740 Park Avenue
| 740 Park Avenue |
740park.jpg
Building under renovation in 2008 |
| General information |
| Status |
Complete |
| Location |
740 Park Avenue |
| Opening |
1929 |
| Design and construction |
| Architect |
Rosario Candela and Arthur Loomis Harmon |
740 Park Avenue is a luxury apartment building on Park Avenue in Manhattan, which has been the home to many wealthy and famous residents. The building also carries the address 71 East 71st Street.[1]
History
An apartment previously belonging to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., currently owned by Stephen Schwarzman, when sold by Saul P. Steinberg in 2000, brought a price "slightly above or below $30 million," reportedly the highest price ever paid on Park Avenue.[2] Rockefeller moved to the building in 1937.[3]
The apartment house has 31 units, and has the highest ceilings and widest hallways on Park Avenue. The exterior of the building is clad with limestone. It was built in 1929, designed by Rosario Candela and Arthur Loomis Harmon, the design partner of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. The builder was James T. Lee, grandfather of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. [4]
Life in the building is amusingly described in the New York Social Diary.[5]
In 2005, author Michael Gross published a detailed book on the building and its history, 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building. According to Gross, builder Lee's daughter Janet Lee Bouvier and son-in-law Jack Bouvier took the final open lease (according to one account, for free), and their daughter Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis grew up there.[6]
Famous residents
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (wife of John F. Kennedy), childhood home.[1]
- David H. Koch, occupies an 18-room duplex on the fourth and fifth floors said to have been purchased in 2005 for $17 million.[1]
- Ronald Lauder, businessman[1] (son of Estée Lauder and brother of Leonard Lauder).
- John D. Rockefeller, Jr., lived from 1937 to 1960 in a 24-room, 12-bath duplex.[1]
- Steve Ross, late CEO of Time Warner
- Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group (who bought it from Saul Steinberg for just over $35 million).[1]
- J. Ezra Merkin, Hedge-Fund Manager (son of late businessman Hermann Merkin).
- John Thain, last chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch.[7]
- Thelma Chrysler Foy, automobile heiress.
- Vera Wang, bridal gown designer who inherited a 10th and 11th floor duplex from her father, Cheng Ching Wang.
- One of Ira Rennert's daughters
- Ronald Perelman
References
- ^ a b c d e f Gross, Michael. "Where the Boldface Bunk", The New York Times, March 11, 2004. Accessed October 8, 2007.
- ^ Josh Barbenel (October 29, 2006). "The Candidate as Landlord". The New York Times. http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/realestate/29Deal1.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
- ^ "Rockefeller Apartments". Time Magazine. 1936-10-26. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788614,00.html. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
- ^ The King of Central Park West, Vanity Fair, Paul Goldberger, Sept. 2008, [1]
- ^ The Root of All Evil and Home Sweet Home
- ^ Rogers, Teri Karush. "Peeking Behind the Gilded Walls of 740 Park Ave.", The New York Times, October 9, 2005. Accessed August 15, 2007.
- ^ "Merrill Lynch CEO Thain Spent $1.22 Million On Office". CNBC.com. January 22, 2009. http://www.cnbc.com/id/28793892. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
Bibliography
- Michael Gross. "740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building" Broadway Books, 2005, ISBN 978-0-385-51209-1
- Where the Boldfaced Bunk by Michael Gross, The New York Times, March 11, 2004
- Curbed Q&A: Michael Gross on 740 Park's $27m Penthouse (interview, Jan. 2006) "With duplex penthouse 17D at legendary apartment building 740 Park Avenue hitting the market priced at $27.5 million, "
- The Upper East Side Book By Carter B. Horsley (gives references to articles about Candela's design for the building)
- Streetscapes: 740 Park Avenue; Repairs for a '29 Luxury Co-op by Christopher Gray, The New York Times, October 21, 1990
- Andrew Alpern. "The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter" Acanthus Press, 2001
External links