1, 1907, is now set to reopen in November with a quarter of the number of hotel rooms but with New Yorkers eager to return to one of the city's most loved buildings.
After all it was the setting for author Kay Thompson's Eloise books about a little girl who lived in the hotel, and has been the backdrop to many major movies including North by Northwest, Barefoot in the Park and Home Alone 2.
Its list of celebrity and royal guests and residents reads like a who's who of the past century.
The Beatles stayed there, as did Great Gatsby writer F. Scott Fitzgerald whose attachment to The Plaza was so well-known that Ernest Hemingway once reportedly advised him to leave his liver to Princeton and his heart to The Plaza.
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright lived there while building the Guggenheim Museum, Truman Capote held his legendary masked "Black and White Ball" in the Grand Ballroom, and the hotel hosted Mick Jagger's 50th birthday party.
"It is the people's hotel that was so celebrated in literature and movies," said Ward Morehouse III, author of a book about the landmark hotel, Inside the Plaza.
"Turning it condominiums was a way of preserving the building and maybe is a return to its roots when people did live there as residents but there still is a feeling that New York has been cheated out of a grand hotel."
True to character
The conversion of The Plaza sparked some protests, including from celebrity New Yorkers like Susan Sarandon and Woody Allen, as it is the city's only hotel designated as a national historic landmark.
When property magnate Donald Trump bought the hotel in 1988, owning it until 1995, he said: "I haven't purchased a building, I have purchased a masterpiece."
When the hotel reopens, it will have about 134 hotel rooms compared to about 800 rooms -- most on the unglamorous side of the building away from the park and costing from US$675 (NZ$892) a night.
It will also have 152 condominium hotel units that can be rented and 181 private residences that have sold at prices ranging from US$2.5 million to about US$50 million.
Orly Daniell Hackmon, chairwoman of The Plaza developer, Israeli development company Elad Properties which bought the hotel for US$675 million in 2004, said public areas like the Palm Court, Oak Bar, Oak Room and retail stores would open soon.
She said the developers adhered closely to the original design, even making a replica of one of three ballroom chandeliers that was stolen after being taken down for the marriage of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The hotel's birthday will be celebrated Monday with fireworks and a star-studded party.
- REUTERS
