Hotel McAlpin

Herald Towers
The hotel building as seen in 2011
Former names	Hotel McAlpin
General information
Location	1282-1300 Broadway Manhattan, New York
Coordinates	40°44′57″N 73°59′16″W / 40.74917°N 73.98778°W / 40.74917; -73.98778
Construction started	1911
Completed	1912
Height	308 feet (94 m)
Technical details
Floor count	25
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Frank Mills Andrews
References
[1]

Herald Towers, formerly the Hotel McAlpin, is a residential condominium building on Herald Square, along Broadway between 33rd and 34th Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Constructed from 1910 to 1912 by the Greeley Square Hotel Company, it operated as a short-term hotel until 1976. The building was designed by Frank Mills Andrews in the Italian Renaissance style and was the largest hotel in the world at the time of its completion, with 1,500 guestrooms. The hotel was expanded in 1917, when Warren and Wetmore designed an annex with 200 rooms.

The building is 390 feet (120 m) high and has 25 above-ground stories and four basement levels. It is divided into three wings facing Broadway and Sixth Avenue and is largely clad in brick, limestone, and terracotta. The hotel building contains 13,000 short tons (12,000 long tons; 12,000 t) of structural steel as well as an extensive system of mechanical equipment. Originally, the hotel included a triple-height lobby clad in marble and stone, as well as various public rooms in the Renaissance and Louis XVI styles. In the hotel's basement was the Marine Grill, which could fit 250 people. On the upper stories, two floors were set aside for men and women. The top floor had men's baths and a ballroom. In the late 1970s, the hotel was converted into about 690 apartments.

The Greeley Square Hotel Company operated the hotel for two decades and refurbished it in 1928. The hotel was sold in 1936 and refurbished the following year; the New York Life Insurance Company then resold the McAlpin to Joseph Levy in 1945. The hotel was managed by the Knott hotel chain from 1938 to 1952, when the Tisch Organization took over operation. Levy sold the hotel to Sheraton Hotels in 1954 and it was renamed the Sheraton-McAlpin. Following a renovation in 1959, the hotel became the Sheraton-Atlantic Hotel in 1959. Sol Goldman and Alexander DiLorenzo bought the hotel in 1968, restoring the hotel's original name. Sheraton reacquired the hotel in 1976 and resold it to developer William Zeckendorf Jr., who converted the McAlpin to 700 rental apartments. The building reopened in 1980 as the McAlpin House. The McAlpin was renamed Herald Towers in 1999 and was converted to condominiums in the 2000s.