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Originally Posted by JSsocal
Not quite, what they did is more akin to 3 Columbus circle. They chiseled off any protruding stonework and gutted the base, then covered the whole thing in glass. At night you can see the same punch window locations through the glass and get a little bit of the feel of the old building.
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There's been at least 2 renovations since then, but the building has been pretty much the same. Some throwback articles...
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/04/a...-it-after.html
DEAL NEGOTIATED FOR COMMODORE
By ROBERT E. TOMASSON
MAY 4, 1975
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The Hyatt hotel chain and a real‐estate developer have reached agreement on a plan to purchase the Commodore Hotel from the bankrupt Penn Central Transportation Company and renovate the 26‐story structure into a luxury hotel.
Under the agreement between Mr. Trump and the Californiabased Hyatt Corporation, the developer has one year in which to complete the purchase, after which renovation must start within 18 months. After the renovation, Hyatt would operate the hotel.
Joseph Amoroso, executive vice president of Hyatt, said that the company was seeking to open the hotel, tentatively named the Hyatt Regency, by late 1978.
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Any sale agreement would have to be approved by the Federal District Court in Philadelphia, which is overseeing the reorganization of the railroad under Federal bankruptcy laws.
The agreement between Mr. Trump and Hyatt marked the end of a lengthy search by the hotel chain to obtain its first hotel in the city. Mr. Amoroso of Hyatt said the search included considerations of building a hotel on some available cleared sites or buying other existing hotels.
...The agreement calls for the stripping of the Commodore down to the support beams and a total renovation that will include what Mr. Trump said would be the largest ballroom in the city and 70,000 square feet of retail space.
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While the 59‐year old Commodore was never ranked as one of the city's more fashionable hotels, its large size and central location on 42d Street at Lexington Avenue next to ‘Grand Central Terminal made it a mainstay of the convention and tourist trade.
The Commodore is now the profitable of the four hotels here owned by the Penn Central and the one the trustees have been the most concerned with selling.
The best of the four is the Barclay Hotel, a 14‐story, 802‐room luxury hotel on Lexington between 48th and 49th Streets. “It pays for the other three,” commented Mr. Koskinen of Palmieri.
The others are the Biltmore, on Madison Avenue between 43d and 44th Streets and the Roosevelt, on 45th and 46th Streets between Madison and Vanderbilt Avenues.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/b...s/12hyatt.html
By FRED A. BERNSTEIN
JAN. 11, 2011
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“Everything gold and shiny is going,” said Carol Bentel, a Long Island architect, referring to the reflective surfaces, including mirrored ceilings and highly polished metal columns, of the casino-style lobby.
...Their goal is to bring the hotel up to the level of a brand that in recent years has added luxurious properties in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, surpassing the 30-year-old flagship.
“We have had some catching up to do in New York,” said Farley Kern, Hyatt’s spokeswoman. Ms. Kern said the primary goal of the renovation was not to increase occupancy — the hotel is consistently busy, he said — but to make it seem familiar to travelers who have stayed in some of the three dozen other Grand Hyatts.
Creating a luxury hotel in an existing building is a much more complicated task than building one from the ground up. The Manhattan hotel, built on the Commodore’s 1919 frame, has 138 different room configurations, according to Yvette Edwards, the director for sales and marketing.
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Some surfaces could not be removed, because, as do many 1970s buildings, the hotel contains asbestos. After consulting experts, Mr. Levison said, Hyatt “is leaving the asbestos undisturbed, which is the safest decision and presents no risk to guests.”
For that reason and others, the Bentel firm found ways to “reinvent existing materials rather than discard them,” he said. Existing wood walls will be stained, bronze columns will be painted and marble floors rehabilitated. The lobby is expected to be completed by August. By then, about 1,000 of the 1,300 guest rooms will also have been renovated. (Like the lobby renovation, the renovation of the rooms is proceeding in stages, a few floors at a time.)
Hyatt expects the renovation to allow higher hotel rates. (A recent Web search found rooms for January for $299.) But that depends on the market, and on whether guests embrace the new hotel in an old building.
But for the Grand Hyatt — where parts of the Commodore Hotel’s old masonry facade still hides behind the glass installed by Mr. Trump — such a strategy has worked before.
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NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
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