Lotte New York Palace Hotel
The Lotte New York Palace Hotel is a luxury hotel at 455 Madison Avenue, between East 50th and East 51st streets, Midtown Manhattan.
The hotel opened in 1980 as the Helmsley Palace Hotel and is housed in a portion of the historic Villard Houses, built in the 1880s by McKim, Mead & White, which are New York City designated landmarks (1968) and listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1975). It also includes a 51-story skyscraper designed by Emery Roth & Sons, completed in 1980. The land is owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and the Saint Patrick's Cathedral occupies the city block to the west, across Madison Avenue.
The Villard Houses are a set of former residences at 451–457 Madison Avenue. Railroad magnate Henry Villard commissioned the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White to design six brownstone houses in the Renaissance Revival style, surrounding a courtyard on Madison Avenue. The residences were completed in 1884.
The Helmsley Palace Hotel opened in 1981 in the premises and was operated by Helmsley until 1992. The hotel was sold in 1993 to the Sultan of Brunei, as part of a bankruptcy proceeding. The government of Brunei took over the hotel from the royal family in 2009. Northwood Investors, an American real estate investment firm, bought the hotel from the government of Brunei in 2011 and renovated it. The hotel was sold again in 2015 to Korean luxury hotel operator Lotte Hotels & Resorts, which renamed it the Lotte New York Palace Hotel.
As of 2021, the hotel has 909 rooms and suites. The top floors of the skyscraper addition are known as the Towers, which consist of 176 luxury units, including four ornate triplex suites, each with their own decorations, as well as four other specialty suites.
The Lotte New York Palace Hotel at 455 Madison Avenue (Google Street View, 2024).
The grand staircase in the main lobby in the houses' center wing (promotional photo).
Lotte New York Palace Hotel
Below, the original Villard Houses at 451-457 Madison Avenue, about 1890. Source: Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress.
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