Condé Nast Traveler reports New York's Plaza Hotel will shut for a landmark marble restoration, leaving weddings and 378 staff in limbo.
New York's Plaza Hotel is shutting its doors for years, and the reason is marble. According to Condé Nast Traveler, the hotel will begin a four-year restoration of its façade in 2027, and the work is big enough that guests can't stay through it.
Why a hotel closes for a wall
The building at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue opened nearly 120 years ago. Condé Nast Traveler explains that architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh designed it in 1907 with rusticated marble at the base and smooth, polished marble higher up. Rusticated stone weathers faster and often needs repair within about twenty years, the magazine says. The last major renovation was in 2008, so the timing is not a shock.
Both the façade and the interior are registered landmarks, which makes everything slower. The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission is working with the hotel, and Condé Nast Traveler says it will require the marble and its historic details to be handled carefully. The hotel has hired Allison Doyle Partners Architects, the firm behind the earlier interior work, while HLZAE will oversee the masonry restoration.
What the hotel and the experts say
In a statement quoted by the magazine, hotel management said the scope and complexity of the work call for detailed planning and coordination with historic preservation requirements, and that some further considerations "remain under review." Frank Mahan, a principal at SOM, which worked on the Waldorf Astoria's landmark restoration, told Condé Nast Traveler that old buildings nearly always reveal surprises once work begins.
That is the open question. Four years is the plan, and Mahan's comments suggest the schedule could move. We'd treat the end date as a target rather than a promise.
The people caught in the middle
The closure lands on real plans. Condé Nast Traveler spoke to a bride-to-be who booked the Plaza for her wedding last April and is now hunting for another venue. The hotel is also working with the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council to find new jobs for its 378 staff while it is closed.
For travellers who had the Plaza in mind, the magazine suggests staying nearby instead: the Sherry-Netherland across the street, The Pierre a block or two up Fifth Avenue, or the Lowell or the Carlyle on the east side of Central Park.
A fair guess, and only that, is that New Yorkers will miss the sight of an unscaffolded Plaza more than they'll miss a room at it. The scaffolding will be hard to ignore for a long time.
Picture credit: The Plaza Hotel
