Marriott World Trade Center

The Marriott World Trade Center was a 22-story, 825-room hotel at 3 World Trade Center within the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. It opened in April 1981 as the Vista International Hotel and was the first major hotel to open in Lower Manhattan south of Canal Street since 1836. It was also known as World Trade Center 3 (WTC 3 or 3 WTC), the World Trade Center Hotel, the Vista Hotel, and the Marriott Hotel throughout its history.

Marriott World Trade Center
The Marriott World Trade Center (bottom) below the Twin Towers, May 2001.
Alternative names
  • Vista International Hotel (1981-1995)
  • Three World Trade Center
General information
StatusDestroyed
TypeHotel
LocationWorld Trade Center, Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates40°42′41″N 74°00′50.5″W
Construction startedMarch 1979
CompletedJuly 1, 1981
OpeningApril 1, 1981
DestroyedSeptember 11, 2001
ManagementHost Marriott Corporation
Height
Roof73.7 m (242 ft)
Technical details
Floor count22
Design and construction
Architect(s)Skidmore, Owings & Merrill[1]
DeveloperPort Authority of New York and New Jersey
Structural engineerLeslie E. Robertson Associates
Main contractorTishman Construction

The hotel was damaged in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It was destroyed by structural damage caused by the collapse of the World Trade Center as a result of the September 11 attacks. The hotel was not replaced as part of the new World Trade Center complex, although its address was reused for a tower at 175 Greenwich Street.

Description

The building was a 22-story steel-framed structure[2] with 825 rooms and six basement levels (labeled B1 through B6).[3]

The hotel was connected to the North tower via an underground entrance at concourse level, and a small pedestrian walkway that extended from the west promenade of the Marriott to the North Tower on plaza level. On the 22nd floor, there was a gym that was the largest of any hotel in New York City at the time, with a swimming pool and a running track with views of the Hudson River and the Austin J Tobin Plaza.[4] The hotel also had 26,000 square feet (2,400 m2) of meeting space on the entire third floor. It was considered a four-diamond hotel by the American Automobile Association (AAA).[5]

The hotel featured 2 restaurants called The Tall Ships Bar and Grill, located on Street level as well as the Greenhouse Café, a restaurant on plaza level that featured a large skylight looking up at the North and South tower. [6] Previously, another restaurant had operated called The American Harvest; however, it was removed following the bombing in 1993 and was renovated and remained as a rentable space called the Harvest Room.[7]

History
Austin Tobin Plaza. Buildings (from left to right): 2 World Trade Center, Marriott World Trade Center, 1 World Trade Center. 1995.

The hotel was first known as the Vista International Hotel, but also became known as World Trade Center 3 (WTC 3 or 3 WTC), the World Trade Center Hotel, the Vista Hotel and the Marriott Hotel.[8] The building was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with construction beginning in March 1979.[9] The hotel opened on April 1, 1981, with 100 of 825 rooms available,[10] and it was completed in July 1981.[11] Shortly before the opening day of the Vista, a fire broke out on the 7th floor.[1] The Vista International was the first major hotel to open in Lower Manhattan south of Canal Street since 1836.[12][10]

Kuo Hotel Corporation, based in Hong Kong, bought the hotel's leasehold in 1982 from Edward W. Ross and Jerrold Wexler.[13] In 1989, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey bought the leasehold from Kuo[14] for $78 million but the operating rights remained in the hands of Hilton International as management agent. On November 9, 1995, it was sold to Host Marriott Corporation for $141.5 million.[15] This was one year after the reopening due to an extensive renovation following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[16] The new company started operations in January 1996.[17][18]

In 2002, Host Marriott Corporation was offered an opportunity to rebuild the hotel in the same location within the World Trade Center site as its lease which was signed until 2094 had not expired. Marriott declined the offer, and in October 2003, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey voted on an agreement under which the Host Marriott Corporation would "surrender the premises" resulting in termination of the lease[1] and thus giving the land to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

1993 World Trade Center bombing

On February 26, 1993, the hotel was seriously damaged as a result of the World Trade Center bombing.[19] Terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda took a Ryder truck loaded with 1,500 pounds (682 kilograms) of explosives and parked it in the North Tower parking garage below the hotel's ballroom. At 12:18 p.m. (EDT), the explosion destroyed or seriously damaged the lower and sub levels of the World Trade Center complex. After extensive repairs, the hotel reopened on November 1, 1994, and one year later in 1995, the hotel was purchased by Marriott Hotels & Resorts.[19]

Marriott hotel during the September 11 attacks.

September 11, 2001 attacks
Further information: September 11 attacks
The hotel destroyed after the attacks.
Aerial photograph of the World Trade Center site with markup showing original locations. The hotel was located at 3 World Trade Center.

On September 11, 2001, the hotel had 940 registered guests.[20] In addition, the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) was holding its yearly conference at the hotel from September 8 to 11, 2001.[21]

When American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower (1 WTC) at 8:46 a.m. EDT, its landing gear fell on the hotel's roof. Firefighters used the lobby as a staging area, and were also in the hotel to evacuate guests that may have still been inside. Firefighters also reported human remains and entire corpses on the roof from people that were forced to jump or accidentally fell from the burning towers. The collapse of the South Tower (2 WTC) at 9:59 a.m. EDT essentially split the building in half. The collapse of the North Tower at 10:28 a.m. EDT destroyed the rest of the hotel aside from a small section that was farthest from the North Tower.[20] Fourteen people who had been trying to evacuate the partially destroyed hotel after the first collapse managed to survive the second collapse in this small section. The section of the hotel that managed to survive the collapse of the Twin Towers had been upgraded after the 1993 bombing.

On the afternoon of September 11, photographer Thomas E. Franklin captured the now-iconic image Raising the Flag at Ground Zero, depicting the U.S. flag being raised by firefighters upon a flagpole believed to have been Marriott property located on what remained of the hotel grounds.

Aftermath

As a result of the collapse of the Twin Towers, the hotel was destroyed beyond repair. Only a small three-story section of the southernmost part of the building remained standing, all of which was eventually removed. In the remnants of the lobby, picture frames with the pictures inside them were still hanging on the walls. Approximately 40 people died in the hotel, including two hotel employees who had stayed to aid the evacuation and a number of firefighters who had been clearing the hotel and using it as a staging ground.[20]

In January 2002, the remnants of the hotel were completely dismantled to make way for reconstruction. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum was built where the hotel once stood.

The building and its survivors were featured in the television special documentary film Hotel Ground Zero, which premiered September 11, 2009 on the History Channel.[22]

References
  1. Dunlap, David W. (October 24, 2003). "Marriott Ceding Property Where Hotel Stood on the World Trade Center Site". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  2. Hai S. Lew; Richard W. Bukowski; Nicholas J. Carino (September 2005). "Design, Construction, and Maintenance of Structural and Life Safety Systems. Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster (NIST NCSTAR 1-1)". NIST. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
  3. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 31, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. Johnston, Laurie (January 24, 1982). "Vista Hotel Bringing New Life to Downtown Area". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 31, 2022.
  5. "New York Marriott World Trade Center (archived website)". Archived from the original on March 2, 2001. Retrieved March 2, 2001.
  6. "New York Marriott World Trade Center". March 31, 2001. Archived from the original on March 31, 2001. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  7. "03". April 7, 2002. Archived from the original on April 7, 2002. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  8. Federal Emergency Management Agency, (FEMA) (2002). World Trade Center Building Performance Study: Data Collection, Preliminary Observations, and Recommendations. Government Printing Office. p. 3.1. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
  9. "Realty News World Trade Center Getting New Tenants". The New York Times. April 1, 1979. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  10. Gaiter, Dorothy J. (April 2, 1981). "Hotel in the Trade Center Greets Its First 100 Guests". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  11. "The city's newest hotel, the Vista International, officially opened..." UPI. July 1, 1981. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  12. Eisner, Harvey (April 2002). "Terrorist Attack At New York World Trade Center". Firehouse Magazine. Archived from the original on September 27, 2009.
  13. Dunlap, David W. (June 30, 1991). "Commercial Property: Downtown Hotels; Bond, Vista, Marriott -- Now, Comes the Millenium". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  14. Lueck, Thomas J. (May 10, 1995). "Vista Hotel for Sale, Port Authority Says". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  15. "Port Authority Sells Hotel". The New York Times. New York City. November 10, 1995. p. 4. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
  16. Deutsch, Claudia H. (October 31, 1994). "20 Months After Bombing, Vista Hotel to Finally Reopen". The New York Times. New York City. p. 3. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
  17. "Cabbies Gain Access to Restrooms". The New York Times. New York City. December 20, 1995. p. 3. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
  18. Baker, William. "WTC 3" (PDF). fema.gov. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). p. 1. Retrieved December 8, 2022. Marriott operated the hotel from 1996 until the attacks on September 11, 2001.
  19. Hedgpeth, Dana (September 14, 2001). "Marriott Loses Hotels In Attack". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 19, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  20. Dwyer, Jim; Fessenden, Ford (September 11, 2002). "One Hotel's Fight to the Finish; At the Marriott, a Portal to Safety as the Towers Fell". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  21. Goldstein, Daniel (September 12, 2016). "15 years after 9/11, survivors talk about how it impacted their priorities". MarketWatch. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  22. Hotel Ground Zero. DocumentaryVine.com. September 11, 2009.
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