Marriott World Trade Center

40°42′41″N 74°00′50.5″W / 40.71139°N 74.014028°W / 40.71139; -74.014028Construction startedMarch 1979CompletedJuly 1, 1981OpeningApril 1, 1981DestroyedSeptember 11, 2001ManagementHost Marriott CorporationHeightRoof73.7 m (242 ft)Technical detailsFloor count22Design and constructionArchitect(s)Skidmore, Owings & Merrill^[1]DeveloperPort Authority of New York and New JerseyStructural engineerLeslie E. Robertson AssociatesMain contractorTishman Construction

The Marriott World Trade Center was a 22-story, 825-room hotel 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 unofficially known as World Trade Center 3 (WTC 3 or 3 WTC), and the World Trade Center Hotel, officially the Vista Hotel, and the Marriott Hotel throughout its history.

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.^{[citation needed]} 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 two restaurants: The Tall Ships Bar and Grill, located on Street level, and 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

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.^[10][12]

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]

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.^[19] They likely viewed this as the area where an explosion would cause the most structural damage.^[20] At 12:18 p.m. (EDT), the explosion destroyed or seriously damaged the lower and sub levels of the World Trade Center complex.^[19]

The city's Port Authority considered demolishing the building for some time. It was instead closed for 18 months while it underwent extensive repairs. Reinforcements to the hotel's structure, including the installation of "the largest steel beam ever put in a building to that point".^[19][20] The hotel reopened on November 1, 1994. In 1995, it was purchased by Marriott Hotels & Resorts.^[19]

September 11 attacks

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked planes to crash into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers,^[21] which were located right next to the hotel.^[22] On that day, the hotel had 940 registered guests.^[23] The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) was holding its yearly conference at the hotel from September 8 to 11, 2001.^[24] In addition, the hotel was planned to host the Law School Admission Council’s New York City Law School Forum – a law school recruiting event – on September 14 and 15. The council was expecting 4,000 students to attend, from 160 schools. About 11 people who were planning to go to the forum were scheduled to check in to the hotel on September 11, but did not make it there.^[22]

40 to 50 people in the hotel died from the attacks,^[22][23] out of the roughly 2,753 people who died in New York from the attacks that day.^[25] 14 people survived both collapses from inside the building.^[20] Most of the dead were firefighters, but there were probably 11 deaths of hotel guests and two of hotel employees that stayed to evacuate guests.^[22][20] 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.^[23] Multiple firefighter companies used the lobby as a staging area, and were also in the hotel to evacuate guests that may have still been inside.^[23][20] Firefighters reported human remains and corpses on the roof, from people who fell or jumped from the south face of the North Tower.^[23]

The collapse of the South Tower (2 WTC) at 9:59 a.m. essentially split the building in half by creating a huge gap in its middle.^[23][26] On the half that was nearer the South Tower, three civilians and two firemen trapped on the third floor escaped to the second floor, by crawling through an opening in a wall on an I-beam which probably fell from the South Tower.^[22][20] 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 south from the North Tower.^[22][23] This section would have collapsed if not for the reinforcements made after the 1993 bombing.^[20] The 14 survivors that were trapped in this section (which included the group of five that escaped the third floor), had to escape the second floor, and they found another hole in the building. They threaded either a rug or drape the hole, and climbed down it.^[20][22]

After destruction

On the afternoon of the attacks, 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.

In January 2002, the remnants of the hotel were completely dismantled to make way for reconstruction.^{[citation needed]} The Marriott Corporation was then 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 voted on an agreement under which the Host Marriott Corporation would "surrender the premises", resulting in termination of the lease and thus giving the land to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.^[1] The National September 11 Memorial & Museum was built where the hotel once stood.^{[citation needed]}

The building and its survivors were featured in the television special documentary film Hotel Ground Zero, which premiered on September 11, 2009, on the History Channel.^[27] The survivors have reunited near or at the hotel site multiple times.^[20][26] In 2013, there was charity run in the area to honor Ruben Correa, a firefighter who died there.^[26]

Gallery

• 
  Lobby of the Marriott.
• 
  The south face of the hotel on September 2, 2001.
• 
  The hotel visible at the base of the Twin Towers.
• 
  The hotel in 1993.
• 
  Debris of the South Tower collapsing onto the Marriott Hotel.

References

External links

• Marriott World Trade Center Survivors
• Stories by NABE members about the attack
• The 9/11 Hotel, a five-part documentary video on YouTube including interviews with surviving guests and workers at the Marriott World Trade Center
• Marriott World Trade Center Website – Archived on Internet Archive