Hotel New Yorker, 481 Eighth Avenue

The New Yorker (now Wyndham New Yorker Hotel) opened in 1930 at 481 Eighth Avenue, between 34th and 35th streets, Midtown Manhattan. The Art Deco building is 43 stories high and is owned by the Unification Church. The lower stories are rented as offices and dormitories. The hotel operates in the upper stories.

The hotel was designed by Sugarman and Berger Architects. Its façade is made of brick and terracotta, with Indiana limestone on the lower stories. It was built with the largest private power plant in the country, an ice rink, four popular-priced restaurants, a terrace restaurant (which hosted Big Bands), barber shop, tea room, coffee shop, ball rooms and 23 elevators. The private underground tunnel to Penn Station opened in 1932, with the 8th Avenue subway line. The interior was decorated with 26 murals by Louis Jámbor.

The site was previously occupied by 17 buildings, owned by Frederick Brown and the Manufacturers Trust Company (bank branch for this company was housed in the first basement and second floor of the hotel). Construction of the hotel was announced in February 1928 by Mack Kanner and Jacob S. Becker. Plans for the hotel were submitted by Sugarman and Berger, in March 1928, to the Department of Buildings. Excavation of the site began the same year and by October the structure began to rise above the foundation.

The hotel opened on January 2, 1930 as "Hotel New Yorker", with 2503 rooms and advertised as "the largest hotel in the world". The rooms were equipped with private bath, radio, telephone and circulating ice water. Ralph Hitz was the managing director. He hired Bernie Cummins's orchestra to play at the hotel. Later, big bands like Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey also played in the Terrace Room.

Hilton Hotels acquired the hotel in 1953 and it was renovated.

In 1968, the Madison Square Garden arena opened nearby, located between 7th and 8th avenues from 31st to 33rd streets. In 1971, Muhammad Ali recuperated at the New Yorker after his loss to Joe Frazier, which took place at the Madison Square Garden.

In 1972, the hotel closed. It was purchased by the Unification Church in 1976, with plans to turn it into a mission center for the Korean religious movement in the United States. The New Yorker Hotel reopened on June 1, 1994 under the New Yorker Hotel Management Co. with 250 guestrooms, later expanded to 1,005 guestrooms. It was renovated in 2006 by the Ramada hotel chain. Since 2014, it is managed by the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.