Evening star., 1961-01-22
GET UP AND GO!
GEL UP AND GO!
The Great Outdoors Look
!. Not Meant for New York
BY JACK JONAS
Star Travel Editor

- PeopIe VINO room IN glaSS
hotels won't get claustrophobia
but then, they won't have
any privacy, either.
. That. says famed Architect
Morris Lapidus, in the throes
Of designing two new hotels for
the heart Of Manhattan, is why
he won't set a glass hotel down
in New York.
Mr.. Lapidus Is currently
.hustling to completion the in
terror design for the 800-room
Summit, going up at Lexing-
ton avenue and East Fifty
first street. It's due to open in
July.
'.Loew's Hotels other New York
venture, the 2,000-room Ameri-
cana. Is set for q mid-l962
opening.
= Mr.. Lapidus Is accustomed to
Designing for the tropics and
eubtropics. His projects in
clude such hotels as the Ara
wax in Jamaica, the Aruba-
Caribbean on the Netherlands
West Indies island Of Aruba,
the Americana at Bal Harbour,
Fla: the Eden Roc and Fon-
tainebleau at Miami Beach
and the ultramodern Lincoln
Road Mall, q broad shopping
lane in downtown Miami
Beach.
No Whimsy Here
But in New York, tropical
wflimsy has gone out the win
kiow-and a small window, at
that. Concerning the use Of
glass in a city of glass build
sngs, Mr.. Lapidus had this to
say,
without thinking, the aver
age architect starts immedi-
btely by doing an all-glass
building.
: Here in the Summit we've
se-examined the question Of
She glass wall. and we've
checked to see what position |
Or what place the glass wall
has In hotels. We came up
with the answer that it has
absolutely no place in hotels.
g ''We know that there are
glass wall apartment houses
being built, we know that
there are glass wall office
buildings being built. we know
that there are glass wall
Schools being built, and even
glass wall homes being built,
and we think that this has
reached the point Of being ut
terIy ridiculous. because Just
being able to look out doesn't
make sense. /,
= Small Opening Best
!. TN fact, sometimes looking
Through q smaller opening will
give you a much more at
tractive vista than looking
Through a huge expanse of
klass. As somebody put it,
looking at a garden through a
keyhole is much more exciting
Khan seeing the garden
Through an all-glass wall.
Certainly in the hotel,
which is something that caters
10 peoples privacy, the all
glass wall and the all-window
Hall becomes ludicrous. So
NE started on the premise
that this was not going to
be q glass-walled hotel, and
yet there are many. many of
them all over the country.
"We're beginning to wonder
why all the glass? Too much
glare, too much openness. too
many problems with heating
knd cooling-why all glass?
,.."And so we've gone back to
the masonry wall.
7. 70 Step Backwards?
."This seems like a step back
wards because the Waldorf is
an all-masonry wall, the New
Yorker is an all-masonry wall.
Eos- we're going backwards In
B sense, in that we're turning
bHt back on the all-glass wall.
and yet our building does not
Aaye the character of the
waldorf or the New Yorker.
I'm fact. it has a character
eA. its own, and I personally
think it's q step in the right
dheetion.
J :I:What we're trying to do
bs-to. create a feeling that each
guest room Is an entity in it
bsH-. and as we look at this
building. our fenestration, our
windows, suggest that each
opening is somebody's special
space, with just enough win
dow to take care Of that
particular space. not an over
all conglomeration where the
individuality of each room is
lost"