The Pierre

The Pierre
The Pierre seen from Central Park
Location within New York City
General information
Location	2 East 61st street, Manhattan, New York City, United States
Coordinates
Opening	1930
Owner	Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces
Height	525.01 feet (160.02 m)
Technical details
Floor count	41
Design and construction
Architect	Schultze & Weaver

The Pierre is a luxury hotel located at 2 East 61st Street at the intersection of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, facing Central Park. The hotel, which was designed by Schultze & Weaver, opened in 1930, and was later acquired by Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces of India. Standing 525.01 feet (160.02 m) tall, it is located within the Upper East Side Historic District as designated in 1981 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

History

Charles Pierre Casalasco left his father's restaurant in Ajaccio, Corsica, where he had started as a busboy, assumed Charles Pierre as his full professional name, and began work at the Hotel Anglais in Monte Carlo.

The Rotunda

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, 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, Sr. (the son of Elbridge Thomas Gerry, lawyer, philanthropist and grandson of Elbridge Gerry, the inventor of 'Gerrymandering')".

The 714-room Pierre Hotel that rose forty-one 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 (approximately $210 million in 2023) 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 Auguste 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 (approximately $42 million in 2023) and subsequently sold many cooperative apartments in the building.

Beginning in 1948, New York City's ABC television and FM radio station (then called WJZ-TV Channel 7 and WJZ-FM 95.5, now WABC-TV and WPLJ) broadcast from a tower atop the Pierre, until moving to the Empire State Building a few years later.

President-elect Richard M. Nixon stayed at the Pierre for several months in 1968-69 before moving to Washington.

The Pierre was the scene of the Pierre Hotel Robbery in 1972.

Today, the hotel contains 189 guest accommodations, including forty suites, and thirteen grand suites. Dining options in the hotel include the restaurants Sirio and Perrine and the 2E Lounge.

Ownership

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, John Paul Getty, retained control of the hotel's services and guest rooms. Among the permanent residents at The Pierre have been Elizabeth Taylor, Aristotle Onassis, Viacom entertainment-company chairman Sumner Redstone, Mohamed al-Fayed, then the owner of Harrods, and the late designer Yves Saint-Laurent. Thirteen of the apartments have since become "grand suites".

The Pierre rises over Central Park

A triplex co-op that occupies the top three floors was placed on the market in 2003, with a pricetag of $70 million. 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 Fairfax, in 1999 for $21.5 million. With its $70 million price tag payable in full at purchase, the co-op was listed in 2006 in Forbes magazine as the eighth-most expensive home in the world, fourth-most expensive home in the United States, and second-most expensive home in the Northeastern United States in 2006. It was again put on the market in 2013 at the asking price of $125 million.

The board of directors has turned-down two would-be buyers. The penthouse returned to the market in March 2013 for an asking price of $125 million. The price was adjusted to $95 million later that year.

In popular culture

The Pierre has frequently appeared as a setting in films and in television series.

• The Pierre was referenced in the M*A*S*H episode called "The Party" in season 7, in which the relatives of the main characters get together at the hotel.
• The tango scene in the film Scent of a Woman was shot in the Pierre's Cotillion Ballroom.
• 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.
• It has been mentioned in several episodes of Mad Men and, briefly housed the newly formed "Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce" in room 435.
• In the 2009 film Grey Gardens, Edith Bouvier "Little Edie" Beale has her débutante ball at the hotel, a true story.
• In the Real Housewives of New York City, cast member Ramona Singer had her commitment ceremony at The Pierre.
• The Pierre also appears several times in episodes of CSI:NY (Season 6, Episode 10: "Death House"; Season 7, Episode 2: "Unfriendly Chat").
• Aerial shots of the Pierre penthouse exteriors were used as Arthur Bach's apartment in the 2011 film, Arthur.
• The Pierre penthouse is the home of Anthony Hopkins' character, William Parrish, in the 1998 film Meet Joe Black.
• The driver Marshall, played by Ossie Davis, recommends the Pierre over the Plaza to Joe, played by Tom Hanks, in the 1990 film Joe Versus the Volcano.

See also

• New York City portal

References

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

• Official website
• Wired New York Forum
• The Pierre: 795 Fifth Ave. Detailed building information, building ratings and area maps
• Manhattan Billionaire Hotels: The Pierre's Timeless Grand Suites - Forbes, May 8, 2015