November 10, 2005

New Yorker to relight sign in $43 million renovation

The 20-foot-tall letters atop the New Yorker Hotel, dark since sign 1967, will be relit in red by the end of this month as part of the $43 million refurbishment of the historic hotel, according to the New York Times.

Built in 1929 by the same architects as the Empire State Building, the New Yorker saw the likes of Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Muhammad Ali and Fidel Castro. It's also the place the near-penniless scientist Nikola Tesla lived the last 10 years of his life before he died in Room 3327 in 1943.

Closed as a hotel in 1970, the 40-story building was bought in 1975 by the Unification Church, which used it as a residence. In 1994, the top 10 floors were reopened as "moderately priced hotel rooms," the Times reports.

Earlier renovations destroyed much of the original Art Deco details, but some are still intact, including the brass elevator doors and marble floors, which are now covered by carpeting.

The current undertaking will upgrade the lobby and meeting spaces, add a "sophisticated New York restaurant," replace the central heating and cooling system, create gallery space in the lobby for 500 pieces of hotel memorabilia and add more rooms, bringing the total to 920.

Read more about the history of the hotel at the New Yorker's web site.

The New Yorker Hotel is located at 481 Eighth Ave., map.

November 10, 2005 07:09 AM in Hotelology

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