The Pierre Hotel at 795 Fifth Avenue and 2 East 61^st Street on the southeast corner at Fifth Avenue was completed in 1930 and was designed by Schultze & Weaver, which also designed the Sherry-Netherland Hotel at 765 Fifth Avenue on the northwest corner at 59^th Street the same year. 

The very tall and distinctive silhouettes of these skyscraper hotels were instant, albeit unofficial, landmarks that marked the epicenter of elegance in Manhattan and quickly became two of the most recognized building profiles in the world. 

Until the incursion of the mammoth and overshadowing General Motors Building, which replaced the very impressive Savoy-Plaza Hotel, designed by McKim, Mead & White, directly across 59th Street from the Sherry Netherland, these properties along with the nearby Plaza Hotel and the Bergdorf Goodman store created the city's most impressive and distinctive urban "square.” 

The hotel originally had 714 rooms and in 1959 77 cooperative apartments were created and the hotel now has about 140 rooms and about 49 suites.