Are New Luxury Towers Overshadowing Grand Dame Apartment Buildings WSJ
10/4/2017
Are New Luxury Towers Overshadowing Grand-Dame Apartment Buildings? - WSJ
DOW JONES, A NEWS CORP COMPANY
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This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-new-luxury-towers-overshadowing-grand-dame-apartment-buildings-1507125600
NEW YORK
Are New Luxury Towers Overshadowing Grand-Dame Apartment Buildings? The 21st century residences reflect the same forces that led to the creation of the upper Manhattan buildings a century earlier
The 86th floor apartment in 432 Park Ave. in Manhattan as pictured in the book ‘Life at the Top, New York's Most Exceptional Apartment Buildings.’ PHOTO: MICHEL ARNAUD
By Josh Barbanel Oct. 4, 2017 10:00 a.m. ET There was a time when books on the life at the top in New York City focused exclusively on the canopied apartment buildings on the Upper East and Upper West sides of Manhattan built until the 1930s. Now a new coffee-table book featuring homes for the wealthy in New York City expands the definition of the top to make room for 21st century apartment towers that have risen in other newly fashionable neighborhoods. This, in turn, raises the question of whether the era of the uptown co-op apartment building is waning in the face of new glass towers that may be more in tune with contemporary lifestyles. Uptown co-ops are facing “a perfect storm,” said Kirk Henckels, a broker and co-author of “Life at the Top: New York’s Most Exceptional Apartment Buildings.” In the book, Mr. Henckels, director of private brokerage at Stribling & Associates, and his co-author, Anne Walker, an architectural historian, say the new towers for the rich reflect the same forces that led to the creation of the grand apartment buildings a century earlier. They argue that “no buildings with truly large, grand apartments” were built between the 1930s and the advent of the 21st century and the construction of highrise luxury condominiums. Apartments built between about 1900 and 1930, many by star architects of the age such as J.E.R. Carpenter and Rosario Candela, provided “enough housing for the super rich” until the latest building boom, Mr. Henckels said in an interview. This new boom is “concurrent with an enormous collection of wealth,” he said.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-new-luxury-towers-overshadowing-grand-dame-apartment-buildings-1507125600
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10/4/2017
Are New Luxury Towers Overshadowing Grand-Dame Apartment Buildings? - WSJ
“Money that was on Fifth Avenue, Park Avenue and Central Park West is now everywhere,” Mr. Henckels noted.
The residential tower at 157 W. 57th St., known as One57, center, in Midtown Manhattan. PHOTO: CLAUDIO PAPAPIETRO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The new buildings, rich in amenities and services but with fewer rules and restrictions than co-ops, are drawing away some longtime Upper East Siders. Demand for co-ops, even in legendary buildings that long housed multimillionaires and billionaires, is fading, and many listings are seeing fewer showings, Mr. Henckels said. The 320 page book, filled with floor plans and photography by Michel Arnaud, profiles 15 New York City buildings. The authors begin with the 1884 Dakota, a “staunchly picturesque” apartment building constructed on Central Park West and West 72nd Street when much of the West Side was vacant land. It marked the beginning of luxuryapartment living in Manhattan. The book ends with the vertical concrete face of 432 Park Ave., with 10-foot high square windows, designed by Rafael Viñoly. At 1,396 feet it is the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere. It opened in 2015. Life at the Top argues that both the prewar buildings and the latest round of tall structures ushered in a new way for the ultra-rich to live. Toward the end of the Gilded Age in the early 20th century, many of the wealthiest New Yorkers were convinced to move from mansions on Fifth Avenue to elaborate apartment buildings with extensive services that allowed them to reduce the number of servants. The Dakota was built for residents with means, but not the top of society. That shift came with the completion of 998 Fifth Ave., a 1912 McKim, Mead and White building that opened on the Upper East Side at 81st Street opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The residence at 998 Fifth Ave. is a 1912 McKim, Mead and White building on the Upper East Side opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art. PHOTO: MICHEL ARNAUD
Seventeen palatial apartments, with high-coffered ceilings, elaborate moldings and plasterwork, imported paneling and long galleries were constructed in the Italian Reniassance-style palazzo building.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-new-luxury-towers-overshadowing-grand-dame-apartment-buildings-1507125600
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10/4/2017
Are New Luxury Towers Overshadowing Grand-Dame Apartment Buildings? - WSJ
It was the first apartment building on a part of Fifth Avenue already known as “Millionaire’s Row” for the grand mansions that lined the stretch. Its success, the book notes, triggered an apartment-construction boom along the avenues. The book includes two other new developments that have attracted a wealthy clientele, including billionaires and celebrities. It cites the two modernist 15-story towers at 173 and 179 Perry St. in the West Village designed by architect Richard Meier for their floor-to-ceiling glass walls that have been widely copied. The towers opened in 2002, facing West Street and the Hudson River, and drew celebrities such as Calvin Klein, Martha Stewart, Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, the book noted. The book also includes 15 Central Park West, a limestone clad complex that was designed by Robert A.M. Stern to re-create the ambience and lavish layouts of the earlier generation of grand apartment buildings on Fifth and Park avenues. But it leaves out other buildings including the residential towers at the Time Warner Center and One57, the skyscraper on West 57th Street. Andrew Alpern, a lawyer and architect who has written five books about luxury apartment houses in Manhattan, has yet to include the new buildings in his work. He said that while he admired some of them, others were in a competition so they can brag that “mine is taller than yours.” He said he isn’t concerned about the demise of Fifth Avenue co-ops because there are “quite enough rich people to go around.” The new buildings “don’t have the mark of a fine apartment,” he noted, “a canvas canopy on a metal frame that goes from the curb to the entrance.”
Copyright ©2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-new-luxury-towers-overshadowing-grand-dame-apartment-buildings-1507125600
3/3
Are New Luxury Towers Overshadowing Grand-Dame Apartment Buildings? - WSJ
DOW JONES, A NEWS CORP COMPANY
DJIA ▲ 22670.19 0.13%
S&P 500 ▲ 2536.97 0.09%
Nasdaq ▲ 6535.55 0.06%
U.S. 10 Yr ▼ -6/32 Yield 2.341%
Crude Oil ▲ 50.43 0.02%
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-new-luxury-towers-overshadowing-grand-dame-apartment-buildings-1507125600
NEW YORK
Are New Luxury Towers Overshadowing Grand-Dame Apartment Buildings? The 21st century residences reflect the same forces that led to the creation of the upper Manhattan buildings a century earlier
The 86th floor apartment in 432 Park Ave. in Manhattan as pictured in the book ‘Life at the Top, New York's Most Exceptional Apartment Buildings.’ PHOTO: MICHEL ARNAUD
By Josh Barbanel Oct. 4, 2017 10:00 a.m. ET There was a time when books on the life at the top in New York City focused exclusively on the canopied apartment buildings on the Upper East and Upper West sides of Manhattan built until the 1930s. Now a new coffee-table book featuring homes for the wealthy in New York City expands the definition of the top to make room for 21st century apartment towers that have risen in other newly fashionable neighborhoods. This, in turn, raises the question of whether the era of the uptown co-op apartment building is waning in the face of new glass towers that may be more in tune with contemporary lifestyles. Uptown co-ops are facing “a perfect storm,” said Kirk Henckels, a broker and co-author of “Life at the Top: New York’s Most Exceptional Apartment Buildings.” In the book, Mr. Henckels, director of private brokerage at Stribling & Associates, and his co-author, Anne Walker, an architectural historian, say the new towers for the rich reflect the same forces that led to the creation of the grand apartment buildings a century earlier. They argue that “no buildings with truly large, grand apartments” were built between the 1930s and the advent of the 21st century and the construction of highrise luxury condominiums. Apartments built between about 1900 and 1930, many by star architects of the age such as J.E.R. Carpenter and Rosario Candela, provided “enough housing for the super rich” until the latest building boom, Mr. Henckels said in an interview. This new boom is “concurrent with an enormous collection of wealth,” he said.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-new-luxury-towers-overshadowing-grand-dame-apartment-buildings-1507125600
1/3
10/4/2017
Are New Luxury Towers Overshadowing Grand-Dame Apartment Buildings? - WSJ
“Money that was on Fifth Avenue, Park Avenue and Central Park West is now everywhere,” Mr. Henckels noted.
The residential tower at 157 W. 57th St., known as One57, center, in Midtown Manhattan. PHOTO: CLAUDIO PAPAPIETRO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The new buildings, rich in amenities and services but with fewer rules and restrictions than co-ops, are drawing away some longtime Upper East Siders. Demand for co-ops, even in legendary buildings that long housed multimillionaires and billionaires, is fading, and many listings are seeing fewer showings, Mr. Henckels said. The 320 page book, filled with floor plans and photography by Michel Arnaud, profiles 15 New York City buildings. The authors begin with the 1884 Dakota, a “staunchly picturesque” apartment building constructed on Central Park West and West 72nd Street when much of the West Side was vacant land. It marked the beginning of luxuryapartment living in Manhattan. The book ends with the vertical concrete face of 432 Park Ave., with 10-foot high square windows, designed by Rafael Viñoly. At 1,396 feet it is the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere. It opened in 2015. Life at the Top argues that both the prewar buildings and the latest round of tall structures ushered in a new way for the ultra-rich to live. Toward the end of the Gilded Age in the early 20th century, many of the wealthiest New Yorkers were convinced to move from mansions on Fifth Avenue to elaborate apartment buildings with extensive services that allowed them to reduce the number of servants. The Dakota was built for residents with means, but not the top of society. That shift came with the completion of 998 Fifth Ave., a 1912 McKim, Mead and White building that opened on the Upper East Side at 81st Street opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The residence at 998 Fifth Ave. is a 1912 McKim, Mead and White building on the Upper East Side opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art. PHOTO: MICHEL ARNAUD
Seventeen palatial apartments, with high-coffered ceilings, elaborate moldings and plasterwork, imported paneling and long galleries were constructed in the Italian Reniassance-style palazzo building.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-new-luxury-towers-overshadowing-grand-dame-apartment-buildings-1507125600
2/3
10/4/2017
Are New Luxury Towers Overshadowing Grand-Dame Apartment Buildings? - WSJ
It was the first apartment building on a part of Fifth Avenue already known as “Millionaire’s Row” for the grand mansions that lined the stretch. Its success, the book notes, triggered an apartment-construction boom along the avenues. The book includes two other new developments that have attracted a wealthy clientele, including billionaires and celebrities. It cites the two modernist 15-story towers at 173 and 179 Perry St. in the West Village designed by architect Richard Meier for their floor-to-ceiling glass walls that have been widely copied. The towers opened in 2002, facing West Street and the Hudson River, and drew celebrities such as Calvin Klein, Martha Stewart, Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, the book noted. The book also includes 15 Central Park West, a limestone clad complex that was designed by Robert A.M. Stern to re-create the ambience and lavish layouts of the earlier generation of grand apartment buildings on Fifth and Park avenues. But it leaves out other buildings including the residential towers at the Time Warner Center and One57, the skyscraper on West 57th Street. Andrew Alpern, a lawyer and architect who has written five books about luxury apartment houses in Manhattan, has yet to include the new buildings in his work. He said that while he admired some of them, others were in a competition so they can brag that “mine is taller than yours.” He said he isn’t concerned about the demise of Fifth Avenue co-ops because there are “quite enough rich people to go around.” The new buildings “don’t have the mark of a fine apartment,” he noted, “a canvas canopy on a metal frame that goes from the curb to the entrance.”
Copyright ©2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-new-luxury-towers-overshadowing-grand-dame-apartment-buildings-1507125600
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