Trump International Hotel and Tower
1 Central Park West | also 15 Columbus Circle | Lincoln Square | built 1960
Open on the map10 entries
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1966
Developers' circular-tower plan for Columbus Circle is called 'ludicrous' by Ada Louise Huxtable
The developers Forteyn revise their 45-story plan so offices fill only the first nine floors, with a restaurant on the tenth, and the rest becomes a cylinder of apartments. Ada Louise Huxtable calls the scheme ludicrous, a cross between a bow-shaped Hartford building and Chicago's round Marina City. Forteyn cannot get financing, and the site goes to other developers.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1968
Gulf and Western breaks ground on a $20 million tower at Columbus Circle
Gulf and Western Industries announced in October 1967 that it would build the tower for $20 million, with Realty Equities Corporation as builder. Ground was broken in March 1968, and the company raised the floors it wanted from 13 to 22. A strike by elevator installers starting in June 1969 left the nearly finished tower without working lifts for at least four months, and the city stopped work because crews could not be evacuated quickly. The building was completed in 1970.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1969
An elevator installers' strike leaves the nearly finished Gulf and Western tower without elevators
The Gulf and Western tower is almost complete in late 1969, but the elevators are not yet installed because the installers walked out in June. The strike lasts at least four months, so other workers climb the stairs to their floors. The city halts work because the crews could not be evacuated quickly in an emergency.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1977
A bomb planted by the FALN damages the Gulf and Western Building
The Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN set off a bomb at the Gulf and Western Building in February 1977. The tower suffered damage, but nobody died or was hurt. Two years earlier a rooftop antenna had gone up to try out the Westar satellite system, and in the early 1970s a gunman had broken windows at the Top of the Park restaurant, again with no serious injuries.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1982
The tower sways so much in wind that its owner pays for a $10 million brace
By 1982 the building flexed enough in the wind that cracks had opened in its core walls and stairwells, workers reported nausea, and elevator service was disrupted. Some marble on the lower floors had cracked and was covered with plywood. Its owner, Bankers Life, paid more than $10 million for a brace running between the street and the roof.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1994
General Electric hires Donald Trump to turn the tower into a hotel and condominiums, with Philip Johnson as architect
GE took title in early 1993 and spent $2 million steadying the facade. In March 1994 it hired Trump and the Galbreath Company to put condominiums in the upper floors and a hotel below, and Philip Johnson was named architect that May. The street address was switched from Columbus Circle to the more upscale 1 Central Park West. Splitting the tower into permanent homes and short-term hotel rooms let the owners keep its height under zoning rules, and the work cost $230 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1996
City planners rule that Trump's name cannot be lettered on the Columbus Circle globe
Trump wanted 'Trump International' in three-foot letters on the 30-foot globe by Kim Brandell outside the tower. Two city planners wrote that a globe with lettering is a sign, not a permitted obstruction on a public plaza. The Trump Organization argued it was ornamental statuary, but Jerold Kayden of Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space replied that a name does not become art by being attached to it.
Source: 6sqft
- 1996
The residences open in 1996 and the hotel follows in January 1997, with Jean-Georges downstairs
The condominiums opened in April 1996, by which time more than half were sold, helped by Trump's name among overseas buyers. Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Bob Giraldi had signed the lease for the ground-floor restaurant that February. The hotel began taking guests in January 1997, the first to open around Columbus Circle in decades, and it was followed by others such as the Mandarin Oriental in the Time Warner Center.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
A foreclosed 5,500-square-foot penthouse sells for $30 million after a string of owners
Linda Mirels and Philip Kirsh, who already own a lower unit in the building, reportedly pay $30 million for the penthouse. Earlier owners included the bankrupt Italian film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori and a Russian family that was ready to spend $18.5 million before learning what renovation would cost. An auction winner, in between, reportedly spent just over $33 million.
Source: Internet Archive
- 2019
Condominium owners push to drop the Trump name, and the marquee gets a compromise
In June 2019 some condominium owners said the Trump name was hurting values and asked that the building go by its address alone. The condo board considered rebranding the residences as One Central Park West that August but voted to keep the Trump International name. As a compromise, the marquee on the Central Park West side was redone, with Trump's name on the left and the address on the right.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
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