New York Marriott Marquis

New York Marriott Marquis is a Marriott International hotel at 1535 Broadway opened in 1985 and was designed by architect John Portman. It is located on Times Square at Broadway and 45th Street. The hotel is famous for its high-tech elevators and atrium lobby rising 45 stories to "The View", New York's only rooftop revolving restaurant and lounge. With 1,949 rooms and over 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m²) of meeting space, it is one of the largest hotels in the city. The Marquis Theatre is located within the hotel at the 3rd floor.

Creation

The hotel was born in controversy because five historic theatersâ€"the Helen Hayes, the Morosco, the Astor, the Bijou, and the Gaietyâ€"were demolished to clear the site. Protesters, including Christopher Reeve (then at the height of his Superman fame) tried to stop the destruction, even forcing a Supreme Court challenge, but it was too late. What was dubbed "The Great Theater Massacre of 1982" went forward to make way for the hotel. The Marquis was approved for construction but with the requirement that a new theater (now the Marquis Theater) be built on the same site. By the time construction began, the original operators Western International Hotels (today Westin) had dropped out of the project and Marriott had stepped in.

The hotel has been criticized for turning its back to Times Square. However, at the time the hotel was built, Times Square was only beginning to turn around. With the still-seedy character of Times Square, Portman's style of inwardly-oriented spaces made logical sense. The present redevelopment of Times Square as an urban destination point has left the Marriott Marquis detached from the street. However, the Marriott was the first major project in the Times Square revitalization, and has been credited as the starting point for today's development node at Times Square.

At the time the hotel was built, it featured Manhattan's largest grand ballroom and its first revolving restaurant, a three-story, 1,500-seat theater, a second and third ballroom, and 100,000 square feet (9,300 m²) of meeting, banquet and exhibition spaces.

General Information

The hotel has 36 guest room floors starting with floor 10 and goes to 45. The hotel features an award-winning restaurant on the top floor called "The View" accessed by cars F and G . Both sets serve level 9 which is the Marquis Ballroom, along with floors 3-8. The rest of the High-Rise elevators (Elevators A-F) enter express zone from 10 to 22 and 24 to 27 then serve all floors between 28 and 45 (the non-scenic elevators in that bank, N and M don't serve the fitness center on 23, instead skipping all floors from 8 to 28) . The second set (Elevators G-L) serves all guest floors up to 23 and the 49th floor (55 must be entered into a keypad). Cars F and G are often dedicated for express service from Floor 48 (The view) to the lobby floors

Floor 1 is the ground floor. 2 is an service/equipment floor, only accessible by the service elevators. 3 is the theater and access point to floors 47 and 48. Floors 4-7 are for events. 8 is the actual main floor with the front desk, concierge, bag check, restaurant, bar, and gift shop.

The hotel is served by 22 elevators, 12 (cars A through K) of them being scenic elevators arranged around a circle, 4 are arranged in a block at the center of the circle (labelled L through N), and six service elevators elsewhere in the building. The scenic elevators are famous for facing into the hotel's atrium that stretches nearly the entire height of the building from 3 to 45. The cabs travel at up to 1,000 ft (300 m) per minute. Originally installed by Westinghouse, they received a major modernization in 2005 by Schindler that included redesigning/upgrading the cabs and the installation of their Miconic 10 destination dispatch system in order to reduce waiting times and make elevator operations more efficient.

Gallery

References

1. ^ http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-information/travel/nycmq-new-york-marriott-marquis/
2. ^ New York Marriott Marquis at Emporis
3. ^ New York Marriott Marquis at SkyscraperPage
4. ^ New York Marriott Marquis at Structurae
5. ^ Melanie D.G. Kaplan (July 17, 2012). "Intelligent elevators answer vertical challenges". Smart Planet. Retrieved 27 June 2013. 

Further reading

• Nash, Eric P., Jr. (1999). Manhattan Skyscrapers. Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1-56898-181-3. 

External links

• New York Marriott Marquis â€" Official Site
• New York Marriott Marquis Project Pages at John Portman & Associates web site
• International Herald Tribune on John Portman's hotels
• Christopher Reeve interview on the demolitions paving way for hotel
• The View restaurant