The Drake Hotel – Another Landmark Gone – brought down this time not by bankruptcy but by the greed of a developer called Harry Macklowe
The Drake Hotel was the last symbol of the elegant buildings that lined Park Avenue in the mid-town fifties, they have all been replaced by featureless glass boxes with no style. I am particularly disheartened as I lived across the street from the fifty-sixth street entrance at one time.
This was a lovely old building and a hotel that was run well, and for the city building department to allow Macklowe Properties to demolish it without hesitation, and even before the proposed project was a reality, is appalling. The property now still sits vacant after a couple of years, and is a weed infested eyesore while “the deal” is no further along than it was before, except that Macklowe is deeper in debt and less able to put things together, although he tyrannically hangs on.
Found during the recent renovation, the domed stained glass ceiling was restored, and fitted with a lighting system that subtly changes to suggest the time of day.
Rainbow Room in the 1940’s, although today catering mainly to tourists
I have used an image of the entrance way, which has changed little through the years, as opposed to a shot of the interior as designed by LeRoy
