Opened on 10 January 1912, it was built for Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt and designed by Warren and Wetmore. The hotel had twenty-two storeys and nearly six hundred rooms and, at the top, included a private penthouse for Vanderbilt and his family. Its interiors were conceived with refined taste, with an Adam-inspired lobby and a basement grill room known as the Della Robbia Room, decorated with tile by the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company, part of which still survives. In the 1920s, the Vanderbilt became a meeting place for companies linked to textiles and women’s fashion, and in 1925 it was acquired by a consortium. After several ownership phases, the hotel closed in 1965, and between 1965 and 1967 a renovation transformed the building: the upper floors became residential, while the lower levels and basements were devoted to commercial spaces.