THE PLAZA HOTEL

Few hotels are as iconic as the 20-story, French Renaissance château-style Plaza Hotel, a New York City and National Historic Landmark, designed by Architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. On the southeast corner of Central Park, the legendary building first opened its doors on Oct. 1, 1907, and has been sold several times since.

​

The current owners of the Plaza Hotel – Elad Properties and Kingdom Holdings – closed the building in 2005 for a lobby-to-roof renovation prior to reopening as a hotel and condominium. As part of the renovation, they commissioned Seaboard for the exterior work, maintaining the integrity of the original architecture while restoring the building to pristine condition. The project adhered to all New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission regulations.

​

The Plaza Hotel’s comprehensive exterior restoration included façade cleaning, brick replacement and repointing, limestone and terra cotta repair, and structural steel work. To match the historic brick on the street façade, Seaboard crew members commissioned, installed and re-pointed new white-glazed brick from Belden Brick of Canton, Ohio. The team rebuilt limestone loading and delivery bays at the hotel’s southwest corner to match the original design and adjacent limestone. The limestone base of the hotel was also repaired.

​

Structural steel work involved dismantling and rebuilding one of the wrought-iron marquees – including a new support armature – and restoring the other marquees with new ornamental cast-iron pieces from Allen Architectural metals of Talladega, Ala. Seaboard craftsmen also repaired and replaced terra cotta stone around window sills, dormers and lintels on three floors of the hotel. The final phase of the project involved caulking and installing sealant around the windows for waterproofing and brightening the façade with a chemical cleaner.

​

Most challenging was the installation of rigging on the steep, sloping mansard roof with dormers. Seaboard erected 17 exterior masts from the ground up, and then hung a platform so workers could move the scaffolding as needed to complete the project safely.