Restoring the hotel’s historic exterior will require more than just throwing up the scaffolding and calling in a team.

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Of the 700+ hotels in New York City , The Plaza Hotel stands apart. Surrounded by skyscrapers, the stout, eighteen-story building at the corner of 59th Street and 5th Avenue, just south of Central Park , is more of an icon in the cityscape than any of its super-tall neighbors could hope to be. It hosted The Beatles just before their breakthrough performance on The Ed Sullivan Show , welcomed F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, inspired the eponymous Neil Simon play Plaza Suite , acted as a backdrop in Home Alone 2, and was the home of the fictional Eloise , the little girl who roamed its elegant halls.…