The Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza is a 439-room hotel in the East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by architect Kevin Roche of the firm Roche-Dinkeloo and opened in 1976, the hotel is located at 44th Street and First Avenue, near the headquarters of the United Nations. It occupies part of the ground floor and top 13 stories of One and Two United Nations Plaza, a pair of 39-story skyscrapers also designed by Roche-Dinkeloo. The UN Plaza Hotel is owned by Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and operated by Hilton Hotels & Resorts. Part of the hotel's interior is a New York City designated landmark.
One and Two United Nations Plaza, which respectively opened in 1975 and 1983, are both mixed-use buildings with offices on their lowest stories. The exteriors of both buildings have an angular massing bent at several places, as well as a facade made of glass. The ground story contains the lobby, which consists of a reception area, foyer, and ramp with mirrored surfaces and polygonal lamps. The ramp leads to the Ambassador Grill and Bar at the rear of the hotel; the grill is a popular meeting spot for United Nations diplomats. There are restaurants and meeting spaces on the second story and guest rooms on the 27th through 39th stories. In addition, the hotel contains a swimming pool and an indoor tennis court.
The United Nations Development Corporation (UNDC) developed the hotel, which was owned by the New York City government and operated by Hyatt. The hotel opened on June 8, 1976, with 288 rooms on the top 13 stories of One UN Plaza. The UN Plaza Hotel was further expanded in 1984 after the completion of Two UN Plaza. The hotel was popular among UN diplomats and was consistently profitable in the first two decades of its operation. The New York City government sold the hotel in 1997 to Regal Hotels International, and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels took over the hotel in 1999, renovating it two years later. The hotel was further renovated in the 2010s, during which the Ambassador Grill and the lobby were protected as landmarks. The UN Plaza Hotel became part of the Hilton brand in 2017.
Buildings
The United Nations Hotel occupies the top 13 stories of One and Two United Nations Plaza, a pair of 39-story mixed-use buildings designed by Kevin Roche of Roche-Dinkeloo. The complex was constructed by the government of New York City. One United Nations Plaza, completed in 1975, is the older of the two buildings and was the first large hotel and office building in New York City. Two United Nations Plaza opened in 1983 as an office, residential, and hotel building. One and Two United Nations Plaza are also known respectively as DC1 and DC2. There is a gap between the towers on their upper stories. The two buildings wrap around the 20-story United States Mission to the United Nations on 45th Street and First Avenue.
One United Nations Plaza is located at the corner of 44th Street and First Avenue. The office entrance is on First Avenue, while the hotel entrance is on 44th Street. A canopy shields the hotel's entrance and runs across the width of both buildings. One United Nations Plaza's lowest 26 stories contain offices, while the top 13 stories contain the hotel. One United Nations Plaza's height was dictated by the fact that, under New York City law, it could not be taller than the United Nations Secretariat Building. The building has an L-shaped plan and a facade composed of blue-green glass. The facade is divided into rectangles measuring wide and high. These are arranged into semi-reflective glass panels and glass spandrels, the arrangement of which differs on the upper and lower stories. To comply with zoning regulations, the northern facade contains two setbacks sloped at a 45-degree angle, while the southeast corner has a cutback on its lowest 12 stories. Additionally, the second-story facade slopes outward, creating a canopy above the ground floor. The setbacks are placed above the office stories, which have a larger floor area.
Two United Nations Plaza has a similar design to One UN Plaza. The building is located on 44th Street and has a chamfer on its southeastern corner, which leads to the hotel's lobby. The lowest 23 stories of Two United Nations Plaza contain office space. Above the office stories are sloped setbacks similar to those in One UN Plaza. Both buildings are connected at their lobbies, as well as on the 3rd and 11th floors.
Paul Goldberger called One United Nations Plaza "one of the finest postwar skyscrapers in the city", while John Tauranac said the building "shimmers in the sun" as seen from a distance. William Marlin said the structure "assumes a key spot in the tradition of the tall building". By contrast, Two United Nations Plaza received comparatively little commentary when it was completed. Goldberger wrote that the second building "converts the vocabulary of Modernism into something more eccentric and picturesque, almost sensual", and he believed the two buildings to be "welcoming" despite not relating to their surroundings. According to architectural writer Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, the two buildings formed a "kaleidoscope, always changing, always moving [...] a destination and an active participant in the disco era of the late 1970s and the 1980s".
Design
Lobby
Original lobby When the hotel opened, its lobby was a small T-shaped space on 44th Street. The lobby extended westward to a driveway at the middle of the block, connecting 44th and 45th Streets. Dignitaries could use a private elevator off the hotel's driveway, allowing them to bypass the lobby entirely. The lobby's floors, and the wainscoting on the lowest part of the lobby's walls, were made of Italian verde antique marble. Above the wainscoting was a chrome railing with indirect lighting; its presence obviated the need for table lamps. The rest of the lobby contained fabric panels, which had a similar texture to velvet. The lobby led to a reception area, with a desk and a floor decorated in a black-and-white checkerboard pattern. Next to the lobby was a Chemical Bank branch and an International News Corporation office. The original lobby, adjacent to the hotel's eastern bank of elevators, no longer exists.
Current lobby
The modern lobby, which occupies the base of both buildings, opened in 1983 and consists of a foyer, reception hall, and ramp. A revolving door on 44th Street leads to the foyer, an octagonal hall with a skylight. The floor of the foyer contains squares of dark-green and white veined marble in a checkerboard pattern. The ceiling of the foyer contains chandeliers, each of which contain four rectangular tiers of light bulbs spaced at regular intervals. According to Roche, the foyer's columns incorporate classical design elements, although the columns' design may have also been inspired by ancient Egyptian or Art Deco sources. The walls are decorated with mirrors, transparent glass, and chrome and marble panels.
Immediately across from the main entrance, to the north of the foyer, was the Wisteria Lounge. This space served as a cafe and was decorated with trellises; it was converted into a gift shop in 1995. To the left (west) of the foyer is a reception area, which is designed in a similar manner to the foyer. The main differences in the design are that the floor of the reception area has green-and-white triangles, and the reception area's chandeliers consist of six tiers of light bulbs, arranged in a pyramidal shape. The ceiling is also illuminated by a skylight. The reception area also serves the apartments on the top stories of Two UN Plaza.
To the right (east) of the foyer is a ramp, which leads to the original elevator lobby and the Ambassador Grill inside One UN Plaza. The floor of the hallway consists of white-veined tiles of green marble, which are partially covered by a carpet. On either side of the hallway are four octagonal columns of polished green marble on rectangular pedestals. Each column has mirrored panels on its sides, which are wrapped with horizontal bands, as well as a polygonal capital at its top. The columns divide the hallway into several bays, each of which contains a coved ceiling with mirrored panels. Each bay of the coved ceiling has a multi-tiered pyramidal chandelier with small light bulbs. At the end of the hallway is a small seating area and the eastern bank of elevators (the latter of which were part of the original lobby). Originally, there was an octagonal mirror with floral decorations at the end of this hallway.
Ambassador Grill and Bar The Ambassador Grill and Bar, now the Ambassador Grill and the Ambassador Lounge, are accessible both from the hotel's lobby and from 44th Street. The restaurant is sunken slightly below ground level and occupies an irregularly shaped space at the northern end of the hotel. It was the only public restaurant designed by the Roche-Dinkeloo firm. The Ambassador Grill became a popular meeting spot for United Nations diplomats after it opened in 1975, and it retained this status throughout the years. The restaurant offered a wide range of foods to accommodate the different tastes of the hotel's clientele. According to the hotel's catering manager: "We try to design menus that everyone can eat—it's embarrassing to be singled out."
The restaurant is accessed via a set of steps past the eastern bank of elevators. The walls and piers are set at 45-degree angles and contain dark mirrors. In a New York magazine article, Roche explained why he had added the mirrors: "You want the space to go on and on [...] but you also want to avoid the feeling of a cafeteria". The far end of the room contained a bar with a mirror. Originally, the restaurant was decorated red; this color was also used in staff uniforms, vases, and serving plates. The floor contains a twisting path with dark green and white marble tiles, which runs from the entrance to the dining areas. The room has a dropped ceiling, which is decorated with mirrors and glass trellises. The ceiling above the main pathway includes rectangular glass panels, held in place by metal slats; Ada Louise Huxtable compared it to the roof of a greenhouse. The trellises above the seating area contain angled rows of light bulbs, giving the impression of infinite reflections. Tapestries were placed in acrylic boxes for decoration.
Upper stories Guest rooms
The hotel originally comprised 288 rooms on the top 13 stories of One United Nations Plaza. The corridors leading to the guestrooms were clad in green marble, interspersed with mirrored strips. The original rooms were generally small, except for the suites, many of which were duplexes that contained spiral staircases. Angela Taylor of The New York Times wrote that the lower levels of the suites had grand pianos, while the upper levels had two bedrooms each. The rooms contained various garments, fabrics, and tapestries, some of which had been created as early as the eighth century. Mae Festa, an interior designer working in Roche-Dinkeloo's office, had acquired the tapestries from various antique stores and flea markets worldwide. The rooms contained fabrics in muted colors such as rose-beige, gray-blue, and taupe. Despite the hotel's proximity to the UN headquarters, it only had one presidential suite, compared to 26 such suites at the Waldorf Astoria New York several blocks away.