[7][8] The site had previously been occupied by the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company, built in 1892 to designs by James E. Ware.

[15] In August 1960, the Tisch brothers acquired the Manhattan Storage Warehouse site on the eastern side of Seventh Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets.

[17][18] Loew's had been developing the Summit Hotel on Lexington Avenue, which was renamed from the Americana to avoid confusion with the newer project.

[21] Construction began in September 1960,[22] and the builders brought an elephant to the site to pour champagne into the concrete foundation.

The hotel's concierge service included staff members who could speak Spanish, French, German, and Italian.

[38] When the Americana opened, its managers claimed that the hotel had received 250 bookings, some as far as four years in advance, worth a cumulative $10 million.

This was attributed to the proximity of the Broadway Theater District and of the shopping areas on Fifth and Madison Avenues, as well as the fact that many people were visiting the upcoming 1964 New York World's Fair.

[38] Shortly after the Americana opened, officials conducted an extensive inspection of the hotel after detecting several building-code violations.

[39] The hotel's Royal Box nightclub was renovated in early 1963,[40] having opened in October 1962 with a performance by Harry Belafonte.

[42][43] John Lennon and Paul McCartney announced the formation of their music label Apple Corps at a press conference in the Americana in 1968.

[47] The Royal Box hosted performances by musical artists including Harry Belafonte,[41] Nancy Ames,[48] Thelma Houston,[49] Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Peggy Lee;[50] it also hosted other performers such as comedian Woody Allen.

[51] On July 21, 1972, American Airlines leased the Americana of New York from Loews, as well as the City Squire Motor Inn across the street, and the Americana Hotels in Bal Harbour, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a period of thirty years.

[56] The Americana of New York and the City Squire were sold to a partnership of Sheraton Hotels and the Equitable Life Assurance Society[56] on January 24, 1979.

Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, Lehman Brothers' Investment Banking division temporarily converted the first-floor lounges, restaurants, and 665 guestrooms of the hotel into office space.

[66] MCR and Island Capital refinanced the hotel the next month with a $260 million loan from firms associated with the Fortress Investment Group.

[12] The Diesel Construction Company was the hotel's general contractor,[24] and Farkas & Barron was the structural engineer.

[38] A two-story semicircular rotunda projects from the southern part of the Seventh Avenue elevation, near 52nd Street.

The hotel was designed in this way because zoning regulations prohibited the upper stories from being built any closer to 52nd Street.

On the north side, a 25-story wing is perpendicular to the western part of the slab (and slightly angled from the street grid).

[9] Lapidus said the bent massing strengthened the upper stories against wind forces, rather than being intended for aesthetic effect.

[9][32] Architectural Forum said the slab looked "slim, tall, and elegant" from the east but had a completely different appearance from the west.

[12][16] On the longer elevations of the slab, each story originally contained horizontal strips of windows, installed in stainless-steel frames.

[72] The facades of the accommodation blocks are generally intact, but the podium levels were reclad in the 1991 renovation, replacing the varied, light 1960s details with Postmodern squared granite.

[38] The La Ronde cocktail lounge, housed within the semicircular rotunda, contained mirrored columns as well as damask tapestries.

The hotel rooms were originally decorated in a white, blue, and gold color scheme, complementing the design of the lower stories.

[38] Each bedroom initially had its own thermostat, telephone, small refrigerator, and combination swivel/rocking chair, as well as a full-width window.