The Pierre

The Pierre, is a luxury hotel located in New York City, United States, managed by Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces. Situated on Fifth Avenue and 61st Street, and facing the Central Park, the hotel opened in 1930. It stands 160 meters tall.

History of the hotel

Charles Pierre Casalasco left his father's restaurant in Ajaccio, where he had started as busboy, [Casalasco and the founding of The Pierre follows the account in Kate Simon. "Fifth Avenue, A Very Social History" (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) 1978, reported on-line at [http://www.thecityreview.com/piersher.html the City Review] .] to go as Charles Pierre to the Hotel Anglais in Monte Carlo. [Glamorized history reports his father as owner of the Hotel Anglais, and Charles Pierre as rubbing shoulders with the Russian grand dukes and European royalty who patronized his father's hotel.] Pierre went on to study haute cuisine in Paris and later traveled to London where he met the American restaurateur Louis Sherry, who offered Pierre a position; when Pierre sailed to New York as a 25 year old immigrant, he made his first mark as first assistant at the fashionable Sherry's and became professionally acquainted with members of the influential Four Hundred, as well as newer millionaires like J. P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts. After nine years at Sherry's, ["Smart women were beginning to smoke in public rooms. Mr. Sherry forbade it in his restaurant, an irritating, old-fashioned prohibition, Pierre thought, and, after flights of heated words he left." (Simon 1978).] Pierre left, first for the Ritz-Carlton on Madison Avenue at Forty-sixth Street, then opening his own restaurant on Forty-fifth immediately west of Fifth Avenue, and later at Pierre's on the Park at 230 Park Avenue. At the height of his success, dissatisfied with the increasing democratization of public manners, Pierre sold out and entered a joint venture with a group of Wall Street financiers, " among them Otto H. Kahn, Finley J. Shepherd (who had married Helen Gould), Edward F. Hutton, Walter P. Chrysler, Robert Livingston Gerry (the son of Elbridge Thomas Gerry, lawyer, philanthropist and grandson of Elbridge Gerry, the inventor of 'gerrymandering')". [Simon 1978.]

The 714-room Pierre Hotel that rose forty-two storeys on the site of the Gerry mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 61st street allowed for unrestricted views of Central Park. It cost $15 million to build and opened to grand fanfare in October 1930. The hotel was designed by the New York firm of Schultze and Weaver as a skyscraper that rises in a blond brick shaft from a limestone-fronted Louis XVI base. Its topmost floors render it an easily recognizable skyscraper landmark, modeled after Mansart's Royal Chapel at Versailles, a system of Corinthian pilasters and arch-headed windows, with octagonal ends, under a tall, slanted copper roof that is pierced with bronze-finished bull's-eye dormers. New York society turned out to attend a gala dinner, which marked the opening of The Pierre, prepared by August Escoffier, "the father of French chefs", who served as a guest chef at The Pierre in its early years.

As markets continued to collapse in the Great Depression, The Pierre went into bankruptcy in 1932. Oilman J. Paul Getty bought it for about $2.5 million in 1938 and subsequently sold many cooperative apartments in the building.

Today the hotel contains 201 rooms, 40 suites, and 12 grand suites.

Ownership of the hotel

The Pierre ended up under the management of the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in 1981. In its 75th anniversary year in 2005 The Pierre became a Taj Hotel as Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, a global chain of fine luxury hotels and resorts and part of India's Tata Group, succeeded as the new lessee and operator.

. Thirteen of the apartments have since become Grand Suites, each with its own intimate charm and residential atmosphere, and with distinctive touches and personalized details to suit each guest's taste.

A triplex co-op that occupies the top three floors was placed on the market in 2003, with a pricetag of $70 million [http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/realestate/columns/realestate/10152/] . This 11,000 square-foot apartment features five bedrooms, four terraces, a paneled library, wine cellar, a black Belgian marble staircase and the hotel's former ballroom with 23-foot high ceilings. It was originally purchased by hedge-fund manager Martin Zweig, from publishing heiress Mary, Lady Fairfax in 1999 for $21.5 million. With its $70 million pricetag payable in full at purchase, the co-op was listed in 2006 in "Forbes Magazine" as the eighth-most expensive home in the world [http://www.forbes.com/realestate/2006/07/24/priciest-homes-world_cx_sc_0724feat_ls.html] , fourth-most expensive home in the United States [http://www.forbes.com/2006/06/23/cx_0626homeland.html] , and second-most expensive home in the Northeastern United States in 2006. [http://www.forbes.com/home/realestate/2006/06/02/expensive-homes-northeast_cx_sc_0605home.html] . According to Domain.com.au, the board has turned down two would-be buyers. [http://www.domain.com.au/Public/Article.aspx?id=1167777252171&index=NationalIndex&headline=$90m%20cash%20for%20New%20York%20'sky%20chateau']

Trivia

The Pierre was the scene of the Pierre Hotel Robbery in 1972.

The Pierre is referenced in the play The Heidi Chronicles, where some of the action is set.

References

* "The Man Who Robbed The Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever" by Ira Berkow
* "Contract Killer: The Explosive Story of the Mafia's Most Notorious Hit Man Donald "Tony the Greek" Frankos" by William Hoffman & Lake Headley
* "Wiseguy: Life In A Mafia Family" by Nicholas Pileggi
*Simon, Kate. "Fifth Avenue, A Very Social History" (New York:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) 1978

External links

* [http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3694 Wired New York Forum]
* [http://www.tajhotels.com/Luxury/The%20Pierre,New%20York/default.htm The Pierre New York - A Taj Hotel]