CHAPTER NINETEEN
The Millenium Hilton: An Inspired Creation
D
irectly east of the World Trade Center lies the Millenium Hilton (the misspelling of “millennium” was intentional on the part of the hotel owner). Google this phrase and on one of the many New York travel pages that are returned on the search, you’ll likely find the following statement: “The hotel is a high-rise black glass building which pays homage to Arthur C. Clarke’s vision of the Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.”
This sentence apparently once appeared on the Millenium Hilton’s website (although it’s no longer there), and in looking at the building there’s no question that the fictional monolith was the inspiration for it. It is certainly a striking piece of architecture, but surely it’s just a harmless architectural tribute to an iconic piece of science fiction…