The Plaza opened on 1 October 1907 on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, a French Renaissance château by Henry Hardenbergh in marble and white brick under a mansard roof, built in twenty-seven months on the site of an 1890 hotel of the same name. The exterior became a city landmark in 1969 and the building a National Historic Landmark in 1986, and in 2005 the city protected the Palm Court, the lobbies, the ballroom and the Oak Room too. That year it closed for a $450 million restoration that turned much of it into private apartments. It reopened in 2008, managed by Fairmont, and Qatar's Katara Hospitality has owned it since 2018.
There are 282 rooms, 102 of them suites, and every guest room has a sitting area and a mosaic bathroom with 24-carat gold-plated Sherle Wagner fixtures. The Plaza King is about 475 sq ft (44 m²), the Deluxe King 550 sq ft (51 m²) and the Grand Luxe King up to 750 sq ft (70 m²). What the ladder does not sell is the park. The apartments took the Central Park side, so the Plaza King and Deluxe rooms look over the inner courtyard or 58th Street, and the views are sold with the suites: part of the park from the Carnegie suites, Fifth Avenue and the Pulitzer Fountain from the Pulitzer suites up, and the Tower Room, a round bedroom in a corner turret under a 23-foot brick ceiling. The Eloise Suite is pink down to the bathroom.
The reason to book is everything between the revolving door and the lift. The Palm Court, the hotel's tea room since 1907, sits at the centre of the ground floor under a stained-glass laylight that came down in 1944 and was recreated in the restoration, with the palms, trellis and oval bar of Thierry Despont's 2014 redesign. The Champagne Bar looks out over Fifth Avenue and the Pulitzer Fountain. Fitzgerald set the showdown of The Great Gatsby here, Kay Thompson's Eloise has lived here since 1955, and Kevin McCallister checked in alone in Home Alone 2.
The trade is that you pay for the name more than for the room. In late January the entry King starts around $1,170 a night before tax and the $65 nightly fee, for a view of the courtyard or 58th Street. There is no pool, the spa keeps day hours, and the Oak Bar, where Cary Grant was kidnapped in North by Northwest, now opens only for private events. Guests praise the location and room sizes, and split on the service. Book it for a first New York trip, a milestone birthday or a child raised on Eloise.
