The Beresford

The Beresford, at 211 Central Park West, between 81st and 82nd Streets, is a luxury, 23-floor "pre-war" apartment building in New York City.

The Beresford
The Beresford
Coordinates40°46′57″N 73°58′19″W
BuiltVarious
Part ofCentral Park West Historic District (ID82001189[1])
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 9, 1982[1]
Designated NYCLSeptember 15, 1987

Overview

Designed by the architect Emery Roth, The Beresford, completed in 1929, is one of the most prestigious addresses in Manhattan and one of the city's most elite co-ops running along Central Park West. In recent years, apartments have sold for between $3 million and $22 million. One unit is currently listed for $62 million, making it one of Manhattan's most expensive properties.[2] It is one of five Roth apartment blocks on Central Park West, including The El Dorado, The San Remo, The Alden and The Ardsley.[3] The Beresford is the largest by volume. Its mass is relieved by horizontal belt courses, staggered setbacks governed by the 1916 Zoning Resolution,[4] which provide some apartments with terraces, and architectural detailing that gives an impression of Georgian houses embedded in the mass. It takes its name from the Hotel Beresford, which had occupied the site since 1889.[5] The Beresford has two very prominent street-front facades,[6] crowned by its three distinctive octagonal copper-capped corner towers,[7] the eastern facade overlooks Central Park; and the southern facade overlooks Theodore Roosevelt Park, the park that contains the American Museum of Natural History.[8]

The massive block is opened to the west, giving it a U-shape, wrapped round a central court. Three elevators give separate access to small foyers, originally each accessing two apartments of a scale that was eliminated in New York, both by the stock market crash and the new Multiple Dwellings Law.[9]

Notable residents

The building's residents have included violinist Isaac Stern,[10] lyricist Adolph Green and actress Phyllis Newman, comedian Jerry Seinfeld,[11] actress Glenn Close,[12] soprano Beverly Sills,[13] singer Diana Ross,[11] tennis player John McEnroe,[11] former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit,[14] organized crime figure Meyer Lansky, actor Tony Randall,[14] lyricist Sheldon Harnick,[15] fund manager Bill Ackman,[16] reporter John Stossel,[17] musician Laura Nyro,[18] film producer David Brown, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine Helen Gurley Brown, and film director Mike Nichols.[19]

See also

Notes
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. http://streeteasy.com/building/the-beresford#sales
  3. Alpern, Andrew. Apartments for the Affluent: a Historical Survey of Buildings in New York. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975.
  4. The connection is noted by Richard Plunz, A History of Housing in New York City: dwelling type and social change in the American metropolis, 1990:196
  5. Gray, Christopher (September 14, 1997). "The Beresford, the San Remo, the Majestic, the El Dorado, the Century; Namesake Precursors of Central Park West's Towers". New York Times. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
  6. As well as similarly treated frontage along West 82nd Street
  7. The southwest one masks the water tank; the other two corner tower contain multi-level apartments (The Upper West Side Book), the northeast one owned by John McEnroe ((New York Sun) "A Penthouse at the Beresford Is Listed at $28 Million", 2 August 2007 accessed 16 October 2009).
  8. Brockmann, Jorg et al. (2002). One Thousand New York Buildings, p. 354., p. 354, at Google Books
  9. Pluntz 1990:196 contrasts its amenities with the reduced apartment scale of The El Dorado, The Majestic and The Century, built or completed during the early years of the Great Depression.
  10. Ciuraru, Carmela (January 1, 2000). "Mr. and Mrs. Seinfeld Have Not Yet Crossed Beresford Threshold". New York Observer.
  11. Clarke, Katherine, "Beresford Wants Hot Dog Vendor Off Its Corner", TheRealDeal.com, August 30, 2012
  12. David, Mark (January 21, 2010). "Glenn Close Lists Upper West Side Aerie". Variety. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  13. Harris, Elizabeth A. (July 8, 2010). "Beverly Sills's Co-op on the Market". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  14. Crenson, Sharon L. (September 25, 2007). "Citigroup's Pandit Buys Tony Randall Co-Op for $17.9 Million". Bloomberg. Retrieved July 13, 2009.
  15. Kaufman, Joanne (October 27, 2020). "Sheldon Harnick: Working from Home for 55 Years". The New York Times. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  16. Cohan, William (February 27, 2013). "Billionaire Bill Ackman's Ill-Fated Bike Ride: "His Mind Wrote a Check That His Body Couldn't Cash"". Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  17. Wiggins, James, V.I.P Address Book (2008), p. 653
  18. Kort, Michele 'Soul Picnic : The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro' St. Martin's Press, 2002, ISBN 0-312-20941-X, P. 108.
  19. Velsey, Kim (August 13, 2012). "What Will Become Of Helen Gurley Brown's Beloved Beresford Tower Penthouse?". Observer. New York. Retrieved June 25, 2018.

References
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.