Plaza Hotel

The Plaza Hotel appears as a French chateau dropped into the heart of Manhattan. Architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh designed the structure to evoke the grandeur of a European palace, complete with a mansard roof and white brick facade. When the current building opened in October 1907, it replaced an earlier, smaller hotel that occupied the same site. The developers spent twelve million dollars on the construction, a sum that set a record for hotel building costs at the time. They spared no expense, ordering sixteen hundred crystal chandeliers and filling the interior with rare marble and oak paneling to ensure the property stood out as a premier destination for the city elite.