The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted today to landmark Manhattan House at 200 East 66th Street. An excerpt from the Commission's statement is below:
Manhattan House, 200 East 66 Street
Manhattan House, the sprawling full-block, modernist white-brick icon on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, attracted such renowned tenants as actress Grace Kelly and jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. Set between a block-long garden and two driveways, the 21-story, 10-tower structure elevated white brick as a fashionable building material and popularized balconies, green spaces and driveways in many new residential high rises constructed in New York City after World War II.
“Manhattan House set a new standard for apartment construction in New York City and gave modernism a strong foothold here,” said Commissioner Tierney. “Although Manhattan House inspired many new architectural imitators, very few came close to what it achieved. It joins a growing list of modern landmarks we’ve designated since 2002, such as the Summit Hotel and Socony-Mobil building.”
The New York Life Insurance Company commissioned the New York office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Chicago-based firm that was at the forefront of the development of modern architecture in the United States, to design Manhattan House. Completed in 1951 and occupying a block between 65th and 66th streets and Second and Third avenues, the building reflects the theories of Le Corbusier, the renowned 20th century French architect who was known for setting enormous, slab-like apartment buildings in open spaces.
In addition to Grace Kelly and Benny Goodman, some of the Manhattan House’s tenants included such design luminaries as George Bunshaft, the lead architect of the building for Skidmore, Owings &Merrill; Elizabeth Potts, founder of the American Institute of Interior Designers; and furniture designer Florence Knoll. Actress Grace Kelly lived there for a brief period in the early 1950s, as did jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman, who died in his apartment in 1986. Former New York State Governor Hugh Carey and Frank Hardart, co-founder of the Automat restaurant chain, also lived in Manhattan House.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Kelly Connection
October 28, 2007
Big Deal, Josh Barbanel, New York Times
IS the story of Grace Kelly, the future princess, at the Manhattan House, a quintessential Manhattan real estate story?
That is the question that Dr. Jim Sperber, an internist in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., who is also a Grace Kelly fan and the son of a Prudential Douglas Elliman broker, raised in an e-mail message about her stay in the early 1950s at Manhattan House, the first and perhaps grandest white-brick apartment complex on the Upper East Side.
Now that Manhattan House — with 584 apartments, many with balconies, spread across five 20-story towers — is in the midst of a condominium conversion, the sponsors are celebrating Grace Kelly’s years there and have signed an agreement with the Princess Grace Foundation, to permit the use of her image in promotional materials.
But after learning of this development, Dr. Sperber, who has many interests, including providing medical care to an 8-foot 4-inch farmer in Ukraine, went through his collection of Grace Kelly books — assembled from garage sales — and pointed out that Miss Kelly’s father, John B. Kelly Sr., a three-time American gold medalist rower, helped build the Manhattan House.
Mr. Kelly, a wealthy Philadelphia contractor from an Irish family, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Philadelphia in the 1930s, founded Kelly for Brickwork, which was a subcontractor on the project. Many Manhattan House residents believe that his company manufactured the distinctive white bricks used on the building, but Toby E. Boshak, the executive director of the Princess Grace Foundation, said that his firm was hired as a construction contractor to do the brick work and put up the distinctive white walls of the project.
As for the notion that he used his pull, as any father might, to get his daughter into a coveted apartment in the building, the evidence is far from certain. On the one hand, biographies detail a difficult relationship that Grace Kelly had with her father, and she yearned for financial independence from her family. On the other hand, family background was carefully reviewed at the Manhattan House and other prominent buildings in Manhattan.
Patricia Lynch, a former television news investigative producer for NBC Nightly News, who has lived in Manhattan House since 1975, said that when she applied for admission 25 years after Grace Kelly moved in, the building had a long waiting list and connections were needed to get to the top of the list. She said that she wore white gloves for an interview in which the building manager queried her about her parents and her family background, even though she had written two books and was financially independent at the time.
One biography, “Grace,” by Robert Lacey (Putnam Adult, 1994), said that Miss Kelly, who was in her early 20s, was “installed” there by her father in an apartment that her mother decorated. Another book, “The Bridesmaids,” by Judith Balaban Quine (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989), who was a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Rainier in Monaco, said that the Kellys had given their daughter “permission” to leave the Barbizon Hotel and move into Manhattan House, but wanted her to find a roommate. The book also suggested that the apartment was decorated to the taste of Miss Kelly’s mother, Margaret.
In an interview, her first Manhattan House roommate and another bridesmaid, Sally Parrish Richardson, said that she moved in after Miss Kelly and did not know how she got the apartment.
The Manhattan House sponsors have commissioned four designers to create model apartments “with the spirit of Princess Grace,” bringing their “unique vision of grand, high-style living at Manhattan House.”
But by some accounts, despite her increasingly glamorous life, Grace Kelly’s furnishings at Manhattan House were, alas, quite plain. “The living room was without charm, character or gender,” Ms. Quine wrote. “It wasn’t ugly; it was utterly bland. Furniture, fabrics and colors alike were all resolutely practical. Everything seemed brown.”
Big Deal, Josh Barbanel, New York Times
IS the story of Grace Kelly, the future princess, at the Manhattan House, a quintessential Manhattan real estate story?
That is the question that Dr. Jim Sperber, an internist in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., who is also a Grace Kelly fan and the son of a Prudential Douglas Elliman broker, raised in an e-mail message about her stay in the early 1950s at Manhattan House, the first and perhaps grandest white-brick apartment complex on the Upper East Side.
Now that Manhattan House — with 584 apartments, many with balconies, spread across five 20-story towers — is in the midst of a condominium conversion, the sponsors are celebrating Grace Kelly’s years there and have signed an agreement with the Princess Grace Foundation, to permit the use of her image in promotional materials.
But after learning of this development, Dr. Sperber, who has many interests, including providing medical care to an 8-foot 4-inch farmer in Ukraine, went through his collection of Grace Kelly books — assembled from garage sales — and pointed out that Miss Kelly’s father, John B. Kelly Sr., a three-time American gold medalist rower, helped build the Manhattan House.
Mr. Kelly, a wealthy Philadelphia contractor from an Irish family, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Philadelphia in the 1930s, founded Kelly for Brickwork, which was a subcontractor on the project. Many Manhattan House residents believe that his company manufactured the distinctive white bricks used on the building, but Toby E. Boshak, the executive director of the Princess Grace Foundation, said that his firm was hired as a construction contractor to do the brick work and put up the distinctive white walls of the project.
As for the notion that he used his pull, as any father might, to get his daughter into a coveted apartment in the building, the evidence is far from certain. On the one hand, biographies detail a difficult relationship that Grace Kelly had with her father, and she yearned for financial independence from her family. On the other hand, family background was carefully reviewed at the Manhattan House and other prominent buildings in Manhattan.
Patricia Lynch, a former television news investigative producer for NBC Nightly News, who has lived in Manhattan House since 1975, said that when she applied for admission 25 years after Grace Kelly moved in, the building had a long waiting list and connections were needed to get to the top of the list. She said that she wore white gloves for an interview in which the building manager queried her about her parents and her family background, even though she had written two books and was financially independent at the time.
One biography, “Grace,” by Robert Lacey (Putnam Adult, 1994), said that Miss Kelly, who was in her early 20s, was “installed” there by her father in an apartment that her mother decorated. Another book, “The Bridesmaids,” by Judith Balaban Quine (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989), who was a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Rainier in Monaco, said that the Kellys had given their daughter “permission” to leave the Barbizon Hotel and move into Manhattan House, but wanted her to find a roommate. The book also suggested that the apartment was decorated to the taste of Miss Kelly’s mother, Margaret.
In an interview, her first Manhattan House roommate and another bridesmaid, Sally Parrish Richardson, said that she moved in after Miss Kelly and did not know how she got the apartment.
The Manhattan House sponsors have commissioned four designers to create model apartments “with the spirit of Princess Grace,” bringing their “unique vision of grand, high-style living at Manhattan House.”
But by some accounts, despite her increasingly glamorous life, Grace Kelly’s furnishings at Manhattan House were, alas, quite plain. “The living room was without charm, character or gender,” Ms. Quine wrote. “It wasn’t ugly; it was utterly bland. Furniture, fabrics and colors alike were all resolutely practical. Everything seemed brown.”
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Evoking the Memory of a Style Icon
October 21, 2007
By Josh Barbanel, Big Deal, New York Times
What comes to mind when you think of the Manhattan House, the first and perhaps the grandest postwar white-brick apartment house in Manhattan? The magic of Grace Kelly, maybe? Or a brutish battle over a condominium conversion, with tenants warring with the sponsors and the sponsors fighting with each other?
But now the dispute between the building owners has been settled; the project has been refinanced; and prices on many apartments, especially those of existing tenants, have been cut. A new marketing campaign is trying to shift attention to glamour and to Grace Kelly, who lived there in the early 1950s.
Manhattan House, built in 1950, fills a full city block at 66th Street and Third Avenue, with five 20-story towers, 584 units and large gardens. It also has several hundred tenants, some of whom have been fighting the conversion in state court and others complaining that elderly market-rate tenants were being forced out.
The project, which would be the largest Manhattan condo conversion ever, valued at more than $1.1 billion if completed, faced extensive delays, expiring financing and a dispute between two partners: Jeremiah W. O’Connor Jr., who provided most of the capital, and N. Richard Kalikow, who managed the project.
But two weeks ago, Mr. O’Connor settled the lawsuit, obtained full control of the project and signed up for new financing, an amendment to the offering plan said. Court records did not indicate the terms of the settlement, and neither Mr. O’Connor nor Mr. Kalikow would discuss them.
Under the conditions set in his financing, Mr. O’Connor promised to find buyers for 15 percent, or about 88, of the 584 apartments, and obtain the approval of the attorney general to put the plan into effect by next June 1.
Within days of taking control, Mr. O’Connor held a party in a newly renovated rooftop library and club space; several hundred tenants attended. He announced that the insider discount for tenants had been doubled, to 15 percent, for those who buy within 30 days. Prices were cut by 6.6 percent over all, according to the amendment. But Brett Buehrer, a vice president at O’Connor Capital Partners, said that the decreases were aimed mainly at occupied apartments.
Grace Kelly, who become Princess Grace of Monaco, lived at the Manhattan House while pursuing an acting career. She also lived at the Barbizon Hotel, which was recently converted into a condominium, Barbizon/63, with a marking campaign that also mentioned her, along with other notable actresses who lived there.
At the Manhattan House, the developers are a sponsor of an ongoing exhibit of Grace Kelly memorabilia. It was timed to the 25th anniversary of her death, on Sept. 14, 1982, and an auction of a gown and a dress suit worn by Ms. Kelly will be held to raise money for the Princess Grace Foundation.
Dolly Lenz, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman who is heading marketing at the project, said that four designers had been commissioned to create apartments “inspired by Princess Grace.” They are Alexa Hampton, Jamie Drake, Campion Platt and Maureen Footer.
Asking prices on one-bedrooms with terraces start just over $1 million. A tenant lawsuit seeking to stop the conversion is still pending, but the court allowed the sponsor to continue its sales program.
Monday, October 15, 2007
June 1, 2008 Deadline for Manhattan House, O'Connor
The terms of O'Connor's loan to purchase Manhattan House give him only until June 1, 2008 to sell 15% of the units in the building, according to a filing last week with the New York State Attorney General's office.
The Second Amendment to the Manhattan House Condominium Offering Plan was filed October 11, 2007.
The Second Amendment to the Manhattan House Condominium Offering Plan was filed October 11, 2007.
With Financing Completed, $1B Condo Conversion to Move Forward in NYC
By Kelly Sheehan, Online News Editor
Multi-Housing News
October 12, 2007
New York—O’Connor Capital Partners, a privately held real estate investment and development firm, has closed on $750 million of senior financing from HSH Nordbank AG, a commercial bank headquartered in Hamburg/Kiel, Germany. The firm will use the money for a luxury condo conversion project in New York City.
The financing follows a decision by O’Connor to buy out its previous partner and assume full control. The complex was purchased last year for $620 million--the largest residential sale in history, only behind Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.
O’Connor plans to invest a total of $1 billion converting Manhattan House, previously an apartment community, into a condo complex. The building is famous for its light-colored façade, thought to be the building that started the craze of white-brick buildings in the city. At one time, actress Grace Kelly also rented an apartment at Manhattan House, which is located at 200 East 66t St. on the city’s Upper East Side.
Jerry O’Connor, managing partner of O’Connor Capital Partners, says that Manhattan House will feature the amenities of new construction with the charm of the building’s original architecture. Originally designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merill in 1952, the building will be restored by SOM and Randall Ridless.
O’Connor Capital Partners’ capital improvements to the property will include common amenities such as a rooftop club with Sasaki-designed garden, spa and fitness center; indoor playroom and outdoor play area designed by Roto Studio; concierge services; and valet parking services.
Multi-Housing News
October 12, 2007
New York—O’Connor Capital Partners, a privately held real estate investment and development firm, has closed on $750 million of senior financing from HSH Nordbank AG, a commercial bank headquartered in Hamburg/Kiel, Germany. The firm will use the money for a luxury condo conversion project in New York City.
The financing follows a decision by O’Connor to buy out its previous partner and assume full control. The complex was purchased last year for $620 million--the largest residential sale in history, only behind Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.
O’Connor plans to invest a total of $1 billion converting Manhattan House, previously an apartment community, into a condo complex. The building is famous for its light-colored façade, thought to be the building that started the craze of white-brick buildings in the city. At one time, actress Grace Kelly also rented an apartment at Manhattan House, which is located at 200 East 66t St. on the city’s Upper East Side.
Jerry O’Connor, managing partner of O’Connor Capital Partners, says that Manhattan House will feature the amenities of new construction with the charm of the building’s original architecture. Originally designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merill in 1952, the building will be restored by SOM and Randall Ridless.
O’Connor Capital Partners’ capital improvements to the property will include common amenities such as a rooftop club with Sasaki-designed garden, spa and fitness center; indoor playroom and outdoor play area designed by Roto Studio; concierge services; and valet parking services.
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