`20s Skyscraper in NYC

Mr. Lee’s vision was a 1,200-room bachelor hotel with club-type characteristics: a swimming pool, squash courts, billiard rooms, a solarium and an infirmary. The New York World in 1923 claimed that the Shelton would be the tallest residential building in the world.

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John in Covina said:

Be interesting to see if it has survived intact or had many rennovations so the interior has been changed.

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dhermann1 said:

The story implies that the 2007 renovation fixed up an already pretty gutted out hotel.

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Richard Moses, the architect in charge of the project, says that Mr. Harmon’s high-up details, including heads, masks, griffins and gargoyles, are generally intact, although several that have been particularly beaten up by the elements have been replaced.

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The Marriott East Side is down to 646 rooms, and the original interior of the 1924 hotel is down to fragments, like the stair hall to the right of the main lobby. The squash courts are gone; in their place is an exercise room on the 35th floor with spectacular views all the way round. The hotel has named rooms after Mr. Harmon, Mr. Stieglitz and Miss O’Keeffe.

Swimming ended years ago, and the space has been split horizontally into three levels. But there is a hint of Houdini in the subbasement: the original tiled pool ladder at the corner where he was submerged is intact.

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