The Pierre is a luxury hotel in New York City located at 2 East 61st street, managed by Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces of India. Situated on Fifth Avenue at 61st Street, facing Central Park, the hotel opened in 1930. It stands 160 meters tall.
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History of the hotel
Charles Pierre Casalasco left his father's restaurant in Ajaccio, Corsica, where he had started as a busboy,[1] assumed Charles Pierre as his full professional name, and began work at the Hotel Anglais in Monte Carlo.[2]
Pierre went on to study haute cuisine in Paris, and he later traveled to London where he met the American restaurateur, Louis Sherry, who offered Pierre a position. After Pierre arrived in New York as a 25-year-old immigrant, he made his first mark as first assistant at Sherry's Restaurant and became professionally acquainted with members of the Social Register, as well as newer millionaires like J. P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts. After nine years at Sherry's,[3] Pierre left, first for the Ritz-Carlton on Madison Avenue at Forty-sixth Street, then opening his own restaurant on Forty-fifth Street immediately west of Fifth Avenue, and finally at Pierre's on Park at 230 Park Avenue.
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 them Otto H. Kahn, Finley J. Shepherd (who had married Helen Gould), Edward F. Hutton, Walter P. Chrysler, and Robert Livingston Gerry (the son of Elbridge Thomas Gerry, lawyer, philanthropist and grandson of Elbridge Gerry, the inventor of 'gerrymandering')".[4]
The 714-room Pierre Hotel that rose forty-two stories on the site of the Gerry mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 61st Street allowed for unrestricted views of Central Park. It cost $15 million to build and opened to grand fanfare in October 1930. The hotel was designed by the New York firm of Schultze and Weaver as a skyscraper that rises in a blond-brick shaft from a limestone-fronted Louis XVI base. Its topmost floors render it an easily-recognizable landmark on the New York skyline; they are modeled after Mansart's Royal 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-eye dormers. New York society turned out to attend the gala dinner that marked the opening of The Pierre; it was prepared by August 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 the Great Depression, The Pierre went into bankruptcy in 1932. The oilman, J. Paul Getty, bought it for about $2.5-million in 1938 and subsequently sold many cooperative apartments in the building.
Today, the hotel contains 201 guest accommodations, including forty suites, and thirteen grand suites.
Ownership of the hotel
The Pierre came under the management of the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in 1981. In its 75th anniversary year in 2005, The Pierre became a Taj Hotel as Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, a global chain of fine luxury hotels and resorts, succeeded as the new lessee and operator. Taj Hotels is part of India's Tata Group,
In 1959, seventy-five apartments were sold to a cooperative of private residents, while The Pierre's owner at that time, J. Paul Getty, retained control of the hotel's services and guest rooms. Among the permanent residents at the The Pierre have been Elizabeth Taylor, Viacom entertainment-company chairman Sumner Redstone, Harrods-owner Mohamed al-Fayed, and the late designer, Yves Saint-Laurent. Thirteen of the apartments have since become 'grand suites', each with its own intimate charm, a residential atmosphere, and personalized details to suit each guest's tastes.
A triplex co-op that occupies the top three floors was placed on the market in 2003, with a pricetag of $70 million. [1] 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 manager, Martin Zweig, from publishing heiress, Mary, Lady Fairfax, in 1999 for $21.5 million. With its $70 million pricetag payable in full at purchase, the co-op was listed in 2006 in Forbes Magazine as the eighth-most expensive home in the world [2], fourth-most expensive home in the United States[3], and second-most expensive home in the Northeastern United States in 2006.[4]. The board of directors has turned-down two would-be buyers. [5]
Trivia
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- The famous tango scene in "Scent of a Woman" was filmed in the Pierre's Cotillion Ballroom
- The Pierre was the scene of the Pierre Hotel Robbery in 1972.
- The Pierre is mentioned in the play, The Heidi Chronicles, and some of the action is set there.
- The Pierre was referenced in the M*A*S*H episode called "The Party" in season 7.
- In the film, Joe Versus the Volcano, Marshall, played by Ossie Davis, recommends The Pierre over the Plaza Hotel.
- In the NBC series, 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, and Jane Krakowski, portraying Jack Donaghy, Liz Lemon, and Jenna Maroney respectively, attend a birthday party at the Pierre for an Austrian prince.
- In an episode of Taxi, a fare asks where to find the best shrimp cocktail and Judd Hirsch says "The Pierre"
- In an episode of season 1 of Gossip Girl, Blair Waldorf references The Pierre when talking about her debutante ball date.
- In The Sopranos episode, "In Camelot," Fran Felstein tells Tony Soprano about President John F. Kennedy's invitation to rendezvous at The Pierre Hotel (and how a steel workers strike aborted those plans).
- In the season 3 finale of AMC's Mad Men, Sterling Cooper Advertising becomes Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and relocates to room 435 of The Pierre.
References
- ^ Casalasco and the founding of The Pierre follows the account in Kate Simon. Fifth Avenue, A Very Social History (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) 1978, reported on-line at the City Review.
- ^ Glamorized history reports his father as owner of the Hotel Anglais, and Charles Pierre as rubbing shoulders with the Russian grand dukes and European royalty who patronized his father's hotel.
- ^ "Smart women were beginning to smoke in public rooms. Mr. Sherry forbade it in his restaurant, an irritating, old-fashioned prohibition, Pierre thought, and, after flights of heated words he left." (Simon 1978).
- ^ Simon 1978.
- The Man Who Robbed The Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever by Ira Berkow
- Contract Killer: The Explosive Story of the Mafia's Most Notorious Hit Man Donald "Tony the Greek" Frankos by William Hoffman & Lake Headley
- Wiseguy: Life In A Mafia Family by Nicholas Pileggi
- Simon, Kate. Fifth Avenue, A Very Social History (New York:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) 1978
External links
40°45′54″N 73°58′18″W / 40.7650308°N 73.9716607°WCoordinates: 40°45′54″N 73°58′18″W / 40.7650308°N 73.9716607°W
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