Trump International Hotel and Tower: How the Gulf and Western Building Got a Gold-Tinted Skin and a New Address

By Solomon Rokowsky

Trump International Hotel and Tower and the globe at Columbus Circle. Photograph by Ingfbruno, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Trump International Hotel and Tower, at One Central Park West on Columbus Circle, is a Donald Trump building that was not built from the ground up. The tower was already there. It was an office building called the Gulf and Western Building, and Trump's role in the 1990s was to redevelop it with General Electric and the Galbreath Company. That distinction matters for anyone asking who built what, so this article keeps it in view: Trump developed the conversion, Philip Johnson and Costas Kondylis designed the new skin, and the structure inside is older.

What was the building before Trump got involved?

The New York Times described it in 1994 as a 44-story skyscraper that had stood for 24 years "like an oversized, silver-and-black gatepost at the southwest corner of Central Park." Gulf and Western's corporate successor, Paramount Communications, had its headquarters there, and the Times said Paramount was expected to leave by April 1995 to join its new corporate parent, Viacom, at 1515 Broadway.

The building was also known for how it moved. In 1995 the Times critic Herbert Muschamp wrote that the steel structure was "notorious for swaying in not-so-high winds." The redevelopment plan included a new concrete core to stiffen it. The 1994 Times report said the old tower was far larger than anything that could be built on the site under the zoning of the time. That is why the developers chose to strip it to its steel skeleton and rebuild it rather than demolish it and start over.

Columbus Circle on February 10, 1938. Photograph by Berenice Abbott, New York Public Library, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

How did Trump become the developer?

The Times reported on March 23, 1994 that the former Gulf and Western Building would be emptied of office tenants, stripped to its steel frame and turned into an "extravagant apartment tower." It named Trump as a member of the redevelopment team and said the plan called for 200 to 300 apartments in the upper part of the tower, with the lower floors serving perhaps as a hotel or offices, a rebuilt plaza, a 1997 completion and a cost of $200 million to $250 million. The developers decided there were more buyers for high-priced condominiums overlooking Central Park and Lincoln Center than tenants for an obsolete office building with small floors.

By June 1995, when Muschamp wrote that construction was officially starting, the project was described as financed by the General Electric Pension Fund and developed by Trump "in association with General Electric and the Galbreath Company." So the sources describe Trump as the developer within a team, not as the owner of the whole building. The $250 million project would "piggyback a luxury apartment building atop a hotel in one high-rise structure."

Who designed the gold-tinted tower?

Muschamp credited Philip Johnson and Costas Kondylis with the design. He described the old 1950s-style International Style glass skyscraper as being dressed in "a 1980's gold lame party dress," and said the developers called the new look "a tribute to the tradition of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe," with whom Johnson had worked on the Seagram Building. The old walls of dark glass and light concrete ribbing were to be replaced with a skin whose spandrels and columns were covered in golden-bronze glass. Muschamp compared the approach to the Grand Hyatt, the project with which Trump made his Manhattan debut: another case of cladding an old building in a new skin.

Muschamp's verdict was mixed. He called the result "an undeniable improvement over the dull dark box" that had stood on the site for 25 years, while predicting that the brassy display would draw "howls of derision" from people who had hoped the glitzy 1980s were over, and that it might infuriate those who wanted Columbus Circle to get a uniform design treatment.

How many floors and rooms does it have?

The sources do not agree, and each snapshot comes from a different stage of the project. In 1994 the Times called the existing building 44 stories. In June 1995 Muschamp called the new building 45 stories, with a 167-unit hotel in the lower 17 floors and 166 apartments in the remaining 28 floors. In January 1997 a Times travel item, written as the building opened, called it a 52-story structure with a 168-room hotel on floors 3 through 17 and a 158-unit condominium above. The Trump Organization's own page also says the tower soars 52 stories, with residences on floors 23 through 52 reached through a private entrance on Central Park West. The Times articles do not explain the jump from 44 or 45 stories to 52, so this article gives the figures as reported and does not attempt to reconcile them.

The 1997 item also gives a feel for the hotel at opening. Each guest had a personal "attache," each room had a full kitchen and a small brass telescope, and the 40 two-bedroom suites had a powder room in the entry hall. Rates then were $475 to $525 for standard rooms, $625 to $800 for one-bedroom suites and $1,350 to $1,650 for two-bedroom suites. Room service came from the new Jean-Georges restaurant, run by the chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The Times said the tower was scheduled to open that week, and noted that the address had changed: "Four years ago, it was 15 Columbus Circle; today, it's 1 Central Park West."

The globe at the foot of Trump International Hotel and Tower. Photograph by Jorge Royan, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Why did the building keep a Trump name that some owners wanted gone?

In August 2019 the Times reported that the hotel and tower carried the Trump name on three prominent signs and that the Trump Organization was considering changing them. Donald Trump Jr. had offered a compromise to head off demands from some owners that the building lose its Trump branding entirely: the residences would get billing as One Central Park West while the Trumps would keep managing the property and keep their name on the hotel's signs. The Times said the move followed a contentious June meeting at which several dozen owners complained that the name had hurt the property since Trump announced his presidential bid. It also called the building the first hotel to bear his name and the only one left in New York.

The New York Post reported on September 11, 2019 that the condo board had voted unanimously the previous night to keep the Trump name on signage with minor changes. The marquee would drop the word "Tower" and add the address, 1 Central Park West, reading "Trump International Hotel" followed by the address, while the legal name of the building would remain Trump International Hotel and Tower. A second sign at the front, below the globe, would be removed. 6sqft, citing the Post, said the nine-member board included Donald Trump Jr. and had debated the changes for three months.

The Columbus Circle globe in front of the Time Warner Center, May 2010. Photograph by OptimumPx, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Which restaurants and bars are inside Trump International Hotel and Tower?

The best known is Jean-Georges, which the Michelin Guide lists at Trump International Hotel & Tower, 1 Central Park West. The restaurant's own site says it is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday, with lunch from noon to 2 p.m. and dinner from 4:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The Michelin listing gives 5 p.m. as the dinner start, so the two sources differ by 15 minutes. The restaurant site says jackets are suggested but not required, that T-shirts, shorts and sporting attire are declined, and that guests ten and older are welcome if they will have the tasting menu.

Its more casual sibling, Nougatine, has a separate hours page. It lists breakfast from 7 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, lunch from noon to 2:30 p.m., and dinner from 5 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. seven days a week, with a business casual dress code. The Trump Organization's dining page also lists a Terrace at Nougatine with views of Columbus Circle and Central Park, and says reservations there are subject to weather.

This article could not confirm from an official source whether the hotel still runs a separate lobby bar, so none is listed. Hours can change, so book or check before you go.

Who owns Trump International Hotel and Tower today?

The building is a condominium with a hotel and residential section, so ownership is shared. The Times said in 2019 that the Trump Organization manages the property and owns some portions of it, but that there are hundreds of individual unit owners. It also said the building was not a major moneymaker for the family. The 1995 Times article said the hotel's condominium suites were intended mainly for corporate owners, and the project was financed by the General Electric Pension Fund with the Galbreath Company as a partner. The sources read for this article do not say who owns the hotel units or the commercial spaces now, and this article does not guess. Current ownership of any unit is recorded in the city's property records.

On naming, the building is still called Trump International Hotel and Tower on the Trump Organization's website, which also uses the address One Central Park West. The Post and 6sqft both reported in 2019 that the legal name stays Trump International Hotel and Tower even though the marquee now carries the address.

Sources

• The New York Times, Former Gulf and Western Building To Be a Luxury Apartment Tower (March 23, 1994)
• The New York Times, Trump Tries to Convert 50's Style Into 90's Gold (June 21, 1995)
• The New York Times, New Trump Hotel On Central Park (January 19, 1997)
• The New York Times, Trump's Signature New York Hotel and the Art of the Compromise (August 25, 2019)
• New York Post, Trump International Hotel and Tower to keep Trump, lose Tower (September 11, 2019)
• 6sqft, Condo board at Trump's Central Park West building votes to keep president's name on signage (September 12, 2019)
• The Trump Organization, Trump International Hotel and Tower
• Jean-Georges, hours, dress code and age policy
• Nougatine at Jean-Georges, hours and dress code
• Michelin Guide, Jean-Georges (address and hours)
• The Trump Organization, Trump Dining