On 45th Street in Middletown, Manhattan, New York City, stands a 19-storey building owned by the Pakistan International Airlines. The Roosevelt Hotel, boasting its Italian Renaissance revival architectural style, is a century-old building that stood through the Great Depression and the Second World War. The building passed from one owner to the other but was acquired by PIA and Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in the Year 2000. PIA then acquired Prince Khalid’s stock and exclusively owned the hotel for the next two decades, after which it was shut down due to recurring financial losses in 2020. However, this piece of architecture has more to its history. 

In the year 1922, United Hotels, a US-based company, announced its $8 million project to be named after the recently deceased President Theodore Roosevelt. More than the homage, the hotel’s designers explained how the name justified the interior; it was designed similarly to colonial American mansions. The hotel opened its doors to the public in 1924 and became fully functional. But through the decades, its ownership jumped from one to the other. In 1979, a developer, Paul Milstein, leased the building’s operations to Pakistan International Airlines. The lease cost $35 million and was to last 20 years.........

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