General Electric Building are to the west. The Benjamin is also near the Waldorf Astoria New York to the southwest and 345 Park Avenue to the northwest. An entrance to the New York City Subway's Lexington Avenue/51st Street station, served by the , is across Lexington Avenue from the hotel. The Beverly was part of Hotel Alley, a collection of hotels developed along Lexington Avenue in the early 20th century. Many of the hostelries on Hotel Alley had been built in part to serve the now-demolished Grand Central Palace on Lexington Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets. Architecture The hotel was designed by Emery Roth in the neo-Romanesque style, assisted by associate architect Sylvan Bien. The hotel's construction involved numerous contractors. Although the hotel has 29 physical stories, New York City Department of Buildings documents cite the 26th floor as the highest usable floor, skipping the thirteenth floor. Because there is no 13th floor, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) describes the hotel as having 25 habitable stories. Conversely, the author Steven Ruttenbaum characterizes the hotel as being 30 stories high. Form and facade The first two stories of the facade are clad with limestone, above which the facade is largely made of gray-brown brick. The hotel originally contained casement windows on its facade. The building's facade has cast stone and terracotta ornamentation; over the years, some of the brick and mortar has been replaced, and air-conditioner openings have been installed on the facade. The hotel contains various setbacks on its exterior, with its massing tapering from a rectangular base to an octagonal tower. The setbacks on three sides of the building contain terraces, which were accessed by French doors leading from the adjacent apartments. The eastern elevation of the facade contains a light court and sets back above the 23rd story, while the northern elevation sets back above the 25th story. When the Beverly Hotel opened, the rooms were illuminated by sunlight on the west, south, and east. The top of the building has a water tower with wheel windows; a pavilion with arched windows; red Spanish-tiled roofs; and a copper finial. Base The base of the facade contains double-height arched openings in the Romanesque style. On both 50th Street and Lexington Avenue, the first story of each arched opening contains storefronts, and the arches are each divided into three panes at the second story. The hotel's