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. The building was designed by
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with construction beginning in March 1979. It opened on April 1, 1981, with 100 of 825 rooms available, and it was completed in July 1981. The construction cost $70 million. It was planned and managed by
Hilton International, but they could not use the Hilton name for the hotel because of an agreement with
Hilton Hotels to not use the name in the U.S. The Vista was the first major hotel to open in
Lower Manhattan south of
Canal Street since 1836. Shortly before the opening day of the hotel, a fire broke out on the 7th floor. The Vista was first under lease to WTC Hotel Associates of Chicago. The hotel was successful, creating a nightlife culture in the area and spurring development of more hotels in Lower Manhattan.
1993 World Trade Center bombing diagram of the damage sustained by the hotel during the bombing. On February 26, 1993, the hotel was seriously damaged as a result of the
World Trade Center bombing. 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. served as press conference area and a command post for the law enforcement response. The city's
Port Authority considered demolishing the building for some time. The building was instead closed for 18 months while they worked on extensive repairs. Reinforcements were made to the hotel's structure, including the installation of "the largest steel beam ever put in a building to that point". The hotel reopened on November 1, 1994.
September 11 attacks On
September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists
hijacked four planes to crash into various targets in the U.S. which were located right next to the hotel. Forty-three people in the hotel were killed, out of the roughly 2,977 people who died in New York City from the attacks. Forty-one firefighters died, along with two hotel employees who assisted them with evacuating guests. 14 people survived both collapses from inside the building. The
National Association for Business Economics (NABE) was holding its yearly conference at the hotel from September 8 to 11, 2001. 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 before the attacks started. The whole building shook, and parts of it caught on fire. Alarms went off throughout the building, and its phones and elevators shut down. The freight elevator still worked, however. The hotel's intercom told guests to be calm and stay in their rooms. Firefighters reported human remains and corpses on the roof, from people who fell or jumped from the south face of the North Tower. The evacuation effort was led by Keller, Richard Fetter (the hotel's resident manager), and Nancy Castillo (
human resources head at Marriot World Trade Center and Marriott Financial Center). The lobby was filled with debris, Around 17 people in the evacuation effort were still alive on the 3rd and 4th floors; three firefighters on these floors went upstairs to find a fireman who was radioing a
mayday signal, Michael Brennan. All the firemen still in the lobby escaped, and Richard Fetter survived.
Memorials and legacy On the afternoon of the attacks, at the World Trade Center's ruins (later nicknamed "
Ground Zero"), photographer
Thomas E. Franklin captured the now-iconic image
Raising the Flag at Ground Zero. It depicts firefighters raising the
American flag upon a flagpole found within the rubble; the flagpole was likely present at the Marriott. A flag displaying the Marriott company logo was found at Ground Zero in December 2001, and was displayed in a glass case at the site over the next few months. The case honored the hotel's employees with the plaque: "Our Spirit to Serve From sacrifice ... honor From adversity ... resolve From grief ... remembrance".
Pete Davidson loosely based the 2020 film he starred in,
The King of Staten Island, on his father's service on 9/11 as part of the crew of that firetruck. The hotel, and those who survived the 9/11 attacks within it, were featured in the documentary film
Hotel Ground Zero, which premiered on September 11, 2009, on the
History Channel. Some survivors only found out after watching the documentary that others they had met during the attacks were still alive. The survivors have reunited near or at the hotel site multiple times. As of 2011, there was a "Marriott Hotel 9/11 memorial group" that helped survivors get in contact with each other. In 2013, there was charity run in the area to honor Ruben Correa, a firefighter who died as a part of the group on the 21st floor. == References ==