Monday, January 9, 2012

Some Monday Morning Floor Plan Porn

SELLER: Estate of Monique Uzielli
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $29,500,000
SIZE: about 4,000 square feet, 2-5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Listen booterbeans, Your Mama just dropped in to New York City on the red eye and we are beyond exhausted so, in the interest of our own mental health, we've got to keep it short and simple today with a wee tidbit of juicy Big Apple floor plan porn.

Late last week word slipped down the international property gossip grapevine that a near mythic penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue had hit the market with an asking price of $29,500,000. And children, is it ever a damn doozy of a penthouse.

The roughly 4,000 square foot full floor penthouse pad, girdled by (approximately) 4,000 square feet of wrap around terrace with 360-degree city and park views, was originally the top floor of a monolithic, mansion-sized 54-room triplex apartment of cereal heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post. Miz Post's palatial penthouse, perched atop 1107 Fifth Avenue (at East 92nd Street), is reported to have included such super-rich people style amenities as a silver storage room, wine cellar, cold storage space for furs and flowers, a private carriage driveway and private elevator, a separate ground floor suite of rooms for a concierge, and another separate suite of rooms for her parents.

At one time the Post penthouse was the largest apartment in all of New York City but was later broken apart and in 1959 the uppermost floor was purchased for an unknown sum by a European aristocrat lady named Monique Uzielli (née de Gunzberg). Miz Uzielli "passed away peacefully" in Montreux (Switzerland) in early October 2011.

Listing information for 10 room spread shows there's a private elevator landing, 2-4 bedrooms depending on how one counts and how one configures the space, 3 bathrooms plus a cell-sized staff bedroom and bathroom, 4 wood burning fireplaces, 2 kitchens, and considerable but hardly unheard of monthly maintenance and common charges of $13,470.

The floor plan included with current listing materials shows the penthouse has been divided into two separate living spaces. A smaller north and east facing apartment, perfect for live-in domestic staff or long-term guests, encompasses a living room with terrace access, one bedroom also with terrace access, a compact but windowed kitchen, and one bathroom.

The larger apartment features and entrance gallery larger than most Manhattan living rooms, a paneled living room with fireplace, library (with fireplace, bathroom walk-in closet and walk-in safe, formal dining room, and service quarters that consists of a kitchen with direct terrace access, 21-foot plus long butler's pantry, and the aforementioned cell-sized staff room and bathroom.

At the opposite corner of the penthouse the two-room master suite include s large boo-dwar with fireplace and park view, cozy corner sitting room with fireplace and jaw dropping views over Central Park, built-in storage cabinets, a dressing closet and multi-winged walk-in closet, and downright small by today's standard attached bathroom.

Iffin Your Mama were the betting type, and we are most definitely not the betting type, we'd wager our retirement account this penthouse will be quickly snapped up by a deep pocketed globe trotting type who will undoubtedly spend many millions more reconfiguring, redecorating and otherwise doing over the entire penthouse into a world class show stopper of an apartment.

Would any of the children like to give it a go and try to reconfigure the floor plan?

listing photos and floorplan: Brown Harris Stevens

25 comments:

WrteStufLA said...

What's amazing is that this particular floor was the LEAST important of the Post/Hutton triplex -- you can tell from the (relatively) low ceilings. The truly grand spaces were located on the lower 2 floors. The building itself is where the Huttons originally had their 54-room townhouse -- they would only sell the site after the developer agreed to replicate their mansion at the top! The resulting triplex had it's own private drive entry on 92nd Street, with private, direct elevators. It included numerous specialty rooms, like a silver room, a wine room, chilled rooms for flowers and furs, yadda-yadda. Quite possibly the largest, most luxurious apartment ever built.

Desert Donna said...

A breath of fresh NY air from the latest Kartrashian info Mama! Rest up, and paint the town whatever color you see fit!

Anonymous said...

What's with all the corner fireplaces and dark wood panelling? In addition the pictures make it look empty and lugubrious.

Anonymous said...

Staggering! Terraces larger than most suburban yards. I'm sure the guest apartment will be combined with the the main space. I can just see expanded walk-in closets and a home gym being included in the redesign. We can only pray that some of the home's grand period details are preserved when the apartment is modernized.

Anonymous said...

DAYUM yes this will be picked up rather quickly. Would love to see some original pics of the Triplex in all its glory. I also realized that Ms. Post also use to own Mar a lago! Sweet Real Estate tooth for her sweet cereal eating patrons!

Hot Chocolate said...

very tasty! welcome back to the New York groove, Mama. Have fun!

Anonymous said...

where's the master bath???

Anonymous said...

Not often you can convey a musty smell in pictures.

Anonymous said...

I'm starting to get wood!

Anonymous said...

Starting to get wood? I think I just shot a load in my pants!

GiltEdgeGirl said...

Ooooh! Thanks, Mama.

midTN said...

***

Spectacular to say the least...and this area was the least opulent of the original Post apartment.

One minor, and I do mean minor bit of useless trivia Mama. Ms. Post's apartment didn't have rooms that were ever intended for her parents. Her mother was long dead when her father, C. W. Post, committed suicide in 1914 leaving a 27 year old Marjorie one of the wealthiest women in the United States.

She of course went on to marry E.F. Hutton, develop Birds Eye frozen foods, which later became General Foods Inc. She owned MANY wonderful places and posessions.
***

Brian Linnekens said...

floor and roof looks great, very spacious and beautifully decorated.

Anonymous said...

I can think of two apartments which may have been grander than the Post apartment: Mrs William Randolph Heart's apartment on Riverside Drive and John D Rockefeller, Jr.'s 110-room triplex, into which he and the wife "downsized" after bulldozing the family townhouses to build MoMA.

WrteStufLA said...

Anonymous: "...and John D Rockefeller, Jr.'s 110-room triplex..."

I'm curious about this 110-room triplex. Did Rockefeller Jr. live there before moving into one of the penthouses of 740 Park Ave? (The same apartment now owned by Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone -- a spectacular home, but nowhere near 110 rooms.)

midTN said...

***

You are right Anon. @ 5:15 a.m....

...and the Conde Nast apartment at 1040 Park Avenue decorated by Elsie de Wolf in the 1920's was no chicken coop.

Anonymous said...

Mama, you and all your commentors are just brilliant! Who knew?! Thanks everyone!

Bethany said...

110 rooms? Seems a bit extreme! Either way, it is a beautiful home!

stolidog said...

the simple fix is to re-do the separate small apartment as the grand master suite. The rest of the place is pretty much ok the way it is, with just a little repurposing.

stolidog said...

ok, i lied a bit. I would do a little reconfiguring of the main space by removing the walk in closset and opening that space up so that you would essentially have gallery space all around the stairwell, plus you'd have much easier access to the bathroom (which would become the guest bath) and the bedroom on the northwest corner. open the small w.i.c. onto the gallery for coat storage and turn the staff/pantry area into storage/longer term w.i.c.
If only i could come up with a better use for that bathroom off the staff/dining rooms, i'd be all set.

Mama'sBoy said...

I LOVE YOU MAMA!
ENJOY A BITE OF THE APPLE FOR ME!!

Anonymous said...

@WrteStufLA: There seems to be some confusion over the exact size of the Rockefeller apartment. It's described as a "110-room triplex" in Ron Chernow's "Titan". Michael Gross describes it as a duplex, but also indicates it had a mezzanine. I swear I read something about the Saul Steinbergs (maybe in Vanity Fair?) which indicated that they occupied only PART of the original Rockefeller apartment. The Steinberg apartment is definitely the one now owned by Stephen Schwarzman.

Wikipedia has it as a "25-room duplex" on their 740 Park page, but a "40-room triplex" on the John D Rockefeller, Jr. page.

It was definitely big, but the fact that no one seems to know how big only makes me more interested. I can tell you for certain that the Rockefeller's were "downsizing" from a 9-story townhouse with a private elevator, an entire floor devoted to an art gallery, and an outdoor gymnasium on the roof (they also owned John D, Sr's, much smaller townhouse next door).

WrteStufLA said...

@Anonymous, you could be right. I found an old article in "The New York Observer" (published way back when Steinberg sold the apartment to Schwarzman) that suggests Rockefeller's original 740 triplex was much larger:

"The 20,000-square-foot (Steinberg) mansion--only part of the original 90-room home Rockefeller designed for his family in a building he had erected in 1931..."

I imagine the original apartment had at least a dozen additional servant rooms.

(BTW, yet another former apartment that would qualify as one of the "grands" is the original Marshall Field triplex penthouse at River House, long since subdivided. John and Susan Gutfreund once owned the "pared down" duplex version of that one, and Gloria Vanderbilt once sued the co-op board when it rejected her application to buy it!)

Adrien said...

To all the people talking about the Rockefeller apartment.Most of those articles arent accurate.Firts of all the apartment wasnt designed for Rockefeller, but for a guy called Brewster who had a mansion right on the spot.The guy made a deal with the builder , to give him a huge apt .
Rockefeller bought the apt in 1936-37.The apt is 23-37 rooms ,depending how u count.Its a double duplex, covers both the A(park avenue ) and B (corner) lines.It has an mezzanine in the service(back) wing, but other than that its a standard, huge duplex.And the 20000 SF figure is a mere estimate.The brochure of the apt says it has 19300-19400 SF GROSS and including terraces.The net square footage (incl terraces) is about 15-16000 .I know because i measured all the room using the scale in the brochure(yeah i know kinda sick).And the apt was this size when Rockefeller occupied it too.One can see in the book that the apt above 17 B had other owners, and same goes for the PH duplex above.So the famous apt was never a triplex,quadruplex or whatever.Just a dooplex with a service mezzanine, a mere 15k SF.
Oh yeah , and to be on topic, the famous Hutton Post triplex was roughly 22-23k SQF, roughly one a half times bigger than the rockefeller unit.That was proly the biggest apt ever.There were other huge apts tho, the hearst apt which i never seen , the duplex PH at 2 East 67th st, the triplex at 834, the triplex tower PH at the riverhouse, the Pierre PH, the Ritz PH,sseverl huge ones on CPS..

Anonymous said...

What exactly do people actually DO with all this space ?