Waldorf Astoria New York

Waldof Astoria New York
  1. About the Waldorf Astoria New York in New York
    1. Building Catalogations
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectureal style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The Waldorf Astoria New York is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Schultze & Weaver and built between 1929 and 1931 in New York, NY.

Its precise street address is 301 Park Avenue , New York, NY. You can also find it on the map here.

The Waldorf Astoria New York is a structure of significant importance both for the city of New York and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the Art Deco style. Because of that, the Waldorf Astoria New York was officially declared as a national landmark on January 5th 1993.

At the time of its completion in 1931 the Waldorf Astoria New York incorporated solutions that were quite advanced at the time, these included an underground tunnel, known as track 61, which allowed VIP personalities, such as presidents, to arrive to the hotel directly by train without having to face the press or crowds at the hotel's entrance.

The building has been restored 2 times over the years to ensure its conservation and adaptation to the pass of time. The main restoration works happened in 1990 and 2022.

Building's timeline

Construction begins
1929
95
Construction completed
1931
93
a
Restoration
1990
34
Declared NL
1993
31
b
Restoration
2022
2
years ago
2024
  1. 1980 to 1990 - General renovation. The architect in charge was Lee Jablin.
  2. 2017 to 2022 - Complete renovation and restoration to transform the building into a residential and boutique hotel property. The architect in charge was Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Architect and team

Schultze & Weaver was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

Architectural Style

The Waldorf Astoria New York can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The Art Deco movement flourished during the 1920s and 1930s, with many historians marking the outbreak of World War II as its final decline. Even though a couple of decades might not seem as much, the Art Deco movement had a great impact on architecture, and it's widely represented in many American cities due to the development boom that happened during that time.

Art Deco marked the abandonment of traditional historicism and the embracement of modern living and the age of the machine. In architecture, that meant leaving behind the ornaments of Beux-Arts and Neo-Gothic buildings and instead favoring simplicity and visual impact through geometric shapes, clean lines, and symmetrical designs. Ornaments were still an important part of the design, but they became bold and lavish, and were often inspired by ancient cultures or industrial imagery, instead of nature.

The Waldorf Astoria New York was completed in 1931, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

Spaces & Uses

The Waldorf Astoria New York reaches an architectural height of 627ft (191m). It has a total of 47 floors, 44 above ground and 3 basements.

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1931, the Waldorf Astoria New York has mainly been used as Hotel space, with other complementary uses such as residential space.

About the Hotel

The hotel is a 5 stars category hotel, with a total of 375 rooms available to the public.

627ft (191m)
3 basements

Materials & Structure

The Waldorf Astoria New York uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade is non-load bearing either, as it is common in frame structure type buildings.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features "Gray Waldorf" limestone combined with light-colored bricks and bronze ornamentations at the entrances.

Other materials found at the Waldorf Astoria New York include, terracotta, was used in ornamental blocks, nickel, found combined with bronze at the entrance doors and grilles, wood panels, used to cover the lobby walls combined with red marble plilasters, oak, used in the elevators paneling in combination with Carpathian elm , and marble, seen in different colors on floors and walls throughout the hotel.

Sources

  • s-media.nyc.gov