A look at the $ 1 billion remodel of the Waldorf Astoria

(CNN) – This month marks 90 years since the Waldorf Astoria first opened its doors on New York’s Park Avenue in 1931, becoming the tallest and largest luxury hotel in the world during an unfavorable time, when the Great Depression cast its long shadow.

The hotel’s famous Art Deco interiors have been the backdrop for countless galas and charities for high society, as well as the venue for historic conferences for international politicians. Celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra called it home, while every US president from Herbert Hoover to Barack Obama has rested in the presidential suite.

But the Waldorf Astoria has also been closed for the past four and a half years, undergoing a more than $ 1 billion renovation after it was bought for $ 1.95 billion in 2014 by Chinese insurer Anbang (now Dajia Insurance Group). . While parts of the hotel are being restored to their original state (the rooms, including the Grand Ballroom, are protected by the New York City Monuments Preservation Commission), much of the building is being totally reimagined for the future. . And, for the first time, the Waldorf Astoria will offer owned, rather than rented, residential apartments within the Waldorf Twin Towers.

“In the section I worked on, there was nothing that was iconic, so there was no starting point, there was nothing to preserve,” said Jean-Louis Deniot, the French designer tasked with transforming the new departments and services. (The hotel rooms, meanwhile, will be renovated by Pierre-Yves Rochon). “I wanted to be more modernist … fresher, but without losing the feeling of having my feet on the ground.”

When the Waldorf Astoria reopens in 2023, it will have 375 hotel rooms, up from 1,400, and 375 condo units. Condos for sale will range from studios starting at $ 1.8 million to four-bedroom apartments starting at $ 18.5 million (plus two penthouses, prices for which have not been disclosed). Among the services that only residents will be able to access is the Starlight pool, 25 meters long and with a skylight, which will be located in the space where Ella Fitzgerald used to perform, as well as the Winter Garden, a bar and lounge turned into a green oasis.

“There is something very peaceful and inviting about the sense of serenity of being connected to nature,” Deniot commented.

Deniot is designing the residential spaces with the layout of a private mansion in mind, he said by phone, conceptualizing rooms for leisure and entertainment, such as the stately Presidential Library and Bar and the modern Monte Carlo Games Room.

“I wanted it to feel like a big house and not like a hotel,” he said.

A long legacy

The extensive renovations are the biggest makeover the Waldorf Astoria has received since opening. However, it is the second version of the hotel: the first, established in 1893, was demolished to make way for the Empire State Building. The first hotel was not immediately popular, and the Indianapolis Times reported in 1928 that “people across the country laughed” at the idea of ​​it offering 350 private baths, calling the project “Astor madness.”

The hotel was actually two buildings, the result of a notorious confrontation between two wealthy cousins ​​from the Astor family. William Waldorf Astor, who became the richest man in America thanks to his father’s inheritance, built the Waldorf. Four years later, his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, doomed to become the richest man who died aboard the Titanic in 1912, built a taller hotel right next door. Over time, they put the hostilities aside and separated the name of the hotel and the buildings, connecting the two through a 90-meter marble hallway nicknamed “Peacock Alley.” Among its advantages, the Waldorf-Astoria was the first to offer private baths and room service.

But when the Waldorf Astoria began operating again on Park Avenue, between 49th and 50th streets, it was no longer in the hands of the Astor family (William Waldorf Astor died in 1919), but of the hotelier Lucius M. Boomer, who managed the hotel after it was acquired by T. Coleman du Pont in 1918. Following the sale of the property, the board of directors sold him the rights to the Waldorf-Astoria name for one dollar as a gesture of goodwill, and he used the deal to his advantage .

In the following decades, the property reached its peak, attracting the world’s most famous faces. The suites were named after Elizabeth Taylor and Winston Churchill after their stays, and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt owned an apartment at Las Torres more than a decade ago. Other famous residents of the Waldorf have been Sinatra and composer Cole Porter, who stayed in Suite 33A: Porter for 30 years, until his death in 1964, and Sinatra in the 1970s and 1980s. Monroe, meanwhile, held the Suite 2728 for much of 1955, paying $ 1,000 a week (about $ 10,200 today).

When former President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower settled on the seventh floor in the 1960s, they chose a lower story than the Towers because of her fear of heights, according to the hotel. They had the elevator reconfigured so that it would stop on their floor and thus have full access to the services of the Towers.

Incorporation of new works of art

The Waldorf has preserved some of its most famous objects over the years, such as Porter’s 1907 Steinway piano. This one, along with the murals, mosaics and the three-meter clock in the lobby – an intricate 19th-century clock commissioned by Queen Victoria for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair – will also be renovated.

They will now be joined by a new collection of artworks, curated by auctioneer and dealer Simon de Pury, which will be exhibited in the shared facilities of the towers. The collection will only include original works of art, including pieces by emerging artists such as Taiwanese-Canadian sculptor An Te Liu, Korean mixed media artist Minjung Kim and Swiss painter Philippe Decrauzat.

“Ninety-five percent of hotel projects around the world include prints and reproductions,” de Pury said by email. “Original art is much more personal. We have made sure to select works that contextually highlight the architecture and decor.”

Images of many of the new residential spaces have already been released, but the crown jewels, the two Deniot-designed penthouses, are still in the works. Its aim is to design “more contemporary” spaces, but also “timeless”, so it is not necessarily guided by the long history of the building.

“You don’t want to go too far back in time. There is a feeling of melancholy,” he said. “In the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, everyone had a lot of fun there. The reason the whole place was remodeled is to bring it into the next century.”