The Villard Houses are located at 455 Madison Avenue

Madison Avenue (Manhattan)

Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square to the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th Street. In doing so, it passes through Midtown, the Upper East Side , Spanish Harlem, and...

 in the Manhattan Borough of New York City between 50th and 51st Street

51st Street (Manhattan)

51st Street is a long one-way street traveling east to west across Midtown Manhattan.-East 51st Street:*The route officially begins at Beekman Place which is on a hill overlooking FDR Drive...

.

History

The building was constructed in 1884, designed by the architecture firm McKim, Mead and White three years after they started their company. The houses were commissioned by Henry Villard

Henry Villard

Henry Villard was an American journalist and financier who was an early president of the Northern Pacific Railway....

, then president of the Northern Pacific Railway

Northern Pacific Railway

The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...

, shortly before his railroad empire began to crumble. Ownership of the building changed through many hands throughout the century.

In 1968, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the complex an historical landmark. Restoration and construction for a new hotel complex was proposed by real estate developer Harry B. Helmsley

Harry Helmsley

Harry B. Helmsley was an Americanentrepreneur who built a company that became one of the biggest property holders in the United States...

 who constructed the 51-story New York Palace Hotel

The New York Palace Hotel

The New York Palace blends the historic landmark Villard Mansion with a modern 55-story tower. Located at the center of Manhattan in Midtown at the corner of 50th Street and Madison Avenue, it is directly across the street from St Patrick's Cathedral, and a short walk from Rockefeller Center and...

 tower directly behind the original building. The project was designed by architects Emery Roth & Sons and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer in 1977 and completed in 1980.

The original building was restored in 2003 and office space was furnished for city preservation group The Municipal Art Society

Municipal Art Society

The Municipal Art Society of New York, founded in 1893, is a non-profit membership organization that fights for intelligent urban planning, design and preservation through education, dialogue and advocacy in New York City....

, as part of an agreement to save the building from demolition. Exterior shots are used on the TV series Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl is an American young adult novel series written by Cecily von Ziegesar and published by Little, Brown and Company, a subsidiary of the Hachette Group. The series revolves around the lives and romances of the privileged teenagers at the Constance Billard School for Girls, an elite...

as the hotel where the van der Woodsen family lives.

External links

• Villard Houses Wired New York - December 21, 2003
• http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06EEDB1E3CF932A15751C1A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink The New York Times - December 21, 2003