Terry Trucco

Returning in 2019: The Original Hotel Okura Lobby To Be Replicated in New Hotel

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If you, like me, were saddened to learn about the demolition of the iconic Main Building of the Hotel Okura in 2015, there’s intriguing news. Tokyo’s Ashai Shimbun reports that the building’s midcentury lobby, widely hailed as a masterpiece of Japanese modernist architecture, is to be faithfully reproduced in the towering new Okura hotel that’s scheduled to open in the fall of 2019, just in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Read more

Terry Trucco

Why You Should Find Out If Your Hotel Is Near a Construction Site Before You Book

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What happens when you check into a hotel that’s next to a construction site?

I thought about this when I walked by the Franklin Hotel, an Upper East Side boutique, on a recent spring day. I hadn’t been by the hotel in a while and was astounded by what I saw. A futuristic 19-story glass-front apartment building was going up next door and at first glance I thought it had gobbled up the hotel. Read more

Terry Trucco

“American Gothic” Made Him Famous, But Grant Wood Also Created Art for Hotels

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Everyone knows artist Grant Wood (1891-1942) for his iconic depiction of a deadpan Iowa farmer, pitchfork in hand, standing beside a stern, yellow-haired woman wearing an apron. But did you know that in 1932, just two years after he painted “American Gothic,” Wood created a series of murals portraying Iowa farm life for a hotel coffee shop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa? Read more

Terry Trucco

Coming Soon: New Owners for The Plaza Hotel; What Will They Get for $600 Million?

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If all goes as expected, The Plaza Hotel — overnight home to Christian Dior, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Beatles, backdrop to movies like North by Northwest and Crocodile Dundee and playground for the impish Eloise — is about to change hands once again for an eye-popping $600 million. It’s just not clear who the new owner will be. Read more

Terry Trucco

$125,000 for a Second-Hand Door? Bidders Pay Dearly for 52 Original Doors from the Hotel Chelsea

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And to think they were destined for the dumpster.

On Thursday night, an auction was held for 52 original doors from the Hotel Chelsea that were discarded when renovation began in 2012 and harvested by a resourceful former homeless man. And prices shot through the proverbial roof.

To wild applause from bidders and onlookers in a packed Ricco/Maresca art gallery, a battered, whitewashed door to a room once occupied by singer/songwriter Bob Dylan sold for $125,000, eye-popping even for an item associated with a Nobel laureate. Read more

Terry Trucco

Up for Auction, 52 Hotel Chelsea Doors Opened by the Likes of Bob Dylan, Mark Twain and Janis Joplin

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At the stroke of midnight on July 31, 2011, the Hotel Chelsea, the outrageous, art-filled property that checked in legendary guests like Tennessee Williams, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol and Madonna, closed its doors for a renovation that was supposed to last one year, an estimate that proved wildly optimistic. Nearly seven years on, the 1885 Queen Anne brick pile remains closed and under construction for its latest transformation — into a luxury hotel with condos, the default for fabled landmarks from the Plaza to the Waldorf Astoria. Read more

Terry Trucco

NYC Hotels Where You Can Watch the 2018 Academy Awards with Drinks and a Crowd

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OscarThis year’s Academy Awards offer an added element of suspense: will they announce the correct Best Picture winner on the first try?

If you want to be with a crowd when that happens — and for all the tears, theatrics, dresses and quips from Jimmy Kimmel unfolding beforehand — these New York City hotels are serving up drinks, big screens and a party atmosphere for Hollywood’s March 4 celebration airing at 8 p.m. Popcorn, too, if you’re lucky. Read more

Terry Trucco

Is the Waldorf Astoria to Be Sold Yet Again?

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When Blackstone Group sold the fabled Waldorf Astoria to a little-known Chinese insurer in 2014 for a record-breaking $1.95 billion, it looked like a done deal. But this week brought news that Blackstone is thinking about buying back the landmark Park Avenue hotel. Read more

Terry Trucco

A Look at John Portman’s Signature NYC Creation, the Marriott Marquis

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With the recent death of John Portman, the game-changing architect you can thank — or blame — for hotels with sky-scraping atriums, dizzying glass elevators and revolving rooftop restaurants, I decided to pay a visit to his most famous New York City creation, the Marriott Marquis.

Though it no longer looks like an alien creature plopped in the middle of Times Square, the 33-year-old hotel is impossible to miss. A brutish fortress of glass and concrete, it looms 48 stories over Broadway, stretches the length of a city block and showcases an eight-story digital billboard ablaze with some of the priciest ads in town. Read more

Terry Trucco

Eat Up! These NYC Hotel Restaurants Offer Deals on Meals During Winter Restaurant Week 2018

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As NYC Winter Restaurant Week 2018 roars into town for a three week stint from January 22 to February 9, this seems a good time to pause and take a look at its history.

Dozens of cities, large and small, offer promotional prix-fixe meals once or twice a year, but until 1992 that wasn’t the case. Read more