Tasteful Friends. Leonard Bernstein's Park Avenue Apartment lists for $29.5 million

Monthly maintenance charges are $21.500 per month. Pretty steep but if you have have to ask, then cannot afford....

Can you imagine living like that in New York? I love those casement windows.

Good news is 895 Park Avenue is right at East 79th, just one block away from Madison and two from Fifth/Central Park. Building is just a few blocks north of that co-op across from Lenox Hill hospital listed in another DL thread.

That being said 79th and Park is a very busy corner between cross town motor vehicle traffic, construction of new building across street on 79th (between Park and Lexington). There are also several private schools in area so on such days there are school buses or cars either waiting to collect or dropping off kids double parked on the avenue. That makes for some noisy traffic on Park as well.

Still find it hard to credit for all that money one still has to deal with window air conditioners. Pass 895 Park several times a week and like many other building wonder why people just don't go with some sort of central air. Yes, know board sometimes has a fit, but it has to improve the aesthetics over having those large units hanging out of windows.

Track lighting?! How DARE you.

Track lighting. Overpriced.

Window units be damned, who do I have to kill to get that apartment?

In what room did he bang his rentboys?

30M with a dining room that seats 6?

The price is ridiculous.

It's not even leather.

Those fussy old buildings are not as desirable as they used to be. Co-op boards, window units, no gym etc. People have moved on to newer buildings.

At this point a co-op board is the last thing I would be willing to contend with, had I the money to shop for places like that.

Has anybody on DL ever undertaken/survived the co-op board experience?

R12 that would be a good thread

Great apartment. I feel like a wife on House Hunters, but that damned kitchen wallpaper. Eek!

I wonder how Bernstein got on with th co-op board. Either they fawned over him or hated his gay guts.

The kitchen, how to reconcile the b/w wallpaper and black cabinets with the burnt sienna floor tile?

LB died more than 30 years ago, so is the seller someone who's not a relation?

R17, Lenny hadn't lived there in many years . . . he lived and died at The Dakota.

It’s breathtaking. I don’t love all the furnishings, but I’d sure as fuck live there in a heartbeat. I’m hoping Congress comes through with the $29,000,000 covid relief checks.

Bernstein lived at the Dakota. This is not his apartment.

For $30 million I'd want a showplace like Arthur lived in.

Thew listing is for 14 rooms but there are fewer photos. This is a magnificent home.

R20

Oh yes it was.....

That Black Panthers fundraiser and other activity on their behalf by M. et Mme. Bernstein cause a major scandal in social and other circles. People were outraged to point of anger.

The Black Panthers?

I be they still haven't gotten the odor out.

Leonard Bernstein lived the last sixteen years of his life at the Dakota apartments. He died in 1990, so that means the Bernsteins would have bought in 1974. The Black Panther flap began at a party given on 14 January 1970, thus connecting unseen dots (and knowing Park Avenue co-op boards then and still pretty much now), after showing their "true colors" life at Park Avenue building became unbearable. Having shown themselves as NQOCD in eyes of many, the Bernsteins departed Upper East Side for Upper West, the latter is far more accepting of "anarchists".

I love this building and its air conditioners below every window.

This is an impressive floorplan. Damn near every room has double exposures AND a fireplace with windows flanking it. Having just one or two rooms like that is impressive.

Leonard Bernstein lived at Osborne apartments from 1951 until 1960, at first in a smaller unit then moving into something larger after his marriage to Felicia Cohn Montealegre. Everyone knew LB was gay including his wife, in fact his affairs continued but that didn't stop Mr. Bernstein from doing his duty by his wife which produced three children.

If one had to guess would say Leonard Bernstein moved to Park avenue/UES for his wife and family. I mean if Mrs. Bernstein was going to put up with her husband's "other" life at least she should get something out of that bargain.

R27

Cannot tell much from exterior shots of 895 Park Avenue posted in links above, but using Google street maps gives a better view.

There is an inner courtyard that faces and is open to East 79th street making the building two separate towers if you will. This design produces features you yourself noted, air and light for many rooms on both sides. Obvious benefit of course is cross ventilation which is a boon to a building that lacks central air conditioning , and went up before window units became common.

More:

"Everyone knew LB was gay including his wife, in fact his affairs continued but that didn't stop Mr. Bernstein from doing his duty by his wife which produced three children."

Lenny was shameless . . . At parties, with his wife present, he would grab a hot young male guest, lead him out to the hall and passionately make out with him.

One summer, he left his wife and kids in NYC and took a young stud to California and shacked up with him for three months.

That prompted his son Alexander to say to his sister Jamie, "Daddy came out of the closet ass first".

I’d be enraged to look out those windows every day to see those soulless super high rises; they spoil an otherwise beautiful place. Not worth it.

Really, no one’s gonna mention the picture over the fireplace of three hamburger patties in a skillet?

OP your link says the apartment is 6 square feet. That’s far too large for little ole me and my one kitty.

This apartment has been for sale for a long time. Same building, great floorplan. Half of the reason I love it are the window air conditioners everywhere. They're done well. You know they're not tripping circuits, and they're cooling effectively.

R19

Baby you could hit lottery and clear 50 million take away after taxes and it still wouldn't assure you'd get into 895 Park avenue. If the board doesn't want you in, then that is just that, you'll be told "thank you for applying, but no".

R35

Meanwhile 220 Central Park South, and other new construction continues to rack up sales.

If you have $50 million after taxes you shouldn't buy anything for anywhere near $30 million.

Wow. That's all.

R17

Whoever bought the apartment from the Bernsteins obviously isn't famous enough to overshadow previous owner, so RE rules regarding listings apply; always go with the most famous owner....

That other apartment on Park avenue featured on DL as "once lived in by Fred Astaire" , then even though that was one or maybe two owners ago...

It's all real estate babble anyway. People circulating on certain levels don't give a darn about previous residents, at least those with class and breeding anyway. I mean they're not going to go around at drinks parties saying "I live in Leonard Bernstein's former apartment..."

[quote]Really, no one’s gonna mention the picture over the fireplace of three hamburger patties in a skillet?

Guess only the fatties notice it. Fatty.

Maurice and Carol Feinberg purchased the Bernstein's 985 Park avenue co-op apartment in 1974.

Mrs. Carol Feinberg (née Jaffa) passed away in 2019, her husband predeceased her in 2002, thus likely explains why apartment is up for sale.

Feinberg family foundation however lives on...

NYT covers listing of this apartment as well.

Finally the hit piece Tom Wolfe did on that infamous Bernstein party that caused a furore. It really was a nasty bit of work that caused hurt feelings and heated passions all around that never really have gone away. The Bernstein children for a start haven't forgotten nor wholly forgiven.

What a dump.

The terrace, the large windows, thew views, the abundance of dual aspect rooms as R27 mentioned, and the vastness of the place are all grand.

What's not grand is the architecture, the floor plan, the sense of movement and direction within the space, the fact that there's no obvious progression or hierarchy, rooms are tucked away in odd places, wherever they land, and too many windows the same. I would much rather have a place a half or a third or a quarter the size but with better plan, better design, and richer details.

Love most of it, especially the solarium (I could live in that room 23 hours a day). But the kitchen needs work. That wall covering is putrid.

First Tasteful Friends post I can see my self living in.

Ruth R35 that apartment is the Kempner’s. Her husband Tommy is now selling 16 years after Nan’s death and moving to something smaller.

^^^^ Sorry, here’s the link to a photo of her in the living room with same coromandel screens as in the listing.

R20 doesn't know shit. The Bernsteins were living at this address in 1970. Does R20 think Lenny never moved?

Those pictures in the listing are so heavily worked over, they look like CGI.

The eclectic layout is great. What is not so great are the window a/c units but I can't see them. BTW I knew an old queen who used to visit, as an alleged prospective buyer, old homes of the famous and would say so at parties, eg "I am moving and viewed Jayne Mansfield's old place today." Ohhhhh

Did Lenny B really conduct shirtless?

All gay men have track lightin'. And all gay men are named Mark, Rick, or Steve.

I love the glass sitting room/porch and outdoor garden. I like gardens in the city...on roofs or a terrace.

Those below window installations look like heat, not a/c. To install invisible A/C in a prewar usually requires installing it in the floors.

In other words, they're asking 30 million for an apartment without A/C, in a city where the temps get up up into the 90's every summer.

But it's PARK AVENUE r59!

R59

Last summer wasn't that bad in NYC, we didn't have endless weeks of 90F weather.

In any event it isn't heat per se, but moistness (humidity) that gets people down. City being off large body of water becomes rather damp and moist by spring which continues through early or even late fall.

City's climate was recently reclassified as "subtropical" and there is ample evidence of this all around. Last summer we had endless weeks of weather more in common with New Orleans, Mobile, or Miami than anything else. Morning, noon, night, constant dampness. People run air conditioners not so much to cool down but dry things out.

Sadly one disgusting outcome of this moist weather is NYC has become infested with those giant flying roaches (water bugs). They were everywhere last summer as they have for past few... In streets, on sidewalks, in apartment buildings or homes..... We had to get covers for every single drain in house to prevent the bastards from coming up from sewers.

In contract, no word if seller got full asking.

I realize that if I could afford the $29 million, that more than $21k per month in maintenance fees would be nothing. But FUCK that maintenance fee.

[quote] the hit piece Tom Wolfe did on that infamous Bernstein party that caused a furore. It really was a nasty bit of work that caused hurt feelings and heated passions all around that never really have gone away.

Well of course they were upset at having their self flagellation spotlighted for the commoners to see. "Radical Chic" is a marvelous observational piece showing this early example of virtue signaling by the extremely self righteous hypocritical beautiful people.

I love that Otto Preminger was the only one to put up even token resistance in this charade.

[quote]Good news is 895 Park Avenue is right at East 79th, just one block away from Madison and two from Fifth/Central Park.

Park Avenue is just one block from Madison and two blocks from Fifth? Now, that is good news!