Anyone who lives on the Upper West Side has passed the Apthorp. It has been standing on the corner of 79th and Broadway since 1908 (see the photo above when the Upper West Side really was like living in the middle of nowhere.) For the longest time, the building was under rent control, meaning that the landlords could only raise the rents so much. In 2008 the building, which had been rental, became a condominium. The asking prices, nearly $3,000 a square foot, or an average of $6.5 million per apartment, make it "one of the most expensive condominium conversion projects" ever, according to the New York Times.
Notable residents have included Nora Ephron, Al Pacino, Gelsey Kirkland, Conan O’Brien, Cyndi Lauper, Rosie O’Donnell, 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft, Rita Moreno from West Side Story, Barry Farber of talk radio fame, and newsman Roger Grimsby.
Take a look here at their fabulous web-site. The Apthorp is one of the premiere luxury apartment buildings on the Upper West Side along with the Dakota, the Belnord and the Ansonia. It's also one of the few to occupy a whole block. According to the brochure: "The Apthorp was modeled after The Pitti Palace in Florence and brought to vibrant life by William Waldorf Astor, with his architects, Clinton and Russell. All the grandeur of New York’s Gilded Age is expressed in this exquisite building. The Apthorp was one of Manhattan’s first grand apartment houses, the world’s largest residential building at its creation. The same creativity continues with the current restoration that reinstates the building’s original splendor."
Wow! Seriously if I won mega-millions I would be happy to live in the apartment that only has 3.5 rooms let alone be greedy enough to own a 6 room apartment in this building. You are not only living in a fabulous building, you are living in a piece of NY history.
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