Developers started constructing
speculative developments on the Upper East Side in the late 19th century, and many upper-class families had moved to the neighborhood by the beginning of the 20th century.
Temple Beth-El, one of several synagogues that had relocated from the
Lower East Side northward during the late 19th century, had relocated to the southeast corner of 63rd Street and Lexington Avenue in 1873.
Temple Rodeph Sholom acquired the synagogue in 1892. During the early 20th century, the open-air
Park Avenue main line was placed in a tunnel, and the
New York City Subway was built in the area, spurring further high-rise development around Lexington Avenue. In the years following
World War I, there had been a great increase in the number of female college students, who had long been underrepresented in higher education compared to their male counterparts. Most of these women planned to go into business, professional or social-science careers after graduation, so they planned to move to urban areas with suitable jobs. However, there was a shortage of housing units available in New York City due to
inflation and
rent controls implemented during World War I, and the few available apartments tended to be overly expensive. Moreover, options such as hotels and lodges tended to be biased toward men, while self-supporting women's homes mostly catered toward the immigrants and the working class. Amri's president, Bernard Reich, hired
Emery Roth to design the new building since, at the time, the surrounding neighborhood did not have any apartment hotels. A judge approved the sale of the synagogue that April. Concurrently, the Simon brothers and the Hartstein brothers also acquired a neighboring structure at 813 Lexington Avenue. The sale was finalized the next month for $5 million. Silk planned to construct an 18-story apartment hotel for women, known as the Barbizon, with 700 apartments as well as 16 storefronts on the lowest two floors. Hughes and Hammond placed a $1.85 million construction loan on the site later the same month. The architecture firm of Murgatroyd & Ogden submitted plans to the
New York City Department of Buildings in December 1926. Construction began in March 1927, Advertisements for the new apartment building began to appear in local media in September 1927, and the hotel began accepting applications from potential residents on September 15. At the time of the building's opening, more than one thousand women had expressed interest in living at the Barbizon.
Women's hotel When the Barbizon opened, the upper floors were restricted to women. Traditionally, men were only allowed to enter the lobby, dining room, and recital room; they could obtain a visitor pass for the mezzanine or the 18th floor. This rule was aimed at boyfriends but also applied to family members. The hotel contained "beau rooms" for residents to meet with their boyfriends. Doctors and those in service trades, such as electricians and plumbers, were the only men who were allowed to visit the residential floors. All potential residents had to provide three
references and undergo an interview. Women in group A were typically given private rooms, women in group B usually stayed in rooms with shared bathrooms, and women in group C usually were rejected. Younger women could still be rejected if they were unattractive, while older, attractive women were sometimes accepted. This led the hotel to be called "New York's Most Exclusive Hotel Residence for Young Women". Residents had to adhere to strict rules: for example, they had to sign a
logbook in the lobby when they exited or entered,
Early operation An early advertisement in
The New Yorker magazine proclaimed that "The Barbizon has become the latest accepted rendezvous for the art and music-loving young set", due to the large number of clubs that were headquartered at the Barbizon. These clubs sponsored music recitals at the Barbizon, which radio station
WOR-FM started broadcasting in early 1928. The Arts Council of New York moved to the Barbizon's mezzanine shortly after it opened, and the Association of Junior Leagues of America relocated its national headquarters to the building in mid-1928. The Barbizon Players and the Irish Theatre also performed in the building's auditorium, and the Barbizon Book and Pen Club met in the library. By the
1930 United States census, the Barbizon's residents included actresses, interior designers, fashion illustrators, models, and singers. Women working in non-artistic trades also lived at the Barbizon, including statisticians, clerks, librarians, nurses, secretaries, and teachers. After the Barbizon Corporation defaulted on the building's first mortgage,
Chase National Bank acquired the Barbizon in August 1931, becoming its
trustee. Chase National appointed Edward H. Crandall as the Barbizon's new manager, Although the city government had appraised the hotel at $2.95 million, Chase argued that the Barbizon was worth only two-thirds that. A bondholders' committee led by real-estate agent
Lawrence B. Elliman bought the Barbizon at an auction in July 1932, bidding $460,000 for the hotel and $28,000 for the furnishings. and the bondholders' committee formed a new organization, Hotel Barbizon Inc., to operate the hotel. The dormitory had its own lounge and cafeteria, although its occupants were also allowed to use the amenity spaces on the 22nd floor. The hotel was profitable by 1938, and the
1939 New York World's Fair further increased the Barbizon's business. Informational pamphlets from 1939 described the Barbizon as "a cultural and social center in itself" and emphasized the building's proximity to the subway, theaters, stores, and the World's Fair, as well as the presence of cultural attractions such as the
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Carnegie Hall, and
Radio City Music Hall. the Hotel Barbizon Inc. acquired an adjacent house on 63rd Street in 1939.
1940s to 1960s The hotel's owners paid off the $400,000 mortgage in February 1940, and a marquee designed by
Schwartz & Gross was installed above the entrance that May. the program, which mentored 20 interns per year, operated for the next three-and-a-half decades. Bren wrote that the Barbizon's women-only policy allowed ''Mademoiselle's'' editors the "freedom to come to New York and get a head start on their own lives as career women". The
Ford Modeling Agency started housing its models at the Barbizon in the late 1940s. and resold it two years later. By 1949, the hotel housed 700 women, and its waiting list had 100 more names; the average resident was an unmarried 23-year-old. Many of the hotel's residents were studying in such disparate fields as singing, merchandising, and brain surgery. Music students could rent the hotel's soundproof studios for $6.50 a month, while art students could display their artwork in the mezzanine for free. Women could rent single rooms for $18 to $27 per week, or they could occupy a double room with a roommate for $15 per week; this excluded the cost of meals in each room. The Barbizon continued to attract young women through the 1950s and 1960s, including students of the
Parsons School of Design and the Tobe-Coburn School for Fashion Careers. The Barbizon had 600 residents during this time, and Connor remained as its manager. The city's Human Rights Commission ruled in 1972 that hotels such as the Barbizon were not exempt from this law. The commission asked the Barbizon to start accepting male residents, Meanwhile, the Katharine Gibbs School had closed its dormitory at the Barbizon in the early 1970s, The hotel's restaurant continued to operate in the early 1970s, but management closed the hotel's library, coffee shop, and restaurant. Workers built a laundry room, relocated the library, and renovated the reception room, and they generally renovated ten rooms a week. The hotel was 90 percent occupied by its 50th anniversary in October 1977, even as rents had been increased to between $13 and $22 per day. Zeckendorf planned to convert the Barbizon to rental apartments as part of New York City's J-51 tax-abatement program. Under Zeckendorf's ownership, the hotel stopped renting rooms by the week or month. Barbilex Associates, composed of Abdulla and Oberoi, finalized their purchase in May 1980 for approximately $10 million. By then, the hotel's occupancy rate had decreased to 64 percent, even as other hotels in New York City were fully booked. In September 1980, Barbilex announced that it planned to close the hotel at the beginning of January 1981 and relocate all residents to other buildings. This prompted protests from the hotel's remaining long-term residents. The Barbizon Hotel for Women dropped the last two words in its name and started accepting male guests on February 14, 1981, coinciding with
Valentine's Day. At the time, guestrooms with private bathrooms rented for about $40 to $69 per night, The project cost $20 million, although the federal government gave the hotel a $4 million tax credit, which reduced the cost of the renovation. A full spa was built around the swimming pool in the basement, and the bar and lobby were also re-clad with pink marble. these condominiums were never built. The hotel reopened in phases; Golden Tulip, a subsidiary of Dutch airline
KLM, took over the hotel in 1983. By April 1984, Golden Tulip had rebranded the hotel as the
Golden Tulip Barbizon and was spending $60 million to complete the renovation. At the time, 300 of the guestrooms were open to the public. Golden Tulip also canceled the planned condominiums on the upper stories. Golden Tulip agreed in August 1988 to sell its majority stake in the hotel to
Philip Pilevsky and
Arthur G. Cohen. Contemporary media reported that the hotel was to be sold for $60 million. Pilevsky and Cohen—in partnership with nightclub operators
Ian Schrager and
Steve Rubell, who had operated the
Studio 54 nightclub—finalized their purchase of the hotel that November, paying "under $50 million". The four men planned to spend at least $10 million on renovating the hotel into a European-inspired "urban spa", The owners attempted to fire all of the hotel's 150 workers, but an arbitrator forced the men to rehire the employees several hours later. The employees had been part of a
labor union, and Rubell claimed that he had fired the employees so the union would be more willing to negotiate. Schrager continued to operate the hotel alone through the
Morgans Hotel Group (MHG). Pilevsky considered selling the hotels that he had co-owned with Rubell and Schrager, including the Barbizon,
Morgans,
Paramount, and
Royalton. By then, the Barbizon had a 72 percent occupancy rate, lower than that of the chain's other hotels. At the time, the hotel's operators were trying to attract conferences and conventions. Another renovation of the hotel started in July 1990; at the time, the project was supposed to be completed in 1992. Ultimately, Schrager was forced to give up the Barbizon in 1993. The
Bank of Tokyo Ltd., which took over the Barbizon and Morgans hotels, influenced Schrager and Pilevsky to sell both hostelries. Metromedia conducted some renovations but did not complete the project. or $40 million. The guestrooms were expanded and redecorated, and the top two floors were converted into seven "spa suites" for $4 million. The Barbizon did not have a full-service restaurant after the renovation, so it launched a partnership with seven nearby restaurants. for $177 million. The hotel had 306 rooms, including 12 suites in its tower section,
2000s Schrager did not intend to own the hotel for the long term, as Kluge had just renovated it. By 2000, Schrager had hired Carlton Advisory Services to advise on the hotel's sale. The sale was finalized two months later; Melrose initially planned to spend $8.5 million on renovations between 2001 and 2006. Following the
September 11 attacks, when hotels in New York City saw decreased business, Melrose decided to spend $5 million on renovations within 20 months. Occupancy rates had returned to pre–2001 levels by July 2002. the company also enlarged and replaced the windows, and it removed air-conditioning louvers. The lawsuit was settled in early 2006, after the hotel had closed.
Conversion to condos BPG Properties closed the hotel in 2005 with plans to convert the building to a
condominium development. Nancy Ruddy of architectural firm
CetraRuddy oversaw the renovation. When the condos were completed the following year, the building was rebranded as
Barbizon/63. The Barbizon was split into 66 apartments, which ranged from a one-bedroom apartment costing $1 million to a , double-story penthouse costing $15 million. Fourteen women, most over the age of 50, remained in rent-controlled apartments, paying $113 to $424 per month. These women were relocated to their own floor. By 2011, most of the condos had been sold at their listed prices, except for two of the penthouse apartments. Local civic group Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts asked the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to designate the Barbizon as a city landmark. The LPC began considering the building for landmark status in July 2011 ==Notable tenants==