| The Pierre | |
|---|---|
 The Pierre seen from Central Park | |
 Interactive map of The Pierre | |
| General information | |
| Location | 2East 61st Street Manhattan, New York City |
| Coordinates | 40°45′54″N73°58′18″W / 40.76500°N 73.97167°W /40.76500; -73.97167 |
| Opened | 1930 |
| Owner | Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces |
| Height | 525 feet (160 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 41[1] |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects | Schultze & Weaver[1] |
| Website | |
| The Pierre New York | |
40°45′54″N73°58′18″W / 40.7650308°N 73.9716607°W /40.7650308; -73.9716607The Pierre is a luxury hotel located at 2East 61st Street, at the intersection of that street withFifth Avenue, inManhattan,New York City, facingCentral Park. Designed bySchultze & Weaver, the hotel opened in 1930 with 100+ employees, now with over a thousand. In 2005, the hotel was acquired byTaj Hotels Resorts and Palaces of India. Standing 525 feet (160 m) tall, it is located within theUpper East Side Historic District as designated in 1981 by theNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Charles Pierre Casalasco left his father's restaurant inAjaccio,Corsica, where he had started as a busboy,[a] assumed Charles Pierre as his full professional name, and began work at the Hotel Anglais inMonte Carlo.[b][when?]
Charles Pierre went on to studyhaute cuisine in Paris, and he later traveled to London where he met the American restaurateur,Louis Sherry, who offered him a position. After Pierre arrived in New York as a 25-year-old immigrant,[when?] he made his first mark as first assistant at Sherry's Restaurant and became professionally acquainted with members of theSocial Register, as well as newer millionaires likeJ. P. Morgan and theVanderbilts. After nine years at Sherry's,[2] Pierre left, first for theRitz-Carlton on Madison Avenue at 46th Street, then opening his own restaurant on 45th Street immediately west of Fifth Avenue, and finally at Pierre's on Park at 230 Park Avenue.[when?]
At the height of his success, dissatisfied with the increasing democratization of public manners, Pierre sold his restaurant and entered a joint venture with a group of Wall Street financiers, "among themOtto H. Kahn, Finley J. Shepherd (who had marriedHelen Gould),Edward F. Hutton,Walter P. Chrysler, andRobert Livingston Gerry, Sr. (the son ofElbridge Thomas Gerry, lawyer, philanthropist and grandson ofElbridge Gerry, the inventor of 'Gerrymandering')".[3]
The 714-room, 41-story hotel that rose 525 feet (160 m)[1] on the site of theGerry mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 61st Street allowed for unrestricted views of Central Park. It cost $15 million (approximately $220 million in 2024) to build and opened to grand fanfare in October 1930 as The Pierre. The building was designed by the New York firm ofSchultze and Weaver as a skyscraper that rises in a blond-brick shaft from a limestone-frontedLouis XVI base.[4] Its topmost floors render it an easily recognizable landmark on the New York skyline; they are modeled afterMansart'sRoyal 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-eyedormers. New York society turned out to attend the gala dinner that marked the opening of The Pierre; it was prepared byAuguste Escoffier, "the father of French chefs", who served as a guest chef at The Pierre in its early years.
As markets continued to collapse during theGreat Depression, The Pierre went into bankruptcy in 1932. The oilman,J. Paul Getty, bought it for $2.35 million in 1938 (approximately $41 million in 2024).[5]
Beginning in 1948, New York City's ABC television and FM radio station (then called WJZ-TV Channel 7 and WJZ-FM 95.5, now WABC-TV and WPLJ) broadcast from a tower atop The Pierre, until moving to the Empire State Building a few years later.[6] In 1959, 75 apartments were sold to a cooperative of private residents, while Getty retained control of the hotel's services and guest rooms. Among the permanent residents at The Pierre have beenElizabeth Taylor,Aristotle Onassis, Viacom entertainment-company chairmanSumner Redstone,Mohamed al-Fayed, then the owner ofHarrods, and the late designerYves Saint-Laurent. Thirteen of the apartments have since become "grand suites".
In 1967 and 1968,Edward Melcarth painted atrompe l'oeil mural in the rotunda of the hotel.[7] The mural included mythological characters prominent members of New York's elite likeJacqueline Kennedy andErik Estrada. After criticism, the hotel painted over the telltale facial details and gave the figures a more generic look.[8]
President-electRichard M. Nixon stayed at The Pierre for several months in 1968-69 before moving to Washington, D.C.[9]
The Pierre was the scene of thePierre Hotel robbery in 1972, organized by theLucchese crime family. This robbery of $27 million would later be listed in theGuinness Book of World Records as the largest, most successful hotel robbery in history.[10] The Pierre came under the management ofFour Seasons Hotels and Resorts in 1981.[11]
In 2005, the hotel's 75th anniversary,Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, a global chain of fine luxury hotels and resorts, succeeded Four Seasons as the new lessee and operator. In 2010, Taj completed a $100 million top to bottom renovation of the hotel. Taj Hotels is part of India'sTata Group.[12] In 2016, the hotel restored the murals, the decorative plaster ceiling, marble stairs and stone walls. They also added LED strip-lighting runs the perimeter of the floor, shedding up-light onto the murals.[13] The hotel contains 189 guest accommodations, including 49 suites, of which 11 are grand suites. Dining options in the hotel include Perrine restaurant, The Rotunda and Two E Lounge.
In December 2024, the Pierre was placed for sale.[14]Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, expressed interest in buying the hotel.[15][16] Many residents of the hotel opposed the sale, since they could be evicted if the building were sold. Some of these opponents accused the hotel's largest shareholder—U.S. Commerce SecretaryHoward Lutnick, who owned the penthouse—of being involved in the idea to sell the building.[17][18]
A 16-room triplex co-op that occupies the top three floors was placed on the market in 2003, with a price tag of $70 million.[19] This 11,000-square-foot (1,000 m2) apartment features five bedrooms, four terraces, a paneled library, a wine cellar, a black Belgian-marble staircase and the hotel's former ballroom with 23-foot (7.0 m) high ceilings. It was originally purchased by the hedge-fund managerMartin Zweig, from publishing heiressMary Fairfax, in 1999 for $21.5 million. With its $70 million price tag payable in full at purchase, the co-op was listed in 2006 inForbes magazine as the eighth-most expensive home in the world,[20] fourth-most expensive home in the United States,[21] and second-most expensive home in the Northeastern United States in 2006.[22] It was again put on the market in 2013 at the asking price of $125 million.[23]
The board of directors turned down two would-be buyers.[24] The penthouse returned to the market in March 2013 for an asking price of $125 million.[25] The price was adjusted to $95 million later that year.[26] The triplex, which was refurbished, had its price adjusted down to $57 million in 2016.[27][28] The triplex was sold to Lutnick for $44 million in 2017.[29]
The Pierre has frequently appeared as a setting in novels, films and in television series.
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