Upper East Side

April 14, 2017

Robert A.M. Stern’s 520 Park Avenue, Upper East Side’s tallest building, hits pinnacle height

520 Park Avenue, well on its way to being the tallest skyscraper on the Upper East Side, is putting its final crowning members in place, CityRealty reports. The developer of the 54-story tower just off Park Avenue at East 60th Street is the multi-generational Zeckendorf real estate dynasty who brought us 50 U.N. Plaza, 15 Central Park West and the neighborhood-transforming Worldwide Plaza and Union Square's Zeckendorf Towers.
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April 10, 2017

The New Design Project’s Park Avenue apartment has an uptown address with downtown style

By Rebecca Paul

This beautiful Park Avenue apartment from the The New Design Project reflects the elegance and refinement synonymous with its Upper East Side address but also boasts a unique downtown vibe made possible by the studio's signature aesthetic. The light-filled home is adorned with modern furniture and lighting, as well as carefully curated floor treatments and accessories.
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Sale of $79.5M Upper East Side mansion sets new record for Manhattan’s most expensive townhouse

Image via Google Street View

April 6, 2017

Sale of $79.5M Upper East Side mansion sets new record for Manhattan’s most expensive townhouse

By Michelle Cohen

Image via Google Street View 6sqft reported in November that the 25,000-square-foot, 41-foot-wide townhouse at 19 East 64th Street belonging to art heir David Wildenstein had gone into contract for $81 million. The sale has closed for $79.5 million–$3,180 a foot–according to public records, setting a new record for Manhattan's priciest townhouse sale; the previous record was held by the Harkness mansion at 4 East 75th Street, which sold for $53 million in 2006. According to The Real Deal, the buyer, listed as 19-21 East 64th Holding LLC, is affiliated with HNA Holdings Group CEO Roy Liao. HNA Holdings Group is also behind the $2.2 billion deal to purchase 245 Park Avenue. The 1930s townhouse is the former home of the Wildenstein gallery.
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Real Estate Trends

April 4, 2017

Explore the homes of NYC’s notable writers with an audio-narrated tour

By Devin Gannon

Some of the greatest literary giants of all time lived and wrote in New York City. In celebration of the 200th anniversary of HarperCollins, which was founded in NYC, the publishing company created an interactive walking tour map that narrates the history of each author as you walk (h/t DNAinfo). Just a few of the famed Big Apple authors include Harper Lee, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright.
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March 27, 2017

Elegant co-op in an UES mansion still has its original leaded casement windows

By Emily Nonko

This two-bedroom co-op occupies the parlor and garden floors of 4 East 82nd Street, a stately Carnegie Hill mansion. Despite a recent renovation, the apartment still boasts details from the past: original wood paneling, an impressive marble mantle and the original, leaded French casement windows. New additions include a chef's kitchen, which leads to a terrace and the apartment's private garden.
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Distinctive Homes

March 22, 2017

National Academy’s trio of palatial UES buildings drops price to $79M, gets new pics

By Dana Schulz

Nearly a year ago, the National Academy Museum & School listed their three stunning Carnegie Hill properties for $120 million--two interconnected townhouses at 1083 Fifth Avenue and 3 East 89th Street and a 65-foot-wide school building on East 89th Street. Though the original listing touted the possibility to create an epic, single-family mega-mansion, there have been no takers, and the buildings are now asking a reduced $78.5 million (h/t WSJ). Along with the price chop comes fresh interior images of the townhouses and their palatial layouts, intricate moldings, dripping chandeliers, and regal spiral staircase.
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March 16, 2017

‘Barefoot Contessa’ Ina Garten asks $2M for Parisian-style Upper East Side pied-a-terre

By Annie Doge

This past August, Food Network star and famed cookbook author Ina Garten, along with husband Jeffrey, Yale University dean emeritus, dropped $4.65 million on an Upper East Side co-op at 563 Park Avenue, which they somewhat ironically bought from Nancy Novogrod, former editor-in-chief of Travel + Leisure magazine and Condé Nast’s House & Garden. Since they've now presumably settled in and made the elegant space their own, the couple has listed their nearby (smaller) pied-a-terre at 71 East 77th Street. The Post reports that the charming Daniel Romualdez-designed pad will be hitting the market for $1.97 million.
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March 15, 2017

After 10 years on the market, Donald Trump’s trust looks to make $35M on lavish penthouse

By Dana Schulz

The penthouse at Trump Park Avenue has been on and off the market for an entire decade, first listing for $45 million in 2007, and now returning for $35 million. As LL NYC reports, the President transferred ownership of the 6,278-square-foot apartment in January to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, of which he's the exclusive beneficiary. The massive duplex is as ornate as you'd expect from Trump, complete with 22 arched windows, custom tray ceilings with intricate moldings and dripping crystal chandeliers, bathrooms bathed in marble, and two large terraces with panoramic views.
Take the tour and get the full scoop

March 13, 2017

For $337K, this petite Upper East Side studio is perfect for girls’ night in

By Michelle Cohen

Though this 388-square-foot pre-war co-op at 330 East 70th Street is no airplane-hangar sized loft, it has all the makings of a sweet landing spot on a tree-lined Upper East Side block. Though pastel paint and flirty upholstery needn't stay, plenty of closets and a dressing room outside the bath would please any diva. The boutique full-service elevator building is also a block from the Second Avenue Subway, making the $337,000 ask seem like an even better idea.
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Distinctive Homes

March 6, 2017

This striking $3.9M duplex six is as classic Upper East Side as it gets

By Michelle Cohen

In an architecturally striking 1929 apartment building designed by George F. Pelham, among the elegant residences of tree-lined 75th Street half a block from Central Park, this unique two-floor co-op at 14 East 75th Street is the picture of Upper East Side perfection. Set up as a "classic six," dramatic details like sixteen vertical feet of windows go beyond classic. According to the listing this duplex, asking $3.85 million, is the first available in the building in 20 years.
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Distinctive Homes

March 3, 2017

‘Show-stopping’ Hamilton collection includes love letters and a lock of hair

By Michelle Cohen

Historic collections expert Seth Kaller throws his hat into the Hamilton ring for this year’s Antiquarian Book Fair, happening March 9-12 at the Park Avenue Armory. The Alexander Hamilton Collection (part of a larger collection titled “The Genius, Passions, Foibles and Flaws of our Founding Fathers” ) promises to be a unique collection of original letters, documents and imprints relating to the life and times of the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and founder of the New York Post, shown for the first time and offered for sale at the book fair.
See what's in the collection

March 2, 2017

Gracie Mansion’s new exhibit tells the story of NYC during World War II

By Dana Schulz

In honor of the residence's 75th anniversary, the Gracie Mansion Conservancy has announced a new art installation titled "New York 1942," a collection of World War II-era objects that tell the story of New York City during this time, as well as of the period when Gracie Mansion became the official mayoral residence under Fiorello La Guardia. The exhibit will display more than 50 artifacts, documents, and pieces of art, including a signed World Series Yankees baseball, the Jacob Lawrence painting "The Migrants Arrived in Great Numbers," a photo from Weegee, ration tokens, and a first-edition print of "The Little Prince."
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Events & Things To Do

February 28, 2017

City’s most expensive rental is back for $500K/month, chauffeur-driven Jaguar included

By Michelle Cohen

As 6sqft asked when the 39th floor at The Pierre Hotel at 795 Fifth Avenue hit the rental market two years ago, if you’ve got the cash, why buy when you can rent for $6 million a year? Now that opportunity to refresh your enormous outlay every month is again seeking a renter at $500,000/month, keeping its title as the city’s most expensive rental. The massive 4,786-square-foot space has merely a butler’s kitchen, but the assumption is, of course, that you wouldn't want to be slaving over a hot stove in a full-service hotel anyway. And that service includes twice-daily maid service, an on-call physician, room service, two restaurants and a chauffeur-driven Jaguar.
See what this hefty price tag gets you

February 24, 2017

Ivanka Trump’s Park Avenue starter pad, still without a buyer, gets a rental price chop to $13K a month

By Michelle Cohen

As 6sqft previously reported, Ms. Trump and husband Jared Kushner, now senior adviser to President Donald Trump, first listed their apartment at 502 Park Avenue for $4.1 million in December; Ivanka purchased the home for $1.52 million in 2004. The classic and somewhat girly Park Avenue pad with Tiffany-box blue walls has also been on the rental market, first at $15K and, as Mansion Global reports, just reduced to $13,000 a month. Ivanka also owns one of the building’s penthouses–it's the Trump/Kushner family's main home when they're in town– that she bought for $16 million nearly six years ago.
Tour the classic uptown condo

February 24, 2017

$10M Upper East Side townhouse is introducing its neighbors to the future

By Michelle Cohen

Sleek casement windows and a minimalist grey facade are the first sign that this otherwise unassuming mid-block home at 419 East 84th Street isn't your average $9.99 million Upper East Side townhouse. Inside, the Euro-chic flush surfaces, exposed brick, and wide open spaces of a downtown loft condo span five stories, from the garden floor au pair suite to the floating glass staircase to a wood-beamed skylit top floor. At 6,000 square feet, though, it's the size of three lofts, with the added perk of being situated in classic Yorkville, just a block from Carl Schurz Park and two blocks from the new Second Avenue Subway.
Hop in the elevator and take the tour

Distinctive Homes

February 11, 2017

The Urban Lens: Sam Golanski gives Park Avenue doormen their moment in the spotlight

By Dana Schulz

6sqft’s ongoing series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, Sam Golanski gives Park Avenue doormen their moment in the spotlight. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. Sam Golanski grew up in a small town in Poland, but has been residing in Manchester, U.K. since 2005. Though he thinks New York is "a tough place to live," he fell in love with its energy as a child watching films set in Manhattan from the '60s and '70s. Now all grown up, he comes to New York frequently to visit friends and work on his urban and social photography projects ("I have to admit I shredded a few pairs of shoes by just walking up and down for days everywhere with my camera bags," he says). In his series "Park Avenue Doormen," Sam gives the men who safeguard the Upper East Side's ritziest buildings an opportunity to step from behind the velvet ropes and in front of the camera.
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February 1, 2017

In just a month, Second Avenue Subway eases congestion on the Lexington Avenue line by 11 percent

By Dana Schulz

When the Second Avenue Subway opened on the first of the year, it changed the lives of many commuters, namely those living in Yorkville on the Upper East Side who had long walks to the 4/5/6 trains and then faced their notoriously tight cars and frequent delays. But those New Yorkers who still rely on the Lexington Avenue line have also gotten some relief: According to a New York Times analysis of MTA data, on an average January weekday, ridership fell by about 11 percent, or 88,000 trips, between 110th Street and Grand Central, undoubtedly a direct effect of the Second Avenue line's average ridership of 140,000.
More facts and figures

Transit

January 27, 2017

Built for an aviation pioneer, this 1940 International Style mansion asks $40M

By Michelle Cohen

Known as the Sherman Fairchild Mansion, the extraordinary modern-fronted townhouse at 17 East 65th Street is one of those New York City sights that might stop you in your tracks in the middle of an otherwise sedate Upper East Side sidewalk. The current façade of this five-story home was designed by William Hamby and George Nelson in 1940 for brilliant and prolific aviation pioneer/inventor Sherman Fairchild (well-known architect Michael Graves was commissioned to design yet another facade for the home in 1979, but that version was never built). The 25-foot-wide, 9,440 square-foot modern townhouse has been on and off the market since 2014; it's currently asking $40,000. While the home's exterior is provocative and unique–especially given the Upper East Side location a block from Central Park–the interiors, which have undergone a thorough renovation by the current owner, noted Renaissance art dealer Martin Zimet of French & Company, are yet another surprise.
Take a look inside

January 25, 2017

Designer Zac Posen snags an elegant Upper East Side penthouse for $3.5M

By Diane Pham

Zac Posen may love taking fashion risks, but when it comes to real estate, it's all about the classics. The designer and "Project Runway" judge has just poured $3.5 million into an elegant Upper East Side penthouse, LL NYC shares. The duplex spread sits atop an Emory Roth-designed prewar at 210 East 73rd Street and comes steeped in ornate details like hand-painted ceilings, an iron staircase and a Chesney marble mantle. While the current decor is most certainly in need of a modern facelift, Posen will have plenty of space to flex his creative prowess. The penthouse is a classic six with two bedrooms, two and a half baths and a large 1,800-square-foot wrap terrace. And did we mention there are seven custom closets? Four of them are walk-in!
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January 24, 2017

Ricky Martin’s Yorkville condo gets a $1.3M price chop

By Annie Doge

Ricky Martin might've gotten a bit too optimistic about Yorkville's Second Avenue Subway-influenced real estate boom, as Mansion Global reports that he's chopped the price of his condo at 170 East End Avenue from $8.4 million to $7.1 million after just five months. This isn't the first time the Latin pop star has had trouble unloading NYC real estate; in 2012 he put his condo in Noho's 40 Bond on the rental market for $28,000/month. In 2014, he listed it for $8.3 million, but it didn't find a buyer until a year and half later when it sold for the reduced price of $7.55 million.
Will he have better luck in Yorkville?

January 23, 2017

Socialite Georgette Mosbacher lists luxurious full-floor, Fifth Avenue co-op for $29.5M

By Emily Nonko

This grand Fifth Avenue co-op belongs to the socialite and political fundraiser Georgette Mosbacher, who has hosted everyone from King Juan Carlos I of Spain to Tom Hanks to Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump at her apartment. It occupies the entire fifth floor of 1020 Fifth Avenue, a prestigious limestone cooperative, and it's now asking $29.5 million. Mosbacher, who has lived here since 1992, told the New York Times, "It’s come to a point where I want to make a change in my life, and it won’t happen unless I shake it up." So now the palatial pad could be yours.
Take the grand tour

Distinctive Homes

January 18, 2017

There’s a room for every color of the rainbow in this $5M Upper East Side co-op

By Michelle Cohen

In New York City's interior landscape of neutral hues and fifty shades of white, it's rare to see bright colors, especially in a classic pre-war co-op on the Upper East Side. But the current residents of this apartment at 129 East 69th Street, who undertook a two-year renovation, clearly favored the brighter side of the crayon box. The best thing about it is that with eight spacious rooms, colors, patterns and fun decorating ideas never have to clash.
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Distinctive Homes

January 6, 2017

Go for baroque in this $18M Upper East Side townhouse with a three-tiered garden, two kitchens and gym

By Michelle Cohen

For anyone who can't decide between an Italian palazzo and a townhouse on the Upper East Side, this 6,800-square-foot "slice of Manhattan" might be just the answer. Rising six stories (five plus a gym/laundry/storage enhanced-cellar) at 115 East 79th Street just off Park Avenue and two blocks from Central Park, this beyond-opulent single-family home was built in 1903 but was far more recently renovated with just about every move-in ready modern upgrade you can think of. There are two kitchens, four outdoor spaces and seven wood-burning fireplaces–all accessible by an elevator or stairs.
Tour this opulent uptown mansion

Distinctive Homes

January 4, 2017

$3.2M Carnegie Hill condo at the Gatsby lives up to its elegant pre-war namesake

By Michelle Cohen

The classic seven: That increasingly rare breed of New York City apartment, almost non-existent among condos, was much more often seen in the pre-war era, before building owners felt the need to pack as many people as possible into every square inch. This particular specimen in The Gatsby at 65 East 96th Street can be found on the market for $3.195 million in its most likely habitat, the Upper East Side, and it's a beauty. Everything has been perfectly updated for 21st-century living and gorgeous pre-war details are at their best. There are even building amenities, plus the freedom of condo ownership, but mostly it's the kind of apartment that only needs to show its floor plan.
Tour this gracious seven-room home

Distinctive Homes

January 3, 2017

510-foot Rafael Viñoly-designed tower coming to East 62nd Street

By Diane Pham

Lenox Hill will see the addition of a new 510-foot tower at 249 East 62nd Street, designed by none other than 432 Park starchitect Rafael Viñoly. CityRealty reports that plans for the mixed-use skyscraper were filed in the last days of December by Chance Gordy of Florida-based Real Estate Inverlad, who is also developing another condo tower nearby called The Clare. The Viñoly design will join a slew of new Upper East Side constructions prompted by the opening of the Second Avenue Subway line, which is located just a few minutes walk away.
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New Developments

January 1, 2017

Nearly 100 years later, the Second Avenue Subway officially opens!

By Diane Pham

Today history is made, as January 1, 2017 marks the official public opening of the long-awaited Second Avenue Subway. The New York City transit endeavor has been in the works for nearly a century, and finally after countless delays and an eye-popping $4 billion bill, straphangers on the far Upper East Side will have access to three brand new stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th Streets. Just before midnight yesterday evening, Governor Cuomo, MTA CEO Thomas F. Prendergast, city and state pols, members of President Obama’s Cabinet, local community members, and many of the workers who helped build the new line’s massive underground tunnels and stations, took the line's inaugural ride.
photos this way

Transit

December 29, 2016

$850K Yorkville triplex condo feels like a country cottage on the Upper East Side

By Michelle Cohen

It might be difficult to imagine a having-it-all situation for $850K, especially on the Upper East Side, but this unusual apartment for well under a million at 225 East 86th Street definitely says "home" for someone who loves breezy country cottage style and wants more than the average boxed condo. And with living, dining and sleeping spaces divided over three levels, plus a rare glass-enclosed atrium, this heavenly home has plenty of room for guest visits as well as alone time. What's more, despite its retail cornucopia, Yorkville is very much a residential neighborhood–one whose residents will surely rejoice with the advent of the Second Avenue Line, making the whole package an even sweeter deal.
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