740 Park Avenue

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building_name = 740 Park Avenue


caption = Building under renovation in 2008
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location = 740 Park Avenue
coordinates = coord|40.770839|-73.964671|format=dms
status = Completed
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opening = 1929
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architect = Rosario Candela and Arthur Loomis Harmon
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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.Gross, Michael. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E3D7153EF932A25750C0A9629C8B63 "Where the Boldface Bunk"] , "The New York Times", March 11, 2004. Accessed October 8, 2007.]

History

An apartment previously belonging to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 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. [cite news
url=http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/realestate/29Deal1.html?pagewanted=all
title=The Candidate as Landlord
author=Josh Barbenel
publisher=The New York Times
date=October 29 2006
accessdate=2007-04-10] Rockefeller moved to the building in 1936. [cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788614,00.html|publisher=Time Magazine|title=Rockefeller Apartments|date=1936-10-26|accessdate=2007-04-10]

The apartment house has 31 units. The building is made of limestone. It has the highest ceilings and widest hallways on Park. The building 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, whose daughter Janet Lee Bouvier and son-in-law Jack Bouvier would take the final open lease (according to one account, for free), and their daughter Jackie Kennedy Onassis grew up there. (Gross, 2005)

Life in the building is amusingly described in the New York Social Diary [ [http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/752 The Root of All Evil and Home Sweet Home] ]

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". [Rogers, Teri Karush. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/realestate/09parkave.html?ex=1286510400&en=025e950d114ec68a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss "Peeking Behind the Gilded Walls of 740 Park Ave."] , "The New York Times", October 9, 2005. Accessed August 15, 2007.]

Famous residents

*Jackie Kennedy, childhood home. (wife of John F. Kennedy)
*David H. Koch, occupy an 18-room duplex on the fourth and fifth floors said to have been purchased in 2005 for $17 million.
*Ronald Lauder, businessman. (son of Estée Lauder and brother of Leonard Lauder
*John D. Rockefeller, Jr., lived from 1938 to 1960 in a 24-room, 12-bath duplex.
*Steve Ross, late CEO of Time Warner
*Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group.
*J. Ezra Merkin, Hedge-Fund Manager.(son of late businessman Hermann Merkin)

References

*Michael Gross. "740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building" Broadway Books, 2005
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E3D7153EF932A25750C0A9629C8B63 Where the Boldfaced Bunk] by Michael Gross, "The New York Times," March 11, 2004]
* [http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/01/30/curbed_qa_michael_gross_on_740_parks_27m_penthouse.php 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, "
* [http://www.thecityreview.com/ues/parkave/park740.htm The Upper East Side Book] By Carter B. Horsley (gives references to articles about Candela's design for the building)
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7DB103CF932A15753C1A966958260 Streetscapes: 740 Park Avenue; Repairs for a '29 Luxury Co-op] by Christopher Gray, "The New York Times", October 21, 1990

External links

* [http://www.mgross.com/books/740-park/ Book website] with links to detailed floor plans, and list of residents.
* [http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/10/18/peering_deep_inside_740_park_avenue.php building webpage] with links to many individual apartment floor plans.