CONFESSIONS ON THE DANCE FLOOR

A1 Quality Safes Electronic Luxury Hotel Room Security Safes

Heavy duty steel construction offers excellent burglary protection Convenient motorized locking system, incorporating the latest technology Easy to read, large LED display let's you know the status of the hotel safes 4 digit combination, standard hotel room configuration (customer sets new combination every time safe is used, quiclky and easily). Reliable ADA approved keypad Electronic override can be set by security personnel Runs on 4 AA batteries. Lock-out penalty if the combination is entered wrong, the hotel safes will lock up for 15 minutes, frustrating the would -be-burglar Spacious interior fits most lap top computers Two anchor bolts with mounting hardware included Attractive carpeted bottom hides anchor bolts Guest instruction label included Packed for UPS shipment.
Note: Products are not available for Hawaii and Alaska States.
Features:

• Professional hotel version with six-digit bright LED Panel
• Security and power status shown by a series of LED displays and tones for each operation
• Input a code when closing the door and that code will open the door
• Master code available
• Motorized driving
• Two high-security override keys
• Uses 4 x AA size (1.5V) batteries
• Pre-drilled holes inside the safe with bolts allow permanent mounting to any surface
• Plastic-coated interior and exterior

Specifications:

• External Dimensions: 200 x 430 x 350mm
• Internal Dimensions: 190 x 420 x 300mm

Grand Army Plaza, Midtown, Manhattan

By day, the impressive white mass of the Plaza Hotel is visible above the trees in Central Park. By night, the lighted windows and the picturesque silhouette of the high roofs, reminiscent of a French Renaissance Chateau, add a note of beauty to the skyline. Located at Fifth Avenue on Central Park South, the building occupies one of the finest sites in the City and is the most elegant of our great New York hotels.

Although the detail and decoration arc in a style which the architect described as French Renaissance, the boldness of mass and good scale of this eighteen story white brick and marble structure make the Plaza the outstanding example of American hotel architecture of the first decade of the twentieth Century.

To the east, the Hotel faces toward Fifth Avenue, but is separated from it by the Pulitzer Memorial Fountain which forms part of the Grand Army Plaza, extending from 58th Street to 60th Street, ending with Augustus Saint-Gaudens great equestrian statute of General Sherman. The whole design of this area is like that of a European square and is one of the few squares of this quality existing in New York City. Although the surrounding buildings are not stylistically unified, at least some attempt was made to rotate them through use of materials and the treatment of the facades. No other hotel in New York commands such an important and beautiful site. The Plaza Hotel, the second of this name at this same location, was constructed between the years 1905-1907 from the plans of Henry J. Hardenbergh, an architect of unusual ability, who was a pioneer in the field of luxury hotel and apartment house design. He is also noted for having designed the Dakota Apartments on Central Park West. The architect of the Hotel took full cognizance of the site, as he explained "to allow the building to be viewed in its entirety from many points of view and from considerable distances."

The imposing dignity of the two principal faces of the hotel is largely due to the carefully worked out unity and symmetry of the basic design. Since the north and east elevations are often viewed together, the corner tower provides a strong, coherent transition from one to the other. Repetition of architectural motifs such as balconies, balustrades, arches, loggias. pi tasters and columns gives unity to the overall design.

The picturesque gables of the Fifth Avenue front successfully counterbalance the ornate dormers of that facing Central Park. The rotation of the upper loggias to the breaks in the front wall has been skillfully worked out. It is these subtleties of design, as well as many attractive details, which make the Hotel so satisfying architecturally, whether considered in its parts or as a whole.
Both of the main facades are tripartite in composition, being composed of a central portion with terminal sections at each corner. Vertically, they consist of a base, a shaft and a crown, each clearly marked off by horizontal band courses or balconies for emphasis.

The base consists of three stories of marble two of which are rusticated. The shaft is formed by ten floors of white brick topped by a marble balcony which creates a band of deep shadow. The crown consists of the top five floors including the gables and stoop slate roofs with their dormers. Two corners of the rusticated base on the cast side are rounded, these flow logically upward into turrets which rise uninterruptedly for fourteen floors, through shaft and roof crown, terminated by small domical roofs.

The entrance portico of the Fifth Avenue front extends the width of the center portion and is composed of six columns in a modified version of the Tuscan order, topped by a balustraded balcony. Above this, paired pillasters of Corinthian derivation rise through the second and third floors, to support the continuous entablature and dividing the wall into five bays of windows. Tiers of windows arranged symmetrically rise, one above the other, to form the simple brick shaft of the building but, toward the top, decorative horizontal band courses are introduced, making a transition to the ornate roofs above.

The gray-green mansard roof rises steeply and displays three tiers of picturesque dormer windows, varying in size and design, which create a sparkle of light and shade against the expanse of roof, which is topped by an elaborately patterned cresting of green copper.

Originally, there were only two entrances, the main one on West Fifty-ninth Street and a more exclusive one on 58th Street, used mostly by the permanent guests. The 58th Street facade, although in character with the two principal ones, is treated more simply and has an addition of later date to the west. On the Fifth Avenue side, a low, broad terrace once looked out over the square and opened from a restaurant, now the Fifth Avenue lobby. In 1921 the terrace was removed to make way for the present Fifth Avenue entrance. At that time three hundred more r

The Concorde Hotel New York (formerly the Fitzpatrick East 55th Street Hotel)
127 East 55th Street (between Lexington and Park)
New York, NY 10022

Leon Weinstein and his company Greentree Enterprises built the 36—story condominium to be called Park Gallery Tower in 1983. According to the NY Times the plan was to have one condo per floor.

Built on a 38- by 100-foot parcel it was one of the last of the so-called ”sliver buildings” built in NYC. The City Planning Commission enacted restrictions that prevent building tall slender structures on narrow sites. These restrictions have since been lifted.

The whole-floor, 2,075- square-foot condominiums were marketed for $600,000 at the lowest l floors; up to $1,650,000 on the higher floors.

Park Gallery Tower failed as a residential condominium.

London-based Barclays Hotel Group bought the building in January 1984. It contracted with the architect Horace Ginsbern & Associates to re-engineer the building to a 107-room hotel with a small restaurant and bar. The hotel was to be named “The Howard” after the London hotel built by the billionaire Barclay brothers (David and Frederick who also own the Ritz Hotel London) in 1975 called Howard Hotel, overlooking the Thames at Temple Place (now known as Swissotel The Howard, London).

Barclay’s plans for a luxury hotel did not proceed. The public areas in the building were likely not adequate for a 4 to 5 star hotel. The hotel was transitioned to another British company – Trusthouse Forte.

In the 1980s London-based Trusthouse Forte began an expensive new expansion in the U.S. hotel market with its three tier brands TraveLodge, Viscount and Trusthouse Forte Exclusive Hotels.

Barry Conrad (formerly head of Sonesta and Quality Inns*) was named president of the U.S. subsidiary Trusthouse Forte, Inc. In 1984 Trusthouse Forte refashioned 12 of its existing TraveLodge properties in major cities into a new hotel chain called Viscount Hotels.

The mid-price brand Viscount fit the 55th Street building. It would be Viscount’s second hotel in NYC – the first was the Viscount Hotel at JFK International Airport. Viscount Hotels in-house restaurants were known as Palm Grill and the lounges called The Bar--Spirits and Cheers.

HVS reported that Trusthouse Forte sold the Viscount Hotel in February 1990 to British Airways for $21,784,000 ($123,073 per room).

British Airways contracted with Fitzpatrick Hotel Company (Jolly Tinker, Inc.) to operate the hotel for the benefit of British Airway crews and employees. The sheer volume of daily flights BA operates to New York meant having their own hotel for staff made financial sense. The hotel’s name changed to the Fitzpatrick East 55th Street Hotel – but was not open to the public.

According to HVS British Airways sold the Fitzpatrick managed hotel in August 2002 to Hotel Properties LTD, Singapore for $30,690,000 ($236,077 per room).

HPL retained Fitzpatrick Hotels as the manager and the contract continued with British Airways to operate it solely for BA’s benefit.

In a June 2002 press release Phil Hogg, Head of Property for British Airways, remarked, "The London - New York route continues to be a significant route for British Airways, and we are delighted that we have agreed with the new owners to continue our occupation of the hotel for our flight personnel."

Hotel Properties LTD discontinued the contract with Fitzpatrick Hotels and renamed the hotel to its proprietary brand – Concorde Hotel. As of 2010 the Concorde Hotel remains as a hotel for British Airway crews but not as a hotel for the public.

Feride Kecici is the Concorde’s’ General Manager. Formerly he was Assistant General Manager at Fitzpatrick Hotel and also was Director of Front Office at The Benjamin Hotel.

*Barry Conrad died at age 55 in the 1996 Bosnia plane crash that took the lives of dozens of American executives including Commerce Secretary Ron H. Brown.