The Sherry-Netherland Hotel

The Sherry-Netherland Hotel, at the corner of 5th Ave. and 59th Street. Built in 1927, it is a fancy-schmancy hotel/residence, with rooms renting for $500-$1700/night and units selling for up to $95 million. Though it's a hotel, it only has 54 hotel rooms and suites. Most of it is comprised by 165 co-op apartments, though those owners may then rent out their apartments, like an Airbnb for the 1%.  Past residents included Barbara Streisand, George Burns, Francis Ford Coppola, Diana Ross, and Judge Judy, and David Bowie held court there for a year in 1974.

The building itself is not a NYC landmark, but the clock in front of it is for some reason, and it is part of the Upper East Side Historic District.

The building was built by Louis Sherry, an ice cream magnate, and Lucius Boomer, a hotel operator. Sherry purchased the exclusive New Netherlands Hotel, then demolished it to build his skyscraper. Sherry retained the Netherlands name to maintain its connotations of luxury and elitism, and so named the hotel The Sherry-Netherland. Sherry died in 1926, before the building even opened, but Sherry's Chocolates are still placed on the table in each guest room.

It was designed by the firms of Schultze & Weaver and Buchman & Kahn in a neo-Romanesque and Renaissance style. Completed in 1927, it was the world's tallest apartment building at the time at 38 stories, 560 feet high, and was one of the first in New York City to be built using a steel frame. The neo-Romanesque/Neo-Gothic roofline disguises the water tower. One conspicuous feature is that it lacks the usual hotel lobby bar. Built during Prohibition, it was decided that there was no need to waste the real estate to accommodate a then-illegal activity.

While still under construction, the upper floors suffered a huge fire when a wooden scaffold caught on fire months before it opened. The elevators were not fully functional and the standpipes failed to deliver enough water pressure for firefighters to combat the blaze. The conflagration was visible for miles around, and thousands of people watched until the fire burned itself out. You can see film footage of the fire at this site. Nonetheless, the building was completed and opened on schedule, with apartments renting for $20,000-$30,000 a year.

Photo from NY Times

This company used the fire to pitch their paint!

Two process shots. Initially drawn in pencil, then finished in black ink with pigma micron pens.

The building is filled in with masking fluid before I lay in the sky with watercolor washes. The color on the building is then applied with watercolor pencils.

Historical sources:

NY Times - The Night A Hotel Turned Into A Torch

Storied Hotels

Historic Hotels - Then And Now