The building was a 22-story steel-framed structure with 825 rooms and six basement levels.
History
The hotel was first known as the Vista International Hotel, but also became known as World Trade Center 3, the World Trade Center Hotel, the Vista Hotel and the Marriott Hotel. The building was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with construction beginning in March 1979. The hotel opened on April 1, 1981, with 100 of 825 rooms available, and it was completed in July 1981. Shortly before the opening day of the Marriott, a fire broke out on the 7th floor. The Vista International was the first major hotel to open in Lower Manhattan south of Canal Street since 1836. The building was originally owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and KUO Hotels of Korea, with Hilton International acting as management agent. It was sold in 1995 to Host Marriott Corporation, after an extensive renovation following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In 2002, Host Marriott Corporation was offered an opportunity to rebuild the hotel in the same location within the World Trade Center site as its lease which was signed until 2094 had not expired. Marriott rejected the offer, and in October 2003, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey voted on an agreement under which the Host Marriott Corporation would "surrender the premises" resulting in termination of the lease and thus giving the land to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
1993 World Trade Center bombing
On February 26, 1993, the hotel was seriously damaged as a result of the World Trade Center bombing. Terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda took a Ryder truck loaded with 1,500 pounds of explosives and parked it in the North Tower parking garage below the hotel's ballroom. At 12:18 p.m., the explosion destroyed or seriously damaged the lower and sub levels of the World Trade Center complex. After extensive repairs, the hotel reopened in November 1994 and was later purchased by Marriott.
On September 11, 2001, the hotel had 940 registered guests. In addition, the National Association for Business Economics was holding its yearly conference at the hotel from September 8 to 11, 2001. When American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. EDT, its landing gear fell on the hotel's roof. Firefighters used the lobby as a staging area, and were also in the hotel to evacuate guests that may have still been inside. Firefighters also reported human remains of entire corpses on the roof from people that had jumped or accidentally fell from the burning towers. The collapse of the South Tower at 9:59 a.m. EDT essentially split the building in half. The collapse of the North Tower at 10:28 a.m. EDT destroyed the rest of the hotel aside from a small section that was furthest from the North Tower. Fourteen people who had been trying to evacuate the partially destroyed hotel after the first collapse managed to survive the second collapse in this small section. The section of the hotel that had managed to survive the collapse of the Twin Towers had been upgraded after the 1993 bombing.
Aftermath
As a result of the collapse of the Twin Towers, the hotel was destroyed beyond repair. Only a small three-story section of the southernmost part of the building remained standing, all of which were eventually removed. In the remnants of the lobby, picture frames with the pictures inside them were still hanging on the walls. Approximately 40 people died in the hotel, including two hotel employees who had stayed to aid the evacuation and a number of firefighters who had been clearing the hotel and using it as a staging ground. In January 2002, the remnants of the hotel were completely dismantled. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum exists where the hotel once stood. The building and its survivors were featured in the television special documentary film Hotel Ground Zero, which premiered September 11, 2009 on the History Channel.
